Playlist | Keeping on in "The Work My Soul Must Have"--Because Hate is Gonna Hate
This is an audiovisual journey of the piece, “Keeping on in the ‘Work My Soul Must Have’”.
Beyoncé | Freedom
On David Thompson | He Was Michael Jordan’s Role Model and Inspiration. Who Was He?
Jill Scott & Erykah Badu | Erykah Badu vs. Jill Scott, Verzuz TV
Solange | Cranes in the Sky
Chloe x Halle | Babybird
Chloe x Halle | Baptize
Jill Scott | Hate on Me
Yolanda Adams | The Battle is Not Yours
Beyoncé | Freedom
“And I also know this: Living and advocating for our whole Selves in any capacity, living the work our souls must have—this is when we are most dangerous to the world as it currently exists. In a world committed to misalignment with wholeness and the holy, our Selves are what we are most forbidden to be. Because our living genuinely awakens and leads one another to desiring the same.
Because living genuinely disintegrates the false paradigms and dynamics of this world as we see more and more: We are far more and far greater than what we are “allowed” to be. Each and all of us. “
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On David Thompson | He Was Michael Jordan’s Role Model and Inspiration. Who Was He?
“For example, folks can argue all day whether Kobe was better than Jordan, but Kobe told us himself: There’s no Kobe without Jordan. And Jordan told us there’s no Jordan without David Thompson . And each of them, while their inspiration’s influences may be visible, crafted their own unique style, flair, and legacy.
Whether we are inspired to outdo or to just to get in the game in the first place, each generation of unique giftedness builds off of and so emerges from the generations before. And because of those immediately around us. Whatever our innate gifts, we manifest “the work our souls must have” as we do because of our influences and inspirations from one another—never from ourselves alone, yet also never a duplicate of someone else.”
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Jill Scott & Erykah Badu | Erykah Badu vs. Jill Scott, Verzuz TV (Begins at 1 hour 31 min)
“It's a lot of great writers that are watching us tonight that are holding on to a lot of amazing work, thoughtful work, work that will change lives. Because they don't know how people will accept it or receive it. And it doesn't matter. You have to get it out. You're just holding onto to something that--at this point, it doesn't even belong to you anymore. Once it's on paper, once you put it down, you have to release it to the world. It's your life...It's mandatory.”
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Solange | Cranes in the Sky
“When I feel challenged by the reality that I have always lived in “dual” spaces, and hear already and always the echoes of voices wanting to convince me to discount my Self when I don’t measure the way they think I should, I remember this: Who am I not to be great? Which means, who I am to to hold onto what God gifted me and asked that I share beyond my Self? Who are any of us in this regard?
However our gifts manifest, however unfinished, incomplete, or still in need of editing or tweaking we may feel they are—because we’re stuck in someone else’s projection of perfection rather than willing to celebrate that we simply are—they are not ours to hold back or squander, but to shine and share with one another as mutual inspiration. But Holy Spirit has me on Drink Your Water and Mind Your Business right now, so Imma stay on me.”
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Chloe x Halle | Babybird
I have this whole reflection and dive down, and God Themself finally speaks:
“Sis, I created you—here you are. A whole gift in your Self. By My work, you are gloriously: black, woman, asexual, left-handed [these last two were huge social “problems” not that long ago, one still is], an empath, and incredibly brilliant and gifted in, through, and alongside each of those identities.”
And after I closed my mouth, and stopped looking about talmbout, “ME?!,” I received that God’s point is this:
At this point in my journey, I personally have the resilience and strength to live forward, and stop looking frantically around and backward over my shoulder to see who’s coming for me, or trying to tear me down.
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Chloe x Halle | Baptize
“And. JC, FLB, and MLK, Jr. had plenty of folks telling them “No,” “Not Yet,” “Never,” “You’re not allowed,” “You can’t,” “You never will,” “We won’t let you.” Each of them on literal pain of death. Not because they were committed to death, but because they were committed to the work that their souls must have, even in the face of death. It is that serious, and it is that real. Once the work our souls must have has found us, once we have received it, we can’t live anything but this.”
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Jill Scott | Hate on Me
“So, where it is true that folks may be seeking to doubt and even undercut me in my life, it is not my business that someone else doesn’t like my whole Self, feels uncomfortable around aspects of my Self, or wants me to change my Self to suit them. Worrying about people not receiving the whole of me is not where my vision lies, and in fact takes my eyes and living from my vision and focus.”
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“In the event that one another may forget Whose we all are and try to force their issues to become mine, I will do my best to respond in the name and Spirit of Jesus…as much as I am capable. I give you permission (and ask for accountability) to please do the same with me.”