This artist and song came up in conversation today, so I’ll share it here for weekend inspiration. Beautiful words. Beautiful video.
This post is part of the DIY Summer Writing Retreat blog series, with daily posts Monday through Friday. Subscribe to receive full-length new posts in your inbox or catch them on my Facebook page.
Beautiful,Lisa–as are you! I posted it on one of my FB pages, with a credit to you.
Brenda, thank you! I find Frank Waln’s work fascinating, in part because he is from the same geographical area I am and the landscape in his videos are achingly familiar. Thank you, too, for mentioning the topic of cultural appropriation, which I am working to understand better. His background is (in part) that he was a Gates Millennium Scholar who eventually switched from pre-med (the “practical” major for a bright student with promise) to his passion–music. He has said that hearing Nas was what made him want to be a hip-hop artist.
I’ve never been a lover of rap music, but this guy is really great! I can see why, sans the vulgar, misogynist language, rap can take poetic lyrics and make them something beautiful. And the video is excellent. I love the badlands and have watched our boys walk out on one of those 3′ wide paths and have held my breath while they felt no fear. A very good metaphor for the mother/son relationship. The letting go and the returning.