- Hello everybody, I'm Satori Shakoor.

Welcome to Detroit Performs Live from Marygrove, where Detroit's talented artists take the stage and share insights into their performances.

This episode is curated by Audra Kubat, who has an array of incredible performances, featuring three influential women, jessica Care moore, Emily Rose, and of course Audra Kubat herself.

Let's watch, right here on Detroit Performs Live from Marygrove.

- [Announcer] Funding for Detroit Performs is provided by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar, The Kresge Foundation the A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Foundation, the Michigan Arts & Culture Council, the National Endowment for the Arts.

And by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(lively upbeat music) - Hello everybody.

It's my joy to be sitting here with Audra Kubat the curator of tonight's fantastic performance.

So what influences your music?

Does your environment like Detroit and what inspires the lyrics or the conversation you wanna have with us through your music?

- Detroit definitely inspires my music.

I was born here when I was young and came back from Southfield as soon as I could be back in Detroit as like a young person.

And I think that the city is just so inspiring.

Like it's so resilient and the people that are, have been here for a long time kind of holding it down, it comes through the music.

I think the city's actually really vulnerable and I think vulnerability is like the way that I kind of operate.

Like I show my emotions and I think that Detroit shows its heart on its sleeve, even though like it's tough.

- Yeah.

- It still like has this really underbelly that's sensitive and so I think that it just reflects through the way that I interpret.

- So who did you gift us with today?

- jessica Care moore and Emily Rose.

- And why did you bring them?

- I started working with jessica when I wrote Great Glory Parade and I had known of her for a lot of years and just sent her the song and she wrote this beautiful poem really powerful poem to go along with the song and I really wanted to share that out.

And Emily Rose is a dear friend, also I'm inspired by her work and wanted to showcase both of them and shine a light on their work.

jessica, you know, does a lot of national stuff and international.

Emily hasn't been out enough so I really, you know, wanna shine a bright light on Emily.

- It's been a pleasure speaking with you Audra.

- Thank you Satori so much for having me.

- And now we're headed to the stage to see our first performer.

- "I am not ready to die a little more today.

My nails are polished, a bright aquamarine.

My skin smells like the ocean.

In my hair, I'm wearing the flowers he left on my doorstep.

Tiger's eye and turquoise are wrapped around my wrists.

Do I look like I'm attempting an early death?

My headphones sound like Sade.

I wish these new girls would get off their knees and transform a room with some subtle power and grace.

Sade doesn't really dance poet and that is the point.

When did it become okay to die in this country?

On our knees, the walking dead.

A 24 hour day spa, they paraded in groups.

Hell, I need a massage too, but at what price?

I gotta stand behind mediocre bars just 'cause the kids rocked to it.

I have yet to hear an MC destroy the alphabet more gangster than Ntozake, so I ain't ready to die today.

Won't participate in the spirit massacre of our children.

My thought was on fire.

My pen is hot, Ntozake is dead.

Ntozake will never die.

I'm more alive at 47 than most of these wannabe Euro inside out millennials.

I've graduated from digital slavery masterclass.

I read books without screens.

I have sex with men my age or not whenever I feel like it.

I love my hair, my breasts.

I'm clear, my power is between my ears, inside my chest.

Black girl magic doesn't grow between our legs.

This is the mythology of men.

How much to get off your knee sis?

This pen is a knife stabbing out the hearts of dead trees.

These trees already dead anyway.

A walking dead urban forest, we are surrounded.

So I continue to climb to write 'cause I ain't ready to die today or tomorrow.

I'm gonna keep living inside poems you didn't know were left for you.

If you would just get off the floor.

You can see all these poems, all this world.

See all this world, the attempt to kill you with is really your universe to inherit, to change to rebuild, get off your knees, stop crawling for them.

Stand up, Queen.

Latifah, Lyte, Lauryn, Missy Elliot, Left Eye.

Bahamadia, Rah Digga, Roxanne, Rapsody.

K'Valentine, Mama Sol, microphones are not stripper poles.

Sonya, Audrey, Maya, Ntozake, Jane, Lucille Nikky, Nikki, Toni, Yasha, Stacyann, Kara Mahogany, Elizabeth, Lisa, Michelle, me, us.

We need you to stop dying.

Stop dying.

Stop dying to be less than who you were destined to be.

We need you to outlive death in all its forms.

Live, live, live.

So patriarchy can finally die."

- Welcome everybody back from the stage.

From that moving performance by jessica Care moore our own Detroit Promise.

- Thank you.

Your story, It felt good.

- So your poem, the first poem that you did, what is the title Of it?

- "I'm Not Ready to Die Today" - Yes.

- I wrote that for Ntozake.

I wrote that for all of us, you know?

I wrote it really for young writers and young artists.

Women, young girls in particular, right?

Who once you get, this industry is a vicious one, right?

And it's very sexist and very interesting depending on how you look and how you're treated, right?

And the expectation of that when you show up on stage.

And so like in my head, I'm never performing for people.

I'm, I'm always, it's always an internal thing.

What am I trying to do for myself in this moment?

And, and who am I touching?

But sometimes when we become more famous and well known we get opportunities to be in front of very large, in larger audiences.

And so deciding on what's the best thing for how to present yourself.

And oftentimes, sometimes I think young girls or artists think that, I mean I'm, you know I produce Black Women Rock, Daughters of Betty and yeah, we wear lots of sexy clothes and you know it's a very provocative show but it's also grounded in ownership, like self ownership.

And so sometimes I see artists, women in particular they don't feel like, I don't feel like they're in control of the decisions that are being made for not just what they're wearing but the moves they're making and, and yeah like crawling on the floor and things like that, you know, and just being putting ourselves in these very subservient spaces.

I just, I'm just kind of tired of it.

- Is there a journey to ownership?

And I know that you can support young women - Yeah.

- By getting ahead of the game and saying, Hey, hey, hey.

But is there a natural organic journey one must take?

- Yeah.

Wow.

It's so deep.

Like years ago, Annie Lennox said something in an interview that was really profound.

What she said was, what?

"I wish they wouldn't give it away so quickly."

Like we get it, you want to make money as an artist but money can't be mo your motivation for art.

When I'm, you know, if I'm writing poems for money I need to make money.

I'm not inspired by money.

- Right.

- No matter how much money you give me, if you tell me I jessica, I got like a good billion dollars and write this poem, I can't just write it.

I have to actually feel something.

But owning your work is, is really important.

Ownership all over all of it.

I say this as a girl and a woman.

- Any last words?

- Just thank you so much.

I'm thankful to Audra Kubat for asking me to be a part of this segment.

I'm a fan of her spirit and her and her music and I adore you.

So just thank you.

- Well that was jessica Care moore.

Brilliant, brilliant poet.

And now we're headed back to the stage to see another performance from Detroit Performs Live From Marygrove.

(acoustic guitar strumming) ♪ Alma, we've been married 60 years and still I live ♪ ♪ For the sights of your smile ♪ ♪ Big and bright like a kid ♪ ♪ And to think it all began ♪ ♪ At a silly high school dance ♪ ♪ Like a portrait I preserved it in my mind ♪ ♪ Alma, oh so steady on the dot was suppertime ♪ ♪ You gathered our loose pages ♪ ♪ Sewed us up a spine ♪ ♪ And our family, it grew ♪ ♪ Time as it does flew.

♪ ♪ Do you remember ♪ ♪ Love me tender ♪ ♪ Love me true ♪ ♪ Alma, I am stubborn and I do things on my own ♪ ♪ It's part of who I am ♪ ♪ It's what I was shown ♪ ♪ I put these little notes ♪ ♪ All around the house ♪ ♪ This one is your toothbrush and here is your nightgown ♪ ♪ Won't you sit with me tonight ♪ ♪ Watch the sun go down ♪ (acoustic guitar playing) ♪ Alma I've been hiding that my body's failing to ♪ ♪ The children want to help ♪ ♪ But that's not what we do ♪ ♪ You don't recognize me, but my life I promised you ♪ ♪ And I won't leave your side ♪ ♪ Alma, I've been thinking we could slip away ♪ ♪ Leave our broken bodies on the bed ♪ ♪ Where they lay ♪ ♪ And we'll go dancing once again under the stars ♪ ♪ That's when I first found your heart ♪ ♪ That's when you first stole my heart ♪ - I'm here with the awesome Emily Rose who just gave that wonderful performance on stage.

Hi, Emily.

- Hi Satori.

- So how did you start with your music?

Where did you get your inspiration and start?

- I don't actually come from a musical family myself, but my luckily my folks had good taste in music when I was young and they had a record player.

And so I would listen to records a lot as a kid.

And I've always been like a very sensitive person.

And music was just the thing I gravitated to most.

So, pretty much all my life.

- So which songs did you perform for us today?

- So today I played a song called Alma - And what inspired Alma - Alma is a song about dedication and commitment and love.

It's about an older couple and I sing the song from the perspective of the husband who is singing to his wife and he's telling her about their life together because she doesn't have the mental faculties to remember it any longer.

And it's a song about this couple's journey through time.

- That's Beautiful.

Is it based on any couple that you actually knew?

- It's based on, on quite a few couples, really.

Often I, I'll play it and people will say like oh you know, that song spoke to me.

- And what is the impact that you hope to have on audiences and what do they tell you the impact is?

- I like to inspire emotion if possible.

Whether it's just opening someone up to maybe shedding that tear that they weren't able to shed before.

Or maybe consider a different perspective from one of the songs.

Make people think a little more.

Maybe get some people to laugh.

Yeah, just I just kind of wanna get some kind of rise, I suppose.

- Thank you Emily Rose.

Now we're going back to the stage.

♪ I am a warrior in shadow ♪ ♪ I am a dreamer, I'm a dancer ♪ ♪ I'm a lover, I'm a thief ♪ ♪ I am the bark, I am the leaf ♪ ♪ I am judgment, I am the judged ♪ ♪ As I rake myself across the coals ♪ ♪ While the storm within me brews ♪ ♪ I reinforce the walls ♪ ♪ But when sing, everything it changes ♪ ♪ I feel stardust in my bones ♪ ♪ And this song becomes a prayer ♪ ♪ No yesterday, no tomorrow ♪ ♪ There's Only the here and now ♪ ♪ So won't you help me sing ♪ ♪ Sing this victory song ♪ ♪ We can sing along ♪ ♪ Help me sing this victory song ♪ ♪ We can sing along ♪ ♪ You are a warrior in shadow ♪ ♪ You are a dreamer, you're a dancer ♪ ♪ You are a lover, you're a thief ♪ ♪ You are the bark, you are the leaf ♪ ♪ You are judgment, you are the judged ♪ ♪ As you rake yourself across the coals ♪ ♪ While the storm within you brews ♪ ♪ you reinforce the walls ♪ ♪ But when you sing, everything it changes ♪ ♪ You feel the stardust in your bones ♪ ♪ And this song becomes a prayer.

♪ ♪ No yesterday, no tomorrow ♪ ♪ There's only the here and now ♪ ♪ So won't you help me sing ♪ ♪ Sing this victory song ♪ ♪ We can sing along ♪ ♪ Help me sing this victory song ♪ ♪ We can sing along ♪ ♪ We are warriors in shadows ♪ ♪ We are dreamers, we are dancers ♪ ♪ We are lovers, we are thieves ♪ ♪ We are the bark, we are the leaves ♪ ♪ We are judgment, we are the judged ♪ ♪ As we rake ourselves across the coal ♪ ♪ While the storm within us brew ♪ ♪ We reinforce the walls ♪ ♪ But when we sing, everything it changes ♪ ♪ We feel the stardust in our bones ♪ ♪ And this song becomes a prayer ♪ ♪ No yesterday, No tomorrow ♪ ♪ There's only the here and now ♪ ♪ So won't you help me sing ♪ ♪ Sing this victory song ♪ ♪ We can sing along ♪ ♪ Help me sing this victory song ♪ ♪ We can sing along ♪ ♪ The sculpted and praised Gray Glory Parade ♪ ♪ Hallow men disgracing pedestals traitors of their time ♪ ♪ O, say can you see ♪ ♪ By the dawns early light, evidence is indisputable ♪ ♪ Golden age which once gleamed is now tearing at the seam ♪ ♪ The stars and stripes are unraveling ♪ ♪ Monuments built to stand for, we can no longer stand for ♪ ♪ Our silence now is damaging, it's time for a reckoning ♪ ♪ A great awakening ♪ ♪ The next American revolution ♪ ♪ It is time to take down these systems of hate ♪ ♪ Disguised as love for God and country ♪ ♪ Proclamations that they make ♪ ♪ Yet I'm quiet and listless ♪ ♪ Do no more than bear witness ♪ ♪ But it's not enough as warm blood runs from broken bodies ♪ ♪ And the golden age which once gleamed ♪ ♪ Is now tearing at the seams ♪ ♪ The stars and stripes are unraveling ♪ ♪ And the words of men get lost on the wind ♪ ♪ Their silence now is deafening ♪ ♪ It's time for a reckoning ♪ ♪ A great awakening ♪ ♪ The next American revolution ♪ - Dear Black Madonna, dear sacred mothers.

America's coming for our sons with AR-15s just as they came for Jesus.

How many crosses shall we burn?

50 years after Detroit and Newark set fire to racial inequality and police brutality.

How many die before we erupt?

Our children, blood lava spilling on concrete jungle streets.

How many prayer mats face east and pray five times a day for relief, for sanctuary, for peace.

I watch my son's arms grow longer.

I listen to his mind, strengthen his pride.

Push past America.

♪ Be the finger that pulls ♪ ♪ The pin that holds ♪ ♪ This faulty union must be ground down ♪ ♪ So we can star anew ♪ ♪ And the truth we hold dear is yet to be known ♪ ♪ Till freedom rings for all, there can be none ♪ ♪ And the golden age, which once gleamed ♪ ♪ Is now tearing at the seam ♪ ♪ Stars and stripes are unraveling ♪ ♪ So we'll take to the streets ♪ ♪ We will not retreat ♪ ♪ Silence becomes victory beckoning ♪ ♪ In this time of reckoning ♪ ♪ A great awakening ♪ ♪ The next American revolution ♪ - What is a slave name?

My son asked me at 10.

This is a moment our sons let go of our hands and want to play in the park with friends or walk home from school alone.

The answer is, Tamir Rice will never.

This is the collective worry of millions of Marys hiding their Jesus children in the shelter.

Prayers, blankets, candles, family dinners.

Our sons still burning.

Our daughters not safe.

We rebel against colonization.

Resist the death of culture.

The killing of the old to rush in the new.

One day a prophet shall return.

The Flint water turns to wine.

- We are back with Audra Kubat.

And what was your solo?

- It's called "When I Sing" and I just wrote it actually.

I was facilitating a workshop and they give you a song seed.

And the song seed was how does music change you?

And I wanted to write something that was like in the moment really doing that work.

Like it's really repetitive.

And I think by the time you hear it, like one time you're like, oh, I can sing along with that.

I really wanted it to feel by the time it gets to that chorus, like, but when I sing, everything changes.

I feel the stardust in my bones and the song becomes a prayer.

No, yesterday.

No tomorrow.

It's just the here and now.

So help me sing this victory song.

And I like just having, repeating that I think is a really great technique to just get people kind of into it.

And then suddenly we're all singing and it's doing the thing I want it to do, is that we all sing together.

- Tell us about that, that beautiful collaboration.

- Yeah, so I, I've known of Jessica over the years and been so inspired by her work and just her spirit.

And so I wrote the song kind of right after George Floyd had happened when we lost him.

And there was the sort of rage that was happening and I really needed to write something.

I didn't know what to write.

I also felt like I wasn't sure like where my voice and my song sort of fit in.

And I sent it to Jessica actually.

And I was like, you know, would you sing?

You know, would you do something on this?

Or like, what do you think of this song?

And she's like, you absolutely have to record this and I wanna, you know, I, I'll write something.

And then she did and we came together and it was, it was really important to have her voice on this piece.

You know, a voice that could speak from her perspective and it really felt right to come together.

- Thank you and thank you viewers for joining us on Detroit Performs Live From Marygrove.

- [Announcer] Funding for Detroit Performs is provided by the Fred A and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar, The Kresge Foundation the A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Foundation, the Michigan Arts & Culture Council, the National Endowment for the Arts.

And by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.