#16 Love & Hate by Michael Kiwanuka
Sometimes we see only wounds. Please lend an ear instead to the sound of healing.
There is a reason I’ve chosen two transcendental songs about unity and love performed by Black men for this list.
Sometimes the contemplation of great injustices and inhuman behavior can spark a response from deep in the soul of intense beauty — a shout into the void.
We see this from other people on our list. Charles Dabrowski, Viktor Frankl, Chief Joseph. Some of the world’s greatest art has originated from oppressed peoples in response to that oppression.
As Joy DeGruy explains in her work on Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome, multigenerational trauma is the lived history of many Black people the world over.
This song, if you really listen to it, is the opposite of that pain. “I need something, give me something wonderful,” sings Michael, and the many voices that people this performance. Pay particular attention to the unobtrusive soloist who emerges at the end.
Sometimes we see only wounds. Please lend an ear instead to the sound of healing.