A Conversation with Monica Dillon: Jazz Singer, Political Voice: “ It was at this point in 1998 that I realized if I didn’t use my gifts, I would lose them. I think intuitively we all know this on some level, but the realization that we have something unique that no one else has is often hard to contemplate and accept.”

Party Like the Original Rockstar: “Black women played a pivotal role in rock n’ roll before it even had a name, yet their work is rarely credited. To add insult to injury, the fact that blacks could be considered the creators of rock n’ roll is often forgotten in popular discourses on rock. The very fact that the Shop Boyz looked to white rock performers as the inspiration for their video is ironic.”

Music: A look at Political Expressions through time: “Folk artists, such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, became famous folk musicians for their traditional sound, but their songs like “Don’t Go Down in the Mine Dad” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” promoted a movement through their music for unionization and understanding.”

Music for the Mind, Body, and Soul: “Music therapy and its overall effects on one’s body and psyche are broken down into a science; a science that notes that music’s influence is so great that it can improve one’s heart rate, breathing, state of mind, blood pressure, immunity, muscle tension and various other benefits.”

The Volume of Music: Social Change through Education: “Music is a voice for the silenced and hopeful. Music has always provided a means to educate the masses about cultural and political struggles. The problem arises when a new age and era stop listening to the message in meaningful music, and decide to fill the blank space with collective unconsciousness. The overall attitude of the black community has turned passive and as a result progress is stagnant.”

Suliram: MamaAfrika and a Tale of Cross-cultural Solidarity: “Saturday mornings, however, were hers. On Saturday mornings we woke up to Miriam Makeba, Sunny Okosum, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. On Saturday mornings she could finally use music, a form that could never be taken away from her, to teach her children about her home and their history."

Column: About Us, Without Us: “Why is it that it took Imus’s “nappy headed hoes” comment and the obnoxious tirades of Michael Richards for the NAACP to address the poisons within the Black community? Problems exist even if white people aren’t privy to the ones that are specific to Black America. Hip-Hop is not the cancer of America. The rap that degrades women is only an emulation of American behavior."

Verses: Beat Skip: “IT makes, it makes, it makes my beat skip. Like Egypt and Africa being prostituted by corporate America. Like white girls rocking henna tattoos on their back. Cost: 5 dollars. Ask them wut it means: I don't know...I just, like, thought it was cute. Culture cannot wear a price tag. It makes it makes it makes my beat skip.”

Also check out BLACK WOMEN WHO ROCK & our new comic MONROE !