humanity
Humanity topics include pieces on the real lives of music professionals, amateurs, inspiring students, celebrities, lifestyle influencers, and general feel good human stories in the music sphere.
Symphony of the Soul
It had been the worst day of my life. It seemed no one wanted to hire me. I sent my resume to every business on the block and did my daily rounds of the show my face to the hiring managers. It became a job to find a job and I was exhausted. I sent in over fifty applications and it was the same response every time.
Cara Simone SparksPublished 4 years ago in BeatFinding My Rainbow
When I take a look back at my life so far, there is one song that proved to be a turning point. That song is “Rainbow” by Kacey Musgraves. Okay, well maybe its her whole Golden Hour album that took me on this amazing journey in a single night that changed my life completely. At the end of the journey, Musgraves closes with “Rainbow” and in that precise moment I knew everything was going to be okay.
Juan FaragherPublished 4 years ago in BeatSeparate Ways
“I heard a woman becomes herself the first time she speaks without permission.” -Denice Frohman Everyone knew that when I grew up, I was going to be an opera singer. Close my eyes and I'm back there: thirteen years old, second floor of a renovated garage, a block away from campus. The lemon-yellow walls made her happy tears shine a deep marigold. I had just finished singing the Ave Maria with her. It was the end of another voice lesson.
Kathryn MilewskiPublished 4 years ago in BeatMiddle-aged Mallrat Wannabe
Have you ever seen that strange middle-aged woman who struts up Manhattan’s Amsterdam Avenue every morning? And back again every evening? She’s been spotted in Midtown and in multiple places across New York City. She's been described as a fast-walking mature lady with unkempt curly blond hair, wearing ear-buds, belting out something that sounds like “sing my songs about you.” People have reported having to quickly leap out of the way as this woman is prone to sudden explosions of air-keyboard playing and dramatic conducting. Some have witnessed a full-on Napoleon Dynamite jazz-hands episode, arms jutting up and sweeping out in a dangerous arc over her head as her hips sass and sway. On very rare occasions, city-dwellers have witnessed her performing a shoulder-shimmy, skipping, and, well...
Jenny BrucePublished 4 years ago in BeatWhatever Lola Wants
There are many songs that will remind me of a specific event or time in my life. However, there aren’t as many songs that I can say changed my life. Attaching the phrase “life changing” to a song is very bold in my opinion but when I think about which song deserves the title, the song “Whatever Lola Wants” comes to my mind.
- Third Place in Behind the Beat Challenge
The alien that saved my life
I was at my show after a singing gig the other day and someone said that I looked just like David Bowie. They are wrong of course, the only thing I have in common with the late great David Bowie is being short haired, slim, and that I can sing. What that statement meant to me and what she actually saw was something far more meaningful than she could ever imagine. Bowie encapsulated masculine and feminine simultaneously, chaotically, and perfectly. He stood for every oddball in the school yard, everyone who thought they weren't actually meant to be on this planet, and everyone who believed so viciously in their art that they would constantly break the rules to do it. And if she saw one ounce of that in me, then I was already doing what the song that sparked my desire to live again told me to do.
Billie GoldPublished 4 years ago in Beat My Bridal March
I can remember the sound waves floating from our hi-fi stystem. This was in the 90's and I simply froze, transfixed at the difference in this ballad emitting from from the speakers. My mother must have felt the same reaction when she jumped stating "increase the volume... who is this?' She was captivated by the words; I was moved by the beat.
allthingsahabiPublished 4 years ago in BeatThe Great Escape
I lay on my back on the grass, hugging my soccer ball to my stomach as if it were alive and could provide me the comfort I so desperately wanted. It had been a sunny day, with clear blue skies hosting the occasional fluffy cloud. Now late afternoon, the sun was beginning to lower, casting that brilliant golden glow over the day while the sky blazed bright blue above me. Laying there in that field, I should have been peacefully contented with the picturesque scene around me. But I was lonely and hurting; full of tumultuous emotions that wanted to burst from me, tearing me at my seams. Indeed, it felt like I was breaking, and that the world around me looked so at peace only served to deepen my pain.
Stephanie McDonaldPublished 4 years ago in BeatIt was just like any other day...
Remembering. 2 weeks. Just two weeks to go… Then I’ll be boarding that plane for the duration of twenty-four whole hours. I had buried myself in work and school for the past seven months, struggling to create art because I wasn’t happy. My mentor passed away from cancer, I lost a really good friend in a car accident, and I left my partner of three years. So many emotions and thoughts floating inside of me. So much transformation occurring in my life so suddenly that I felt like I didn’t even know myself anymore. So I bought myself a plane ticket and I decided to travel with some friends to Johannesburg for two weeks to volunteer at a local grade school in Soweto. The first month I completely ignored the itenary I didn’t want to bare the excitement in totality. But as the weeks lessened I began to process the reality of this trip and how my life was about to change forever. It was just one more day before AFRICA and I was waiting on the 910 bus headed to work just like any other thursday evening.I was feeling good because I made it to class on time (very rare) and I made it to the train for work on time (also very rare). I’m listening to the Robert Glasper station and this song comes on called “All I do” by Robert Glasper featuring S.I.R, Bridget Kelly and SongBird. I’m riding the 910 to work like any other day but tears begin falling continuously from my eyes because this ride was different. A serenade of “It’s all for you”... “if it’s all I do” comes pouring into my ears. My thoughts began to synchronize with the music… “if it's all I do” I’m going to heal myself, and “if it’s all I do” I’ll learn to love myself, I’ll honor myself and my ancestors...MY ANCESTORS! I kept the song on repeat and I couldn’t stop the feelings washing over me. I visualized my ancestor’s jumping from boats into unknown oceans, running in thick southern woods, watching their families sold, beaten and tortured. I could see images of black bodies hanging from southern trees. I visualized my grandmother raising my mother in jim crow southern poverty,it hurt but I kept drawing. “If it’s all I do” I”ll shed the generational curses and “If it’s all I do”...Mama I’m going to celebrate you, love you, and protect you because I know what you‘ve been through. The song kept playing along now with the visualization of my mother raising me and my four sisters by herself in a 2 bedroom back house in Compton. One day before this little yellow, bow-legged, southern girl who grew up in every hood in Los, Angeles got on that plane and went back home to the motherland. Woah. Surreal isn’t strong enough of a word. I need something deeper to describe how this felt spiritually. The idea that my feet, these feet would touch the land my ancestors fought so very hard to get back too. Nothing short of the highest gratitude rested in my heart, honor drew tears from my eyes and I refused to wipe them. I remember the first time I met Robert Glasper. We were in the Venice speakeasy he had just played the crowd’s head off alongside Terrace Martin. He came and sat at the table next to me. I remember trembling in silence trying to find words to express my love for his incredible music. Right as he finished his drink I turned swift and awkwardly towards him and mumbled in my choir mouse voice “Excuse me Mr.Glasper I just wanted to tell you Black Radio changed my life” (so dramatic but not really). He thanked me just like any regular gentlemen would and proceeded back to the stage to melt more faces in the crowd. The irony of it all, I wish I could’ve sat next to Mr. Glasper on that train I am almost certain he would have understood exactly what I felt. The next day boarded that plane singing to myself… “if it's all I doooooo”.
Cleonna MoorePublished 4 years ago in Beat"You'll Be In My Heart"
Well... We all know Phil Collins 'You'll Be In My Heart.' This is the song that broke my heart and put it back together again. It was the night of my cousin's bar-mitzvah. I was staring at the star-filled sky with the and comfort of my uncle's arms around me.
Rose MaimonPublished 4 years ago in BeatIt Took My Things Being Thrown Out
A playlist with one song repeats in my earphones. The eerie melody and the heart grabbing story Rascal Flatts sung was my story being told with the kind of understanding that made me feel like I had a friend, a confidant….
Lisa AkemiPublished 4 years ago in BeatBehind the Beat
I’ve told my story before on my mental health. It has been shaky at best at times and I have been through some dark times. I am not proud of what I did in those dark times now, but I live with those and I live with those feelings on a daily basis. It is not easy to deal with, but music has helped especially certain songs in particular.
Hannah ElliottPublished 4 years ago in Beat