How I stop the voices: A playlist
When I was growing up, everyone had a bar in their house. In fact, we bought the house we're in now because it has a bar downstairs. Black folks could not gather safely, so we gathered in each other's homes. These places, for me, were always filled with music.
Brothers Johnson, Marvin Gaye, Aretha (watch and bear witness), Sam Cooke, Al Green (and later the Reverend Al Green), The Staple Singers, more Marvin, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes and later Teddy Pendergrass (btw, the documentary is powerful) and Bill Withers (Still Bill). This is the music I remember listening to as folks and family danced, often all decked out - usually in a basement. Sometimes with a spinning ball on the ceiling with everyone full of joy and laughter. I would share a picture but my mom reads this and I am pretty sure I would get in trouble.
I remember the stories. So many stories. My brother and I would just sit there and listen. I remember feeling seen (but not heard) and safe.
Sometimes that feeling of safety in myself and in my own knowing gets lost. Connecting and conflicting narratives play simultaneously and I cannot get space. If I was wired differently, I might be able to meditate. I cannot. Breath work helps for a bit.
So I go back in time to music. It's not the music of my childhood but songs which, for some reason, engage my full self and as such quiet my mind for as long as the song/playlist lasts and the voices stop.
I offer this playlist to you to stop your voices and invite you to create your own.
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About The Author:
Jara Dean-Coffey (jdc) is Founder and Director of the Equitable Evaluation Initiative and the Founder of Luminare Group. For the past twenty-five years, she has partnered with clients and colleagues to elevate their collective understanding of the relationship between values, context, strategy and evaluation and shifting our practices so that they are more fully in service of equity. For more about musings + machinations click here.
