College gets rough. Seriously. The deadlines, the stress, the late nights. All of it. And when it does, one of the first thing I do is put on my headphones and blast up the music. Once the headphones are on, the world seems quiet and I can process my thoughts and reflect on my day. Sometimes I get too caught up and I over stress myself. To calm down, I listen to a variety of artists such as Jorja Smith, Kehlani, Tyler the Creator, and Solange.
(Image by StockSnap from Pixabay)
Solange is one of my favorite artists. Since her 2016 debut of ‘A Seat At The Table’, her quick-witted, sassy, carefree attitude deeply resonated with not only myself but the whole world too. 2016 was quite a year for reaffirmation, manifestation, and activism, especially within the African-American community. Her album was that album. Listening to ‘A Seat At The Table’ healed myself in a lot of ways when dealing with life and its traumas.
(courtesy of Solange Knowles and Carlota Guerrero)
Almost three years after that, she dropped When I Get Home.Initially, I was really excited that I was listening to something new and fresh. Each song had its own special funk to it that I couldn’t get enough of. I felt like I was home, in some way or another, even though my actual home in Los Angeles was over an hour away. According to an album review done by Pitchfork Magazine, “When I Get Home, which indicates that this is an album about return… that reconstructs the Houston of Solange’s mind.”(Pitchfork). Since When I Get Home is an homage to Solange’s roots in Houston, I constantly wondered how I could stay rooted to my home, even if I never was physically home.
(courtesy of Solange Knowles)
In today’s political and social climate, it’s anxiety inducing just existing. It’s easy to get caught up with the waves of fear and terror that trails at our feet. It’s even more difficult to dwell on and live with those backbones of trauma by yourself. There are a lot of moments in my life where I have invested a lot of self-care. I have a lot of things to think about and a lot of things that I’m managing and trying to navigate through. College may be the the time for me to grow and explore before reading adulthood, but sometimes I tend to forget where I come from: spiritually, ancestrally, emotionally. Maybe that’s what this album is getting at. Without reading too much into it, I wonder if she’s teaching us and most likely herself a lesson about home. How home can be with you the whole time, if you make it be.
And I stick with that heavy.