"Selfless Encouragement"

I remember when the pandemic began, March 13th, 2020. Now me, as a teacher, teaching 9th grade English, I assumed things would work themselves out for my students. We were being instructed to create and progress towards virtual classrooms ,which was an easy transition. However, My artistic side, my vocal performance side, craved to help ease the pain of my friends lists on Social Media. So I created “#LockDown Freestyles”, an extension of my #VocalDiaryEntries series I’ve done on social media. Basically, every other Tuesday, Thursday night of the pandemic I would do virtual concerts involving myself, a bluetooth speaker & friend’s list. Each request that was given by my followers, I sang! This led to nights of connection, testimonials and rapport being built with friends from around the globe, experiencing the pandemic but also by providing musical selections as an aid to soothe and entertain quarantined families. I remember wanting to do it free the first weeks and as the pandemic continued, people would encourage me to include my payment information so that viewers could support financially through the pandemic. There was one night I started at 8p.m and we didn’t end until midnight. People were connected, entertained and tuned into the selfless act of me just singing songs in an effort to just appease the masses and it provided so much of a comfort to everyone who was apart. I remember having a friend who passed during the pandemic and doing one night totally free of charge just to commemorate her memory.

Additionally, I am a DoorDash driver and sometimes my job can take me to some interesting places and also encounter some amazing people. On one particular moment I was delivering food to a patron downtown and bumped into Solange Knowles, who was riding a MiPeddler with a few friends low-key downtown Detroit. It was like something out of a movie, I heard them blaring “Watch ‘N’ Learn” by Rihanna as they approached where I was and I began dancing to the music they were playing as I noticed a familiar face, Solange Knowles! I was totally star-struck and asked if I could get a picture and she to my surprise said “Record a video!” So I in normal artistic fashion began blending her song “Cranes in the Sky” into the Rihanna song that was playing. I was overjoyed and she and her entourage disappeared into the night just as quickly as they had come by. That night I had posted the video and the next day that same video had gone viral! What was even more incredible than meeting Solange was that word had gotten to an entertainment writer for “The Metro Times” a popular entertainment newspaper and she wanted to do an interview with me about meeting Solange. This was amazing because unbeknownst to the interviewer, I was an independent artist, singer & songwriter who would be releasing an album that following month. So I wrote in, having answered all of her questions and before I knew it the interview was live on “Metro Times” and going viral. This was so humbling because I have been an artist respectively since 2008 and to have my experience documented on such a huge scale as “The Metro Times” & have my album being promoted within this interview was such an honor. Such a selfless act as meeting one of your favorite artists who during a pandemic could’ve been standoffish and not accommodating especially given the circumstances, embraced me with such respect and tact was the encouragement I needed to complete & release my album “Progress”. The year 2020 was a hard one but just selfless acts like performing requested selections for my friend’s on social media and meeting one of my FAVORITE artists during what seemed like the most depressed and darkest periods of my life was humbling and encouraging to who I am as an artist.