Playlists
Music is a potent conduit. Songs can soothe, energize, uplift, restore, and more.
To harness the power of music, Meeting the Moment Fellows collaboratively create a playlist of songs that speak to each theme.
Below, we spotlight a few songs from each playlist, along with Fellows’ remarks on the power and medicine of a particular song.
Joy as Resistance
Sunday Service Choir, “Total Praise”
If you're a fan of gospel music like I am, you know that hearing a good choir arrangement can fill you with a joy that is inexplicable. These songs are just about perfect arrangements of classic gospel songs that are sure to fill your spirit. - MtM Fellow, DeeSoul Carson ’21
Drake, “Still Here”
Drake's album, Views, turned fives years old in May, and we're still here dawg! We people, Mother Earth, and her other creatures continue to persist. We are still here despite forces bent on the destruction of some of us. Let us celebrate that with this one. - MtM Fellow, Kory Gaines ’21
Queen, “Don’t Stop Me Now”
This song is a lot of fun! I love the beat, but it discusses play in terms of deception, "playing the fool," which is slightly different from Meeting the Moment's conception of play. Nonetheless, the beat sounds like what we had in mind. - MtM Fellow, JJ Kapur ’22
PLAY
2 Cellos, “Despacito”
I love this cello rendition of Despacito by 2 Cellos, Croatian duo Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser. Whenever I watch videos of them playing together, they exude pure fun. A very literal example of how "playing" together can create something amazing and fresh. - MtM Fellow, Elaine Lai, PhD Candidate
Julie Andrews, “A Spoonful of Sugar”
What I love about this hit song from Mary Poppins is its playful melody and musicality! For example, on the word "down," the tone goes up! - MtM Fellow, JJ Kapur ’22
Bakar (feat. Lancey Foux), “Play”
This song is a lot of fun! I love the beat, but it discusses play in terms of deception, "playing the fool," which is slightly different from Meeting the Moment's conception of play. Nonetheless, the beat sounds like what we had in mind. - MtM Fellow, Kory Gaines ’21
Ancestry
Ani Choying Drolma, “Padmakara”
This brief invocation to "the one born form the lotus" (Padmakara) is sung by a Buddhist nun, Ani Choying Drolma who came from the Nagi Gompa in Nepal where I spent some time. In Buddhism, the idea of ancestry or lineage is something which transcends bloodlines, and the Lotus Born One is the root of the lineage for many practitioners of Tibetan Buddhists. The Lotus Born One embodies the essence of all Buddhas of the three times (past, present, future). - MtM Fellow, Elaine Lai, PhD Candidate
John Coltrane, “A Love Supreme Pt. 1: Acknowledgement”
Coltrane is one of my favorite musical ancestors. He did a lot for the genre of jazz. We could all learn from the ’Trane as an ancestor. - MtM Fellow, Kory Gaines ’21
Daniel Caesar, “Freudian”
This song explores the way that the singer's relationship with his mother shapes all of the relationships in his life, and how her legacy is passed down into his life today. - MtM Fellow, Adesuwa Agbonile ’2
Reimagining Genius
Lin Manuel Miranda, “Alexander Hamilton”
If you told me ten years ago that one day, one of the most successful musicals in America would be a rap-musical about Alexander Hamilton performed by a cast of pretty much all folks of color, I would have laughed and said "No way, never in America!" Thank you to Lin-Manuel Miranda for proving me wrong. Pure genius. - MtM Fellow, Elaine Lai PhD Candidate
Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, “My Melancholy Baby (Take 1)”
This song is an example of a song that changed the sound of jazz. Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and other artists brought about the bebop sound. This song is on the smoother side of bebop, and it is one of my most favorites. - MtM Fellow Kory Gaines '21
Good Vibrations, “The Beach Boys”
This is the most genius song on the most genius album ever written: Pet Sounds by Brian Wilson. On this album, Wilson completely hijacked the Beach Boys' original trajectory of songs about surfers to create an album that included a symphony of musicians, incredibly complex acapella, and Wilson's incredible writing. - MtM Fellow JJ Kapur '19
Intimacy
Nataly Dawn, “Amen”
This is a song sung by a granddaughter to a grandmother. It talks about how the granddaughter both loves and hates her grandmother. I love it because it talks about the odd dynamics of familial intimacy. - MtM Fellow Adesuwa Agbonile '21
Duke Ellington, John Coltrane “In a Sentimental Mood”
This song is what intimacy sounds like. It is perfect for setting a calm, warm scene for yourself or for company. Play it on a low volume or turn it up and be immersed. - MtM Fellow Kory Gaines '21
FKA Twigs, “Mary Magdalene”
This song shows how underneath hard protective feelings like anger are softer raw wounds, Inspired by the story of Mary Magdalene, FKA twigs invites into a space of inhabiting a sacred feminine space, one which is unafraid of desire, puts herself first, confident, and asks to be heard. This song is about intimacy with forms of femininity that have been long stigmatized, misunderstood, or unheard altogether. - MtM Fellow Elaine Lai, PhD Candidate
Anger & Justice
M.I.A, “Paper Planes”
This is an incredibly subversive song, which exploits U.S. stereotypes about certain immigrant others and speaks directly to an experience of the artist M.I.A. as a refuge who was denied a working visa in the U.S. due to her alleged and denied links to Tamil militia groups. The sound of the gunshots in the song is meant to critique the U.S.'s selling of firearms to developing countries. It forces us to confront all kinds of stereotypes about others on a transnational scale. - MtM Fellow Elaine Lai, PhD Candidate
Nina Simone, “Mississippi Goddamn”
This was a rallying cry of the Black freedom struggle in the 1960s, and rightfully so! Nina Simone made music for the movement and for her people. I expect she would still be singing a lot of damns for all of the U.S. today. - MtM Fellow Kory Gaines '21
Beyoncé, “Hold Up”
This song shows how underneath hard protective feelings like anger are softer raw wounds, feelings of hurt and powerlessness. you see how anger is both of these things at once in this song. "Hold up... they don't love you like I love you..." And the music video is a must watch. - MtM Program Assistant, Emma Master ’19
(Be)Longing
Israel, “IZ” Kamakawiwo'ole, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
A very touching rendition of the famous song we know from The Wizard of Oz, but sung by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, it gives a sense of nostalgia and sadness, as if searching for a land, a place, a sense of belonging which only exists in the realm of dreams, somewhere over the rainbow.
- MtM Fellow Elaine Lai PhD Candidate
Tiwa Savage, “Koroba”
I feel like I belong when I dance with my folk. This song makes me move.
- MtM Fellow Kory Gaines '21
King Princess, “1950”
Longing for unrequited love paralleling having to hide queer love back in 1950.
- MtM Program Assistant, Emma Master ’19
Reckoning
Sault, “Uncomfortable”
This is a very fun song! Paradoxically, it is also very real. "Maybe you're uncomfortable / With the fact we're waking up / Why do you keep shooting us?" It tackles police violence, which is one huge site for reckoning in our time.
- MtM Fellow Kory Gaines ’21
Gilbert O'Sullivan, “Alone Again (Naturally)”
How do we reckon with losing the people we care about? What does it mean to be alone?
- MtM Fellow JJ Kapur '22
Dolly Parton, “I'm in No Condition”
A song after the reckoning of a heartbreak where you're aware of the state you're in.
- MtM Fellow Rachel Lam ’19
Finding Ground
Snotty Nose Rez Kids, “Homeland”
Finding ground means reconciling with reality and being able to walk solidly, this song is about drawing power by finding ground with ground in one's homeland. - MtM Fellow Rachel Lam ’19
Steven Universe, Estelle, “Here Comes a Thought”
A song from the hit cartoon "Steven Universe" that is quite literally all about re-centering yourself. - MtM Fellow Darnell (DeeSoul) Carson ’21
Kendrick Lamar, “Alright”
Finding ground in the fact that we indeed are "gon’ be alright." - MtM Fellow Kory Gaines ’21
Meeting Uncertainty
Jhene Aiko, “Trigger Protection Mantra”
I need to center my spirit in order to meet uncertainty. This song helps me breath and remember who I am. - MtM Fellow Rachel Lam ’19
4 Non Blondes, “What’s Up?”
A song describing the angst and confusion of existing in a world where we haven't been able to "get up that great big hill of hope for a destination." The chorus line "what's going on..." encapsulates the confusion of not knowing how to find oneself amidst a world that seems bound by certain oppressive structures already. - MtM Fellow Elaine Lai, PhD Candidate
DJ Maphorisa & DJ Shimza (ft. Moonchild Sanelly), “Makhe”
This song is South African house music called gqom. I thought about what meeting uncertainty may mean, and today it is embracing more estrangement. Meeting uncertainty is tackling it head on and figuring out how to square yourself with the uncertainty, the unknown, and the stranger. Most people will not know this song, where it will go from beginning to end, nor the language it is sung in. However, I hope folks dance. We meet uncertainty by just dancing to a house song sometimes. "What you gon do when you really don't wanna dance...now dance. Get your back up off the wall!" - MtM Fellow Kory Gaines ’21