Janelle Monae, the truth clothed in fantasy (some say the garb of Afro-Futurism)  is what she sings. Listen to a 20-minute interview during which she talks about her life and her views / her weltanschauung.

It’s been about a decade since she been walking the tightrope. Without falling off. Indeed, she be skipping and hopping along as sure-footed as though she got some climbing mountain goat up in her hoofs. Yes, she can dance, what the old folks used to call hoofing.

What she has is a sense of celebrating her otherness. Without shame. Or hesitancy. Be yourself. Love yourself. Easy to say. Hard to live if you pay attention to what others got to say about you. Sister love understands, and so she is not afraid.

She ignores the shoo-shoo; and goes about her business of being, and loving, the Black. Woman. Artist. Queer. She is.

Being whomsoever you be is not a task for wimps. Walking a mile in our moccasins is no simple, happy trails. Y’all know what James Weldon Johnson witnessed: “stony the road we trod”. Our long march in life is full of twists and turns, unforseen and confounding dead-ends, and embarassing and hard-to-swallow U-turns.

Given the hard facts that too often dominate and even bring to a screeching halt our travels and travails, sometimes we just got to sit down a spell. Rest for a minute, or even hold up for a weary hour or two. Sometimes you just got to gather up your self, recoup your strength before traveling on.

What all this got to do with Janelle? Janelle is an example of what it means to keep on pushing. Pushing through the hard times. Not that we will ever really and finally reach the promised land. May not even be a promised land. What we should all realize, what we best remember is that our life is not about the destination but rather about the journey. The people we meet on the road. The experiences we have on the road. Cause in the final analysis, for all human beings, death is the ultimate destination. If we live, we die. 

We all are going to die, so we best live the best we can. We best struggle to be our best. That’s what Janelle be about. The Black example of walking the tightrope. And like she says: “don’t judge me”. If you can dig it, cool. If it’s not for you, leave it alone.

Tell the truth and you never have to bite your tongue. Go head on sister love with your bad, bad self.