Thank you! Not even sure how I came to your substack, but glad i did. Powerful essay and critiques all in one! And yeah I get how they adopted Bey’s quasi- “anthem“. It surely might have more reach than Pharoah’s “You Got To Have Freedom“, but wouldnt it be glorious to hear Pharoah intoning those words, and then “You Got To Have Peace And Love!“ with that locomotive of a rhythm section and Pharoah’s horn calling all of us to assemble and march, on the one! Maybe one day the curation will be smart AND spiritual at a political rally!
I've been reading some of your work the past few days and keep going back to "Driving with O. J. Simpson" and other pieces at 4Columns to reread your sentences. Brilliant!!!
Resisting the doom feels the same as accepting its inevitability. Never really being able to tell your parents that the “freedom of now” is a fallacy because those breadwinners and everyone who has came before them has worked too hard through the empire to hear their child’s death of hope. Something I’ve learned to respect as a young person who does not have to pay the bills just yet. This essay showed me the game I’ve always been playing and will continue to play. Let joy be deliriously delicious like raising cattle to be devoured. Eat doom to become free in the spirituality of life.
"when a clown moves into a palace, he doesnt become king. the palace becomes a circus.."
Thank you! Not even sure how I came to your substack, but glad i did. Powerful essay and critiques all in one! And yeah I get how they adopted Bey’s quasi- “anthem“. It surely might have more reach than Pharoah’s “You Got To Have Freedom“, but wouldnt it be glorious to hear Pharoah intoning those words, and then “You Got To Have Peace And Love!“ with that locomotive of a rhythm section and Pharoah’s horn calling all of us to assemble and march, on the one! Maybe one day the curation will be smart AND spiritual at a political rally!
Or Lizz Wright's Freedom (SoulFeast remix) https://on.soundcloud.com/MxmqVgDD5F8RPmqP6
or Bernice Reagon's Ella's Song. So many versions. Here stripped down and beautiful too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iwjRuVF6oU
or I Remember, I Believe w Lizz Wright and Bernice Reagon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIh7rvlcmCU
Holy smokes! Wow, what an essay!
I've been reading some of your work the past few days and keep going back to "Driving with O. J. Simpson" and other pieces at 4Columns to reread your sentences. Brilliant!!!
thank you so much, I love language so glad it translates.
Thank you!
Resisting the doom feels the same as accepting its inevitability. Never really being able to tell your parents that the “freedom of now” is a fallacy because those breadwinners and everyone who has came before them has worked too hard through the empire to hear their child’s death of hope. Something I’ve learned to respect as a young person who does not have to pay the bills just yet. This essay showed me the game I’ve always been playing and will continue to play. Let joy be deliriously delicious like raising cattle to be devoured. Eat doom to become free in the spirituality of life.