Communities That Care Coalition
Promoting health, well-being, and equity among young people in Franklin County and the North Quabbin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Bass
Karen Bass won the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election to become the first woman and second black mayor of Los Angeles.[13][14][15][16] She was sworn in on December 11, 2022 by Vice PresidentKamala Harris.[17]
https://sports.yahoo.com/afro-indigenous-tiktoker-sets-record-201940817.html
Laura Clark
July 8, 2022
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/21/us/los-angeles-skid-row-beauty-2-the-streetz-cnnheroes/index.html
By Allie Torgan, CNN
Published 4:19 PM EDT, Thu April 21, 2022
Julia Bullock is an American classical singer who “communicates intense, authentic feeling, as if she were singing right from her soul” (Opera News).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashama_Bailey
Mashama Bailey is an American chef trained in French technique who is currently cooking Southern cuisine. In 2019, Bailey was awarded a James Beard Award as best chef of the southeast.[1] In 2022, Bailey was awarded a James Beard Award as Outstanding Chef.[2]
Mashama Bailey was born to David and Catherine Bailey in the Bronx.[3] She was the eldest of three with one sister and one brother.[4] Bailey moved to Waynesboro, Georgia at the age of 2, Savannah, Georgia at 5, and then to Queens, New York when she was 11.[5] Bailey learned to cook from her mother and grandmother.[4]
After graduating from Francis Lewis High School, Bailey attended Sullivan County Community College[3] where she studied physical therapy and later switched to social work.[6] Early in her career Bailey worked at a homeless shelter in Brooklyn, New York. As the project underwent changes she was let go, an experience that became a catalyst for her to explore the culinary arts. [7] She enrolled in Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School, and after graduating began her culinary career at Aquagrill in SoHo. [7]
Bailey, interested in exploring the wider range of careers available in the culinary arts, took a break from the restaurant industry, during which time she worked as a personal chef on the Upper East Side.[8] This left some of her family concerned with the racial and class dynamics, as it seemed a return to how her grandmother migrated from Georgia to Manhattan and worked as a maid. Bailey’s grandmother worked within several households, one of the more famous being that of Art Carney. [3]
Working as a personal chef didn’t inspire Bailey as she had hoped, and during this time she applied for a work-study program that led her to Château du Fey in Burgundy, France.[4] There she was mentored by Anne Willan who advised her to continue cooking in restaurants instead of exploring a culinary writing career. [9]
Bailey started her career as an intern at Aquagrill in 2001, and also worked at David Burke and Donatella, and the Oak Room in the Plaza Hotel.[10] In 2010, Bailey was hired at Prune, where she was quickly promoted to sous-chef and worked for four years.[11]
Startup entrepreneur John O. Morisano heard about Bailey through the chef and owner of Prune, Gabrielle Hamilton, and reached out to her about a long-abandoned, former Jim Crow segregated Greyhound station he’d bought in Savannah, Georgia.[12][13] Across the street from the property is the Chatham County Courthouse where Bailey’s parents were married in the 1980s.[14] The restaurant, named The Grey, was nominated for the 2015 James Beard Foundation Award for Best New Restaurant.[15]
On October 15, 2018, Morisano and Bailey opened The Grey Market in Savannah inspired by Southern lunch counters and New York City bodegas.[16] Since 2017, Bailey has served as chairwoman of the Edna Lewis Foundation, which works to “revive, preserve, and celebrate the rich history of African-American cookery by cultivating a deeper understanding of Southern food and culture in America.”[11][17]
She was a featured chef in the sixth season of Netflix‘s Chef’s Table and was a guest on season 14, episode 6 of Top Chef.
https://www.yewandekomolafe.com/my-story
https://www.yewandekomolafe.com/
Yewande Komolafe is a recipe developer, food stylist and author of the New York Times “10 Essential Nigerian Recipes’. She is currently working on her first cookbook, an as-yet-untitled collection of essential Nigerian Recipes (Ten Speed Press, Fall 2021), rooted in the converging cuisines of her hometown Lagos.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromae
Paul Van Haver (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈpɔu̯l vɑn ˈɦaːvər]; born 12 March 1985), better known by his stage name Stromae (French pronunciation: [stʁɔmaj][1]), is a Belgian singer, rapper, songwriter and producer. He is mostly known for his works in the genre of the hip hop and electronic music. Stromae came to wide public attention in 2009 with his song “Alors on danse” (from the album Cheese), which became a number one in several European countries. In 2013, his second album Racine carrée was a commercial success, selling 2 million copies in France.[2] The main singles from the album include “Papaoutai” and “Formidable“.
Paul Van Haver was born in Brussels and raised in the city’s Laken district, to a Rwandan Tutsi father, Pierre Rutare, and a Flemish mother, Miranda Van Haver.[3][4] He also revealed in an interview that he has Somali heritage from his father’s side.[5] He and his siblings were raised by their mother, as his father, an architect, was killed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, while visiting his family.[3][6] He attended the Sacré-coeur de Jette, a Jesuit school in Jette, the Collège Saint-Paul in Godinne, after failing in the public school system at the age of sixteen.[6] He formed a small rap group with his friends while still in school. His early influences included Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel, Cuban son, and Congolese rumba.[7]
In 2000, he appeared as a rapper called Opmaestro, though he later changed his stage name to “Stromae”, which is “Maestro” with the syllables reversed following the French slang practice, verlan.[6]
At the age of 18, he founded a rap group called “Suspicion”, along with rapper “J.E.D.I.” in Eichhof. They produced the song and music video “Faut que t’arrête le Rap…” before J.E.D.I. decided to leave the rap duo. To finance his private school education, Van Haver worked part-time in the hospitality industry, but his academic performance wasn’t up to standard.[citation needed] It was only later, when he registered at the Institut national de radioélectricité et cinématographie, that he released his first EP “Juste un cerveau, un flow, un fond et un mic…”.[citation needed]
In 2007, during his studies at the film school of Brussels, Stromae decided to concentrate fully on his musical career. This resulted in his debut-EP “Juste un cerveau, un flow, un fond et un mic…”. In 2008 he signed a 4-year record deal with “Because Music” and ‘Kilomaître’.[citation needed]
In 2008, Stromae worked as a young trainee at the music radio station NRJ in Brussels. Vincent Verbelen, Music Manager, was impressed by the talent he perceived in Stromae’s first single “Alors on danse” and decided to air it for the first time on NRJ. The response from listeners (including influential personalities ranging from Anna Wintour and Jean-Claude Van Damme, to the then-president of France Nicolas Sarkozy)[citation needed] was one of extreme enthusiasm and Stromae came to wider public attention. In a few weeks from that point, sales of the song established it as number one in Belgium.[citation needed]
Vertigo Records, a label of Mercury Records France (Universal Music Group), signed him for a worldwide licensing deal soon after this.[citation needed]
By May 2010 the track “Alors on danse” had reached number one in Belgium, France, Sweden, Greece, Germany, Austria, Turkey, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Romania, and the Czech Republic.[citation needed]
On 2 September, Stromae collaborated with Kanye West and Gilbere Forte in a remix of his hit “Alors on danse”.[8] In 2010, he was nominated for Best Dutch and Belgian Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards.[citation needed]
Of his music and influences, he has said: “I was in a little group doing rap music. I thought that rather than copying the French sound, I’d focus on a more American style but give it a European spin. And then I rediscovered the 90s Eurodance. For a long time we were ashamed of that sound but in fact, there’s a lot to discover. It has its roots in everything from house to salsa. I also really admire Jacques Brel – he has been a huge influence on me – but also all sorts of other stuff, Cuban son, and the Congolese rumba, that I heard as a child; that music rocked the whole of Africa.” Also, Stromae insists he wanted to collaborate with up and coming rap group Swag+5 featuring rapper T-Jay. In the end, the collaboration did not take place, but Stromae is a big fan of the America-based group.[9] The critic Molloy Woodcraft: “He combines 90s electro synths and beats with a laidback delivery to the mesmeric effect”.[citation needed]
He is one of the ten winners of the European Border Breakers Award 2011. On 9 February 2011, his debut album Cheese (including the hit single “Alors on danse”) won the award for Best Dance Album at the Victoires de la musique.[citation needed]
On 23 May 2011, during the recording of the French TV show Taratata, Stromae did a mashup of “Alors on danse” and “Don’t Stop the Party” with the Black Eyed Peas. Stromae also announced he would perform as the opening support act for the first of two concerts by the band in Paris on 24 and 25 June 2011 at Stade De France.[10] Stromae had previously met will.i.am at the NRJ Music Awards in January. will.i.am told him that he liked “Alors on danse” and said he wanted to collaborate with Stromae.[citation needed]
In 2011, he received one nomination for Best Belgian Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards.[11]
The first single “Papaoutai” from his second album Racine carrée (Square root) was digitally released on 13 May 2013. It went on to chart number 1 in Belgium and France, number 2 in the Netherlands, as well as number 7 in Germany and Switzerland.[citation needed]
On 22 May 2013, amateur-looking videos appeared on YouTube showing Stromae, apparently drunk and wandering at the Louiza tram station in Brussels at dawn.[12] The videos went viral. A few days later, it was revealed that this was linked with the filming of a professional music video. This was confirmed during an appearance by Stromae on the French TV show Ce soir ou jamais in which he discussed and also performed his new single “Formidable“, which is about the story of a drunk man just separated from his girlfriend. The music video was made from edited hidden-camera footage taken on 22 May. It also shows people taking pictures with their cellphones, people who are clearly irritated by his drunk actions, people helping him stand up, and three policemen asking if the artist was okay or if he needed some help.[13][14] The policemen also got some critiques for not disciplining the drunk Stromae; however, they later claimed that the full story hadn’t been shown. The part where they returned and Stromae had to explain his case was not broadcast.[15]
On 26 July 2013, Stromae announced on his Facebook[16] and Twitter[17] accounts that he had completed his second studio album Racine carrée or √ and that it would be released on 16 August 2013. On 25 August 2013, Stromae joined Major Lazer‘s show at French festival Rock en Seine, where he performed “Papaoutai”. In September 2013, Belgian rock band Mintzkov covered his song “Formidable” for a live session on Studio Brussel, with lyrics in English. In November 2013, Stromae received the award for Best Belgian Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards.[18][19]
On 22 February 2014, he performed his song “Formidable” as a guest at the Sanremo Music Festival in Italy.[20]
On 17 March 2014, it was made public that Stromae’s song “Ta fête” would become the official song for the Belgian national football team at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.[21]
In June 2014, in support of Racine carrée, Stromae made his US television debut on NBC‘s Late Night with Seth Meyers.[22] He then embarked on a tour across the United States and performed at the Best Buy Theater in New York City.[23][24] While in New York, on 22 June 2014, Stromae guest starred in a Snapchat story with Jérôme Jarre as The Carrot’s Father.[25]
On 21 October 2014, it was revealed that New Zealand singer Lorde invited Stromae to work on the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 along with artists like Kanye West, Grace Jones, Diplo and The Chemical Brothers.[30] He contributed to the song “Meltdown” which also features Pusha T, Q-Tip, Haim and Lorde herself.[31] The singer had declared herself a fan of Stromae after attending his concert earlier that month.[32] In March 2015, Stromae released a music video for the song “Carmen“, which was directed by Sylvain Chomet. The video warns people against the addictive qualities of social media apps such as Twitter.[33]
Stromae continued touring the United States, performing in March 2015 in several places including the SXSW in Austin, Texas.[34] He was also among the line-up of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.[35][36] He then began a tour in Africa on 13 May. However, in mid-June Stromae was forced to cancel the remaining of his shows until 2 August for health reasons.[37] He performed at Madison Square Garden in October, becoming the first exclusively French-singing performer to sell out that venue.[38][39]
On 14 September 2015, Stromae released a single “Quand c’est?”, a song about cancer, which plays on the fact that “Quand c’est?” (When is it?) and “cancer” are phonetically similar in French.[40]
On 6 April 2018, Stromae released his first single in more than three years, “Défiler”, to accompany the release of “Capsule 5” a new fashion line.[41][42][43] The song was co-composed with his brother, Luc Junior Tam.[44] The song’s lyrics play on the meanings in the French language of the words “défiler” (“to parade/pass by,” often used to refer to models walking down a runway), “fil” (thread, line) and “filer” (to whiz by), evoking themes of modeling and superficiality; of life speeding by; and of toeing the line or hanging by a thread.[45]
In 2019, he co-produced and provided vocals, in French, for the song “Arabesque” of the band Coldplay, for their album Everyday Life.[46]
On 10 November 2020, during his first Live Instagram on the occasion of Mosaert’s 10th anniversary, he mentioned working on new music. Finally, on 15 October 2021 his first single in 3 years, named “Santé“, was released. When asked during a 2022 interview whether Santé is about workers during the COVID-19 pandemic he said, “No, not exactly.” Stromae explained that he wrote the song about Rosa, the woman who cleans his house, and that the song is about celebrating people who “are just working while we are partying”.[47] It is also now identified by a dance Stromae made up specifically for the song, which can be seen in the music video.[48] On 8 December 2021, he announced that his third studio album “Multitude” would be released on 4 March 2022.[49]
On 9 January 2022, he unveiled a second single from the album, “L’enfer“, by performing it live during the 8 pm TV news on TF1.[50]
In 2009, Stromae collaborated with Kery James on the song “Ghetto”, also featuring J-mi Sissoko. The song was the subject of his “Lesson Number 14” series on YouTube.[51]
In 2010, Stromae’s song “Alors on danse” was remixed by Kanye West. West and Stromae also performed the remix live at Coachella in 2015.[52]
Stromae collaborated with Lorde, Haim, Pusha T, and Q-Tip for the song “Meltdown“, which uses the instrumental of his song “Merci”, a track originally recorded for his 2014 album Racine carrée. The track was featured on the soundtrack for the film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.[53]
Stromae collaborated with director Henry Scholfield to produce the music video for English artist Dua Lipa’s single “IDGAF“. The video was released on 12 January 2018.[54]
Stromae provided vocals for Coldplay‘s 2019 single “Arabesque” on their eighth studio album Everyday Life.[55]
Stromae also collaborated with French rapper Orelsan on a song called “La pluie“.[56]
Stromae collaborated with Camila Cabello in the music video for “Mon Amour” where she contributed vocals in English and French for the video version in 2022.[57]
The name “Stromae” comes from switching the syllables in the word “maestro”.[58] This inversion is a result of French slang[59] known as verlan.[60]
Van Haver has produced a number of videos described as leçons, or lessons, released on YouTube.
Leçon 21 is entitled Silence,[61] leçon 24 is entitled les leçons c’est “tous les mêmes,” and is delivered by Stromae on a gondola in Venice.[62] Leçon 28 is entitled “ta fête” (hymne red devils),[63] and features the National football team of Belgium.[64]
Stromae is known for his distinctive physique and clothing style. He has used this image in launching a limited fashion line, Mosaert (an anagram of his stage name). The collection features bright colors and geometric patterns, and has been described as “hipster” and “retro kitsch”. Stromae has said that he wanted to “create a bridge between British style and African aesthetic”.[65]
The first collection was a success, with stocks almost sold out after three days.[66] The second collection, Capsule No. 2, was released at Colette in Paris on 3 December 2014, and features the square root design on each item in different colors.[67][68] Capsule No. 3 was released on 7 April 2016, a music track was released on 31 March 2017 to promote the line.[69] The new designs are the first to use patterns not previously worn by Stromae, reflecting Mosaert’s intention to gradually move into a separate stylistic identity for the clothing line.[70][71]
On 6 April 2018, Mosaert presented a fashion show at Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche in Paris to mark the release of its latest collection, “Capsule n°5”, which was accompanied by the release of Stromae’s first new single in more than five years, “Défiler”.[42]
In 2015 he had to cancel a tour through Africa because of anxiety caused by the malaria medicine Lariam (Mefloquine). Since then Stromae had avoided public appearances. In an interview in 2017, he stated that he still suffers from panic attacks and initially left open whether he would ever be able to make music professionally again.[72] Since 2018 he has been showing himself in public again.[73]
On 12 December 2015, Van Haver was secretly married to Coralie Barbier by well-known Catholic priest Guy Gilbert, in a private ceremony held in Mechelen.[74] His first son was born on 23 September 2018.[75]
Stromae’s music is heavily influenced by electronic music, especially Belgian New Beat music.[76] He has been touted as the “face of the New Beat generation”.[77] He also considers Congolese music to be a huge influence.[citation needed]
Stromae has been compared to Jacques Brel, who in turn significantly influenced Stromae, with Stromae even covering several of his songs.[78]
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Stromae
Main articles: Stromae discography and list of songs recorded
Studio albums
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/04/1140504217/double-dutch-fantastic-four-holiday-classic
December 4, 20222:01 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
Allyson McCabe
Dutch settlers may have brought Double Dutch to America, but it was Black girls who put it on the map, says Lauren Walker, president of the National Double Dutch League. “Double Dutch is Black girl magic. It came from a union of young girls in their community getting together to socialize, and to engage in each other’s dreams and ambitions.”
They also put their own spins on popular rhyming songs, like “Miss Mary Mack,” and brought them into the ropes, says ethnomusicologist Kyra D. Gaunt. “You learned from your elder siblings, you learned from your same-age peer age group, in schools, hanging out on the stoop, on the sidewalk.”
Then in 1973 two New York City policemen, Ulysses Williams and Lauren Walker’s father David A. Walker, established Double Dutch as a team sport and got it into schools. When the first tournament was held a year later, nearly 600 kids participated. Many more were inspired.
Adrienne “Nikki” Adams Howell, Delores Brown Finlayson, De’Shone Adams Goodson, and Robin Oakes Watterson met as junior high schoolers on the Lower East Side in 1978. Howell says they meshed immediately. “Everyone had their own creative ideas and everyone had their own different strengths, you know, everything came together for us.”
Calling themselves “The Added Touch,” the team placed second in the singles division and third in doubles at the 1978 World Wide Double Dutch championship. Then they took it higher, says Watterson. “I would like to say we reinvented ourselves. It’s like ‘We’re the Fantastic Four!’ We changed our name, changed our attitude. And we brought it.”
In 1980 the Fantastic Four became the Double Dutch World Champions, leading to appearances in McDonald’s commercials, a spotlight in the Emmy-award-winning 1981 documentary Pick Up Your Feet, and invitations to demonstrate Double Dutch at schools across the country. Goodson remembers being rushed by young fans back home in New York and realizing that her team was representing more than just the sport. “I remember them knocking us down to the ground actually, you know, with hugs and they showed so much love.”
As the team’s star rose, so did the profile of Double Dutch. In 1981, Frankie Smith released the hit song “Double Dutch Bus.” In 1982, the Fantastic Four were tapped to perform at The Roxy alongside DJs, MCs, graffiti artists, and B-boys- leading to the team’s participation in the New York City Rap Tour, which introduced hip-hop to audiences in Europe.
A photograph of the Fantastic Four taken on the tour by Janette Beckman has circulated widely, for example appearing on a book cover and in an exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. However, the Fantastic Four were identified on the tour bill as “the Double Dutch girls” and the photo has often been interpreted merely as an expression of friendship.
These erasures were consequential, says Gaunt, adding that today many people don’t know that Double Dutch was an integral part of hip-hop culture and history. “What’s missing and the reason why people don’t know it is that that narrative is not perpetuated by most of the men who tell the story of hip-hop.” (A notable exception is KRS-One).
And yet the ties between hip-hop and Double Dutch were never completely severed. For example, you can spot them in Nelly’s 2000 debut single “Country Grammar,” which borrows from the hand-clapping game “Down Down Baby,” a 2011 ad for Jay-Z’s Rocawear, and songs by Missy Elliott, including 2002’s “Gossip Folks,” which samples Frankie Smith’s “Double Dutch Bus,” and 2019’s “Throw it Back,” whose music video features a scene where Elliot’s braids double as jump ropes.
In early 2023, the Cartoon Network animated series Craig of the Creek will air a Double Dutch-themed episode co-written by Ashleigh Hairston. “My dad is a pastor in Seattle, Washington, and I grew up playing Double Dutch in the parking lot with my friends and we would just go for hours and hours,” she says. “And I was really excited to bring those experiences into the episode.”
When Craig’s friend is accused of slacking by her hyper-competitive Double Dutch teammates, he challenges them to a “jump off” even though he has no idea how to jump. Unbeknownst to Craig, his mother was once a Double Double champion- until she was bested by a rival, Carla Frazier, who is voiced by Missy Elliott.
Revisiting that memory empowers Craig’s mom to reframe it, and inspire the kids to jump for joy. As for the real-life champions, the Fantastic Four went on to college, families, and careers, and stayed involved as coaches and officiators. They were on hand this year to serve as judges for the 31st David A. Walker Memorial Double Dutch Holiday Classic at the Apollo Theater, paying forward what Double Dutch gave them. “Structure, discipline, working with others,” says Delores Brown Finlayson. Then Nikki Howell jumps in, “These are my sisters for life.”
https://www.wewantgreentoo.org/board
FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, We Want Green Too
Ms. Lowe is an Interior Construction Designer with over 18 years of Construction Management experience and training throughout Detroit. Ms. Lowe’s knowledge and skill sets the foundation of WWG2 to assist Veterans with intellectual disabilities and help them transform their lives and communities, one soul, one house at a time, moving from energy poverty to energy democracy.
From www.rockandbluesmuse.com
By Martine Ehrenclou
Multi award-winner, four-time Grammy nominee Shemekia Copeland is considered one of the great blues and Americana vocalists of our time.
The daughter of the legendary bluesman Johnny Clyde Copeland, Shemekia Copeland made her debut at The Cotton Club at the age of 10. When she turned 16, her father took her on tour as his opening act. Her debut 1998 album Turn The Heat Up on Alligator Records, kicked off an impressive career.
Ten albums and eight Blues Music Awards later, Copeland has been praised by The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, NPR Music, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, among others. She has appeared in films, on national television, and has performed with Bonnie Raitt, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, Dr. John, James Cotton, Buddy Guy, Gary Clark Jr. and others, including a performance at The White House for President and Mrs. Obama. She continues to host her popular blues radio show on SiriusXM’s Bluesville.
Copeland’s new album, the Grammy nominated Done Come Too Far out on Alligator Records, features guests Sonny Landreth, Cedric Burnside, Charles Hodges, Kenny Brown, Oliver Wood, Pat Sansone and Aaron Lee Tasjan and is produced by Will Kimbrough. The songs were written by Kimbrough and John Hahn.
After congratulating Shemekia on Done Come Too Far and sharing my enthusiasm and appreciation for the album, I said, “You must be excited about the Grammy nomination. You’ve been nominated several times before, but this album feels pretty special.”
Shemekia said, “I’m very excited and this is a special album. I’m really surprised sometimes when you tell your whole truth, when people actually get it, take it in and accept it. I love it, I mean this album is all of my personality, the good, bad and the ugly, right? It’s all in there.” (Laughs)
Laughing, I asked her what it felt like baring it all like that.
“It felt great. I mean, it’s who I am,” she said. “I’ve got my serious side. I’ve got my very funny side. Everything is there in this record and that’s what I love about it. It’s how I feel about what’s going on in the world. It makes me really proud and it makes me proud to not be afraid to put it that out there like that.”
Continuing, Shemekia added, “This has been a journey for me. I started doing this since I was a kid. In the earlier part of my career, you find me talking about the social injustice. You find me talking about religious hypocrites, rape, domestic violence. I’ve always touched on issues in a particular way, so I’ve never been afraid to do that. But these last three albums are really special because it all started with having my little guy who’s almost six now, and wanting to make records that he would be proud of and say, ‘My momma is brave. My mom said this when it wasn’t popular.”
There’s deep soulfulness combined with unflinching bluntness in Done Come Too Far, funny and lighthearted tunes too. Her powerhouse vocals and the record’s top-tier musicianship and songwriting make for a compelling mix. Shemekia speaks with the same honesty and confidence that comes through in her singing. Throughout our conversation, her devotion to her young son was apparent.
“When I had him, I wanted the world to be better for him,” she said.
From America’s Child (2018) and Uncivil War (2020) to Done Come Too Far, the trilogy ignited a spark for Shemekia, a commitment to incite change, to inform, and to reflect some of society’s ills in her music. Not political, she claims to mirror what’s going on in the world.
About her decision to record another album that addressed society’s problems, something she hadn’t planned on, Shemekia said, “Then, of course, we all know what happened in 2020. I mean, It was like, what the hell? (Laughs) 2020 was a whole mess. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I guess we’re just going to have to keep on with this.’ (Laughs) And this album, I don’t want to use the word dark because it’s not dark necessarily, but I think it’s the darkest of the three. Because of all the things that happened in 2020 that needed to get touched on. You know what I mean?”
“I do. Your songs and your voice, your delivery, reflect the hard truths about what’s happening in our country. Lighthearted things too. There’s a couple songs on the album that made me laugh. How do you decide which topics to sing about and which go on your record? Is it just what moves you the most in the moment?”
“For me,” Shemekia said, “I feel like in order for blues music to evolve and grow, and to be contemporary, you have to talk current events, current issues and things that people can relate to. I try to do some of that. But I also really love history. On these last records, I’ve been touching on historical things and that makes me happy. For whatever reason, people don’t want to learn about their history. And I’ve always been taught when you know better, you do better. Right? We don’t want history to repeat itself.”
She added, “That’s why we should know about it. That’s why I wanted to do ‘Clotilda’ on the last record. And on this record, we talk about the Gullah people (“Gullah Geechee” a percussive, raw song about slavery with a gospel flavor). Our America’s so rich in culture, it’s pretty amazing. But a lot of people don’t know about it. When I find out about it, I’m like, “Oh, I got to put this out. So everyone can know about it.”
I asked, “Have you always used your voice to speak the truth and break down barriers? Have you always been a courageous person?”
“I have,” Shemekia shared. “From the very beginning I’ve always talked about women’s rights and social injustice and things of that nature, religious hypocrites. I’ve always used my voice in that way. But I think these last three albums, I’ve done so much more of that.”
I asked her about her song “The Talk,” a moving, edgy blues track about the conversations women of color have with their sons about how to behave if stopped by the police. Shemekia sings, “Words no mama wants to say, But I don’t wanna lose you someday, It’s as cruel as life can get, When a child looks like a threat, If you’re walking down the street, Or drivin’ in your car, When you get stopped, Remember who you are, And if your nerves start to crack, Whatever you do don’t talk back.”
As a singer, Copeland puts those thoughts into the heartbreaking ballad, singing with deep emotion. I asked if she’d had this talk or was planning to have it with her son.
As we talked by phone, Shemekia was packing up for her trip to Arizona to do her last gig of the year. She said, “I’ve been doing that. His whole life, I’ve been telling him that discipline’s going to save your life one day. Knowing what to say. Knowing what to do when you’re pulled over, knowing how to speak to people.”
She shared that she has a deep respect for law enforcement and talks to her son about the fact that the police are out there risking their lives every day to keep us all safe. But as with anything, she states, “There’s some good and there’s some bad. You just want to hopefully always be in a position where you run into the good ones. He has to be aware, has to understand how he needs to act.” And adds, “We also teach him to be respectful to law enforcement.”
Done Come Too Far continues in that vein with songs such as “Too Far To Be Gone” which refers to Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks, slavery with the song “Gullah Geechee”, and childhood sexual abuse with “The Dolls Are Sleeping.” “Dumb It Down” addresses the dumbing down of America by way of reality TV and mass media, but with sly humor.
Copeland’s song “Pink Turns to Red”, is a bluesy rock and roll tune about gun violence and mass shootings in schools. Slide guitar adds to the power of this tune, and the visual lyrics speak of having nowhere to run, about children in school with a gunman on the loose. Since it’s such an important issue to her, to most everyone, I asked her if she had ideas about preventing gun violence.
Shemekia got right to her point. “It’s such big business. Everything in this country is fueled by money. It doesn’t matter if it’s guns, pharmaceuticals, insurance. It’s all about money. And I would say that once greed is taken out of play, we’ll be okay. Because at the end of the day, they want to make it about, oh, well, they’re buying these in the street and they’re getting them illegally. They’re getting them from somewhere.”
I asked for her thoughts on gun laws.
Shemekia replied, “Well, we have plenty of gun laws in lots of places. That’s not helping. When they want something to be done about all these things, they will do it. I was scared to send my baby to school. I almost didn’t. But then I thought about his social development.”
She added that she’s not anti-gun, that her husband is from the Midwest and grew up hunting. “My child will grow up learning about guns and respecting them and understanding how, what to do with them. It’s important to learn about these things so that when you know better, you do better. Johnny knows that this is not a toy that you should be playing with.”
“You mentioned your son Johnny. Is he named after your dad?” I asked.
Shemekia said, “Yep, and my father’s dad and his father’s dad. For John Hahn, who is his papa.”
One of the highlights on the album is the love song, “Nobody But You” by Copeland’s father, blues singer and guitarist, Johnny Copeland. I said, “You include one of your dad’s songs on each of your albums. How did you choose this one?”
“It’s kind of ironic in some way that I picked that song,” Shemekia shared. “It’s always tough to pick one of my dad’s songs. But my mom passed away on the day that this album came out and it was devastating for me. Devastating. I miss her every day. But my dad wrote that song about her, and that’s the one I chose.”
Circling back to Shemekia Copeland’s mission to make the world a better place, I asked her about a woman who came up to her at a concert and said that one of her songs about racism changed her life. I said, “That can’t be an isolated incident.”
Shemekia admitted, “Stuff like that happens to me all the time. I was doing a song called, ‘Would You Take My Blood?’ After the show, she came up to me crying and said, ‘Me and my husband have these conversations all the time at home. He says things that I don’t like. And it really upsets me. And when you did that song tonight, I felt a change, a shift. And I just want to say thank you for that, because it was so simply put that he could really wrap his head around it.’ And she was just grateful.”
Continuing, she said, “I’ve also had a woman come up to me and say, ‘I had been in an abusive relationship physically and mentally, emotionally, for a very long time. I was leaving his house one night and XRT’ (a radio station in the Chicago area) ‘played your song ‘Ain’t Going to Be Your Tattoo.’ She said, ‘After I heard that song, I never went back to him again.’ She introduced me to her new beau, and oh, my God, we were crying. It was just amazing. She said, ‘You saved my life.’”
“I always say it’s not about the masses for me,” Shemekia said. “If I could change one heart, one mind of one person, that’s enough for me. And I’m one person at a time kind of gal. And I’m good with that.”
For more information about Shemekia Copeland see her website Here