Introduction

Ya know, if we're being honest...
I have a need to feel and to create, and then to be felt
Growing up where I grew up, in Pineville, in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, water had such a profound impact on our traditions, and the culture, what we ate, how we lived

Water is the life force; it’s rebirth and renewal. It’s real spiritual. And water also takes the form that it needs to take in order to do what its purpose to do

And as I am here, in Charleston, in a city that’s literally underwater, a city that in many ways has been the gateway to the Black experience in America, with so many of its people still under the thumb of oppression, there is no more perfect metaphor

For me, it’s not an absence of fear, it’s embracing the fear, using it to go forward. It’s not an absence of love, pain, strength, or vulnerability — but it’s embracing all of it. Owning all of it, and using it to push forward

Its the spirit of creativity, collaboration, and community. Its restlessness and rage.. poetry, jazz. It’s healing. It’s beautiful. It’s BLACK... and it’s political... like me... like my people

And that’s A Water Album