black lives matter

Lizzo!! Launching Music and Feminism to Greater Heights

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(Don’t miss her Tiny Desk Concert where she performs Cuz I Love You, Truth Hurts and her last song where she also plays the flute in her song Juice! ) 

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Lizzo at 2019 BET Awards. Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

Lizzo, phenomenal singer, rapper and flute player is transforming music and launching feminism to greater heights with her body positivity, black lives matter energy and her message of self love. SHE. IS. PHENOMENAL. Her presence is captivating and her engagement with the audience draws you in, in this absolutely fun way. And she conveys understanding of her self and of society in a profound and to the point manner. Plus, she is a powerful singer and incredible musician. Duh.

In a music interview with NPR’s Terry Gross she talks about her early pursuits in music performance and music theory:

 “I am classically trained in music theory and music performance, so I have an innate ear and actually a highly skilled ear when it comes to frequency and harmony and dissonance and melody. So for me, it’s this thing that I can feel in my body. I’m almost like a tuning fork where if I hear the beat and I vibrate at the level that I’m supposed to, I know that that’s what I want to get on. And from being trained, I think it’s easier for me to speak a language to producers, and I can speak engineer to the engineers.”

She also unapologetically chats about feminism and body positivity: “”About 10 years ago, I made the decision that I just wanted to be happy with my body and I just wanted to be happy with who I am. That was the beginning of my journey with learning how to love my body. … You have to find that love for yourself deep down inside, underneath all of that questioning and ickiness.” Hell yeah, the importance of self love.

She is just incredible on so many levels.

Check out the full NPR music interview with her here, I highly recommend it.

 

Google’s Doodle Winner

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The powerful and beautiful art piece which won Google’s contest, (shown on the Google home page today) can be seen below:

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Photo credit: Artist Akilah Johnson

Based on the theme, “What makes me…me”, high school student and Artist Akilah Johnson drew this incredible montage that invokes Black Lives Matter imagery. Akilah describes herself as living an Afriocentric lifestyle, and as deeply connected to her roots.

As the Washington Post reports, Akilah intended for the viewer to observe themes of her childhood on the left, while moving across the painting towards more social justice issues on the right. Just as a book is read from left to right, she intended for this piece to be observed in much the same direction. What I find especially fascinating, is that her art teacher was slightly concerned Akilah would not win the contest, because it is so culturally rich, that perhaps people would not be ready for it and would not appreciate it. The wonderful thing is, I think people absolutely are ready for such a culturally rich art piece to be projected onto the mainstream world.

The thought that went into this piece and the layers of meaning make it a clear and obvious choice for winner. I see art pieces like this, and the appreciation of such, as the beauty of the human spirit expanding into our surroundings. I consider the appreciation of this culturally textured and female-rich-art-piece, to signify positive change on the horizon, as people’s hearts and minds expand to appreciate one another for who they uniquely are. Needless to say, I am deeply moved by Akiliah Johnson’s art piece.

Why Aren’t We Marching For Unarmed, Black Women Too?

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(Photo credit: Seen.co)

Why haven’t we taken to the streets when unarmed, black women have been shot and killed, like Rekia Boyd? Boyd was shot in the back of the head and killed by a policemen in 2012. And the officer was dismissed of all charges. Other unarmed women of color who have been fatally shot by police include Shantel Davis who was killed at age 23, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, killed at age 7, and Kendra James, killed at 21.

Read a whole article about it on mic.com here.

“‘As a black woman, these moments remind me that I live in a society and work in a movement that insists on prioritizing the lives of black men over women,” Nakisha Lewis, a strategist and organizer with Black Lives Matter NYC, told Mic.“There is a special gut-wrenching pain that is present when the victim is a black woman, because their deaths will go unnoticed by the general public. And there will be no protests nor national vigils in their honor.’”

(excerpt from “This Unarmed Black Woman Was Shot By Police, So Why Aren’t We Marching For Her?”  Moore, Darnell, L.. Mic.com April 2015, Web 2015.)