A New Day
As we enter a new year, we remember our past and look forward to our future.
It seems as though we find ourselves at this point year after year, reminiscing and reflecting on our lives. Our memories shrouded with the people, sights and sounds that distracted or enriched those moments. The unfortunate reality is, if we were to describe 2009 in one word, the one of the first words that come to mind would be “loss.“ The loss of dollars, of pride, of power, of jobs—of life. We find ourselves at the beginning of a new year, still retaining the memories and lessons of the past.
Without a doubt, music is one of those powerful things that can take you back or push forward, hearing a song can evoke so many memories and emotions, each unique to our own individual human experience. Most of us will smile when a Michael Jackson song is played, we’re filled with a youthful glow and bounce that somehow channels the King’s boyish exuberance. The night he died, we danced in the streets to celebrate his life. We stood in awe of the mural in memory of Dash Snow on the Lower East Side. Slum Village bumped from the apartments and cars of every hip hop head from Brooklyn to L.A. DJs gathered in basements and clubs to pay tribute to turntable legends Roc Raida and DJ AM, among others. We retweeted AM’s last tweet as an homage to the streets of New York City.
It’s important to remember that some of our greatest minds, artists, leaders and creators were born out of times of struggle. The minds and leaders led us to a new day; the artists and creators shared our voice when we thought we had none. And as we enter a new year and new decade, we must support those who seek to guide us out of our loss, and those who seek to share our voice.
Keeping in mind those whom we have left behind; it’s hard not to feel as if they were just making way for new voices to arise from our struggles. They’re spitting rhymes in street-corner ciphers, painting rooftop murals, composing symphonies on napkins, making beats in basements and writing epic poems on iPhones. We’ve been introduced to so many new voices this year, from those who document our smiles and tears, like King Texas, to those who recycle our past like Chanel Kennebrew, and there are so many more. We’re at the dawn of a new day, let’s look forward to those we’ll meet along the way.
