LISTEN
Conversion (2020)
writing so the room don’t spin / a notebook paper, a ballpoint pen / i can’t keep lying to you / remember when i took that stage? / saw you clapping when I said i’d changed / both of us stockholmed in someone else’s truth / I wrote you a letter cuz I couldn’t say out loud / I love you, but I won’t let you take me down / don’t know how to handle this / don’t know who it is i’ve been trying to convince / god or myself or you / and I can tell you what they’ll say / lack of trying or a lack of faith / but what they call freedom feels more like abuse / I gave you the letter cuz I couldn’t stick around / I love you but I won’t let you take me down / there’s a shine in my soul / can’t change what you can’t see / there’s a shine in my soul / can’t change who god made me
Recovery (2020)
took a loan from your knuckle bone / blood in the light of day / but if i’m going down, you’re going down with me / at five years old, I was told / you use your fists to pray / caught up in a country that demands violence from me / well I can see the future / stitches and sutures / but I’ll set my mind loose / let me show you how we do when we bring down heaven / I was born a lover / you’re never gonna make me hate you / I was raised to recover / grams had hope, momma had hope / and they handed it down to me / so I believe in recovery / better know what’s in your bones / what’s deep in our dna / cuz if i’m getting free, you’re getting free with me / I can see the future / stitches and sutures / but you know I can set my own mind loose / ain’t gotta prove that / we look like heaven / i can see the future / and there’s enough love for you and me / I can see the future / there’s enough dignity
White Tears (2018)
white was the name I gave myself / it was the magic that I used to gain power and wealth / security and comfort, too / yeah, white was the name that I used / white was the altar where I sacrificed / offered all of my inheritance, it was the price / laid down my culture, said goodbye / and I burned it on the altar where I sacrificed / who are my people? / who is my tribe? / can crooked instruments / draw steady lines? / if I give up my power, I give up the thing that binds me to my people / and white were the tears I cried / if the world was a hotel we all moved into / then i’d expect to have a key to every room / I could belong anywhere I choose if / the world was a hotel we all moved into / I don’t want to die / but every murder is a suicide / call me a fool the moment i’m remiss / what the wages of whiteness is