solo sensory

The purpose of this project is to use a source of me-

dia and create an intervention in it. My project is to
propose a simple task through Instagram, Twitter,
and Facebook. Each day I put out a song for people
to listen to and in response, participants would send
an image or take a picture of something they feel res-
onates with the song and their feelings towards the
song. With this, they would also send their favorite
lyrics from the song or answer the question for that
day. The questions were to see peoples social, cultur-
al and emotional standpoint of certain topics circu-
lating in our society. The final product is this book,
a gathering of everyones personal feelings and re-
sponses towards these songs and the meanings with-
in theses songs. Thank you everyone who helped me
with this project, it means a lot.

-T.M.M
Solo Sensory
MUSIC AND QUESTIONS

SOLANGE- WEARY

HOW DO YOU VIEW RACE, GENDER,

CLASS AND SEXUALITY IN OUR SOCIETY?

GOLDLINK- LATE NIGHT

HOW IS DATING AND RELATIONSHIPS

VIEWED IN OUR SOCIETY?

MICK JENKINS- STRANGE LOVE

WHAT IS YOUR DEFINITION OF LOVE?

VINCE STAPLES- BAGBAK

HOW CAN WE STOP POLICE BRUTALITY ?

ISAIAH RASHAD- FREE LUNCH

WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO SACRIFICE TO
SUCCEED

EARL SWEATSHIRT- GRIEF

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH GRIEF?

Solange

A Seat at the Table

Weary
I view race, gender, class, and sexuality as
differences in people that should be ex-
plored, and people should be educated on.
be leery about your place in the world

I view race, gender, and class as all so-

cial constructs that need to be chal-
lenged.Whenever social norms become
challenged, there are people who feel
threatened because it asks to look in per-
spectives that go beyond how theyve been
socialized to view.I think race, gender and
class all tie into our identities, and therefore
have the potential to liberate us through
acceptation and empowerment.However
when people refuse to ask questions, look
further and educate themselves, it be-
comes a toxic form of socialization rather
than liberating.
Solanges song made me think of the recent
rise of woman and their need to make their
voices heard. This painting came to mind as
its one of the few Western paintings that
have a woman as a antagonist rather. Judith
is no longer a submissive commodity such
as in other Odalisque, instead she signifies
strength and power over her self and her
body. There are many Judiths romancing
the streets of 2017. Instead of a grand
sword and the valance of darkness they
equip with knowlege and empathy.
Be wary of the ways of the world
With flesh and bones he bleeds just like you do

This song speaks the words of a woman who

has lost her sense of identity, or rather self-
worth in the world. Sadly, in her attempt at
self discovery, she is overshadowed by a mas-
culine figure. A so called king. Although
she says to the man with flesh and bones he
bleeds just like you do, it means nothing. The
woman will never be seen as an equal, even
though she is in reality, the same. Same as a
man in health, in virtue, in strength, wisdom,
and in death. Therefore, if men and women are
the same in these ways, why must one be seen
as king and the other as conquered? Where
SHOULD that leave you?
Its a social construct. Something created to
divide us by what we are but it doesnt dictate
who we are. What we are is so much more than
what is on the surface of our bodies. Society,
however, still uses this outdated construct to
brand its people. The constant loop of racial
division poisons a love that could be produced
and nurtured by a unified society.
I feel race class and gender severely impact the
way youll experience life. The area you live in,
the clothes you wear, the color of your skin will
all determine how you live because people will
discriminate on what they dont know and they
fear the unknown.
Race, gender, class and sexuality as differ-
ent problems that can be tackled one by one.
Without realizing that they are all intersec-
tional and you cannot discuss one without
the other. it seems like when a step is taken
forward with one of these topics, two steps
are taken back for another. Theres this
notion that things are getting better, and
people are more open minded about race,
gender, class and sexuality issues, which on
a general basis might be true; for instance
all the laws being made that are supposed to
allow us to be equal to each other. However I
believe that all these laws do is suppress the
voices of those not in favor, not change their
mind set, they way think and act, and when
we start thinking were moving forward as a
society, the real opinions that people have
on these issues come up and we have to ask
ourselves if were really making progress.
Im weary of the ways of the world. Be
weary of the ways of the world. Im weary
of the ways of the world
Be leery about your place in the world/
Youre feeling like youre chasing the world

A bell in front of the ocean reminds me of

how small humans are and how stubbornly
we try to announce ourselves to something
so vast and uncaring. Racism, the point-
lessness of asserting ourselves- to who? To
what?
Youre leaving not a trace in the world
But youre facing the world

Were constantly trying to make the biggest

impact, or we feel like every one of our small
problems is the worst thing that could ever
happen, but really, each of us as one tiny little
person really have no true impact or trace on
our world. Despite this fact, we spend every
waking minute of our lives with judgment and
stress surrounding us. Always worrying who
will think what when we walk in the room. We
have so many different societal groups that we
are constantly trying to fit into. As humans we
waste so much time thinking about categories
such as race, gender, socio-economic class,
and sexuality. We are always second guess-
ing ourselves with regards to how we express
ourselves because were worried about being
the outsider in our category, or were worried
about people doubting that we really are what
we say we are. If we all just lived fluidly through
these categories, and didnt pay mind to each
specific label, wed have more time to spend
on becoming our full, unabridged selves.
Those are the kind of selves that accomplish
great things.
Goldlink

And After That , We Didnt Talk

Late Night
In society, relationships are viewed as pretty much
the most important thing. Everyone feels like they
need to be in one, but they also see them as a joke.
People joke about hating who theyre with and joke
about cheating, but then cry all over Instagram
when theyre alone.
looked in those tempting eyes, and youre all
on my mind

I think in todays society, dating and rela-

tionships are a lot more complicated than
they have to be. I think people either roman-
ticize everything from crushes to sex to
dating, or theyre too cynical about every-
thing. People hold each other to arbitrary
standards and care too much about fol-
lowing unspoken social norms for the sake
of not embarrassing themselves. People
refuse to communicate, or be direct about
what they want. Sometimes its because of
pride, sometimes its because they want to
follow norms, or sometimes they dont
even know what they want. It shouldnt be
complicated.
Midnight lovin / I admit it I admit it

I think a lot of todays dating appeals to

familiarity in being strangers. Its so easy
to know about someone nowadays since
the world is so connected, and even though
theres definitely a sense of nostalgia and
familiarity that we want from each other,
its the specific details we want with each
other. The photo I sent was from an ins-
ta story by kushinov_ilya in Japan. I can
recognize it as Japan bc Ive been there
and the sidewalk is mostly tiled with brick
instead of cement slabs. But even if I didnt
visit Japan, I would still feel this tug of soft
calm, a tender kind of yearning Everyone
has at one point walked home with head-
phones in while the sun was setting and it
was getting cooler outside and thought of
sharing this walk with someone. Its that
kind
of ambiguity but familiarity I think dating
brings.
I feel dating and relationships in our soci-
ety is viewed differently depending on who
you talk to. On a primitive level, humans
arent suppose to have one partner for a
prolonged period of time. However, society
has changed the view of dating and rela-
tionships into one where were suppose to
be faithful to our partner and achieve mat-
rimony. That isnt always the case though.
Humans cheat on their partners because
well its in our nature to do so.
This song got me thinking of my relationship
now. The reason being is because I still inter-
act with old friends late at night. I try to ex-
plain it doesnt matter because I love you. I
care for her but I have friends, that care for me
that are attractive, and it doesnt matter be-
cause they like family to me.
 MICK JENKINS

THE HEALING COMPONENT

STRANGE LOVE
 love, along with fear, is the strongest of human
emotions.
We claim that we love ourselves, thats some
strange love, doctor strange love
"I detest the pretentious bougie "
"Tell shawty if we kick it then I'm just
like kangol girl I'm at your kufi"
Love is the process in which the souls of two organisms
become synchronized. Their emotions, translate onto
yours, their pain makes itself at home within a tiny cre-
vese in your chest that you lug around all day, they're
happiness does the exact same but instead feels light
and effortless. You meet possibly thousands of people
within the entirety of your life time, hundreds of them
in which you may choose to talk to, and even less that
you can eventually label as friends or associates. You
can listen on end about their internal and external suf-
frages, perhaps offer some recycled advice, but you don't
feel them. You don't exit the setting with a rotten pit in
your stomach due to something negative that may be
taking place in their lives. You don't radiate with pos-
itivity and offer an exuberant smile at your reflection
in each and every passing mirror when someone who
is merely your friend scores a new job interview. You
might sympathize or feel excited for them but you don't
engulf them. You don't swallow the entirety of their raw
emotions and wear it incautiously around your neck like
you do when you truly love someone.
Vince Staples BagBak
higher qualifications for officers. Police
should be proven as mentally able to preform
their job justly.
Police brutality is all about the cops hired
and the training they get. I think if cops
were well trained, they wouldn't resort to
police brutality. In some cases, the police do
need to resort to violence in order to pro-
tect their safety and others. But if someone
who is doing a non violent crime, and isn't
threatening/actually harming a cop, then
the police should have no right to get vio-
lent and they should hire more cops that
understand that.
To stop police brutality we need to bring
awareness to it for everyone.
tell the one percent to suck a dick be-
cause we on now
"So till they love my black skin bitch I'm
goin all in"

A black woman said, and I'm paraphras-

ing, "Before they were a police officer
they were a person, and they took all
their beliefs and all their ideas and took it
with them". To stop police brutality, peo-
ple need to be educated, open minded,
and empathetic before they become po-
lice. They need to be able to have the de-
cent mind, heart, and conscience to stand
against injustice of their fellow officers
Isaiah Rashad

The Suns Tirade

Free lunch
My end goal, just like everyone else's, is for
me to be completely satisfied with what I'm
doing. Success to me is pursuing a career
that makes me happy regardless of how
much money I get out from it, and if I have
a roof over my head with food on my ta-
ble. I'm willing to sacrifice what my family
might think of me by doing a separate ca-
reer path then what they would want from
me. I am willing to disappoint my parents by
not going to medical school, not malicious-
ly, but because that's something I don't want
to do. Hopefully once I'm doing what I love
and they notice it, they'll come around.
I'm willing to sacrifice my time to succeed
I'm willing to sacrifice sleep and sanity to
succeed.
Meal ticket, ticket, Meal ticket
ticket comma uh
"Nowadays I like to bring my nephews and
my budget out"

I'm willing to sacrifice my pride for suc-

cess, not that I would do anything demean-
ing but I'm willing to accept my failures if
it means being able to succeed
 Earl Sweatshirt

I Dont Like Shit, I Dont Go Outside

Grief
I walk to deal with grief, it doesn't matter
where I'm going, I just go
 I don't. I really just try to avoid the
feeling at all costs because it will bring
me to a never ending hole of questions
and ugly thoughts.
I deal with grief by writing my feelings
down and reflecting on what I wrote.
Writing is one of the ways of coping and
understanding why you're grieving. So
that's how I deal with it.
And all I see is snakes in the eyes of
these niggas
Momma taught me how to read 'em
when I look
"Step into the shadows we could talk addic-
tion"

I take grief one day at a time.