SOUNDTRACK: GEORGIA ANNE MULDROW-Tiny Desk Concert #839 (April 8, 2019).
I’d never heard of Georgia Anne Muldrow. My takeaway from this set is that Muldrow is a wonderful hippie–spreading love and peace and being a total free spirit. But what do we know about her?
The blurb says
The first song I ever heard from Georgia Anne Muldrow, back in the early 2000s, was called “Break You Down.” The opening line spoke directly to my experience as a twentysomething coming into my own:
“Don’t let them make you forget who you are
Don’t let them break you down”
I later found that she wrote, produced and performed that song when she was only 17-years old. She possessed talent and perspective beyond her years and I became a fan.
But more interesting than that is this piece of information.
She’s also made a name for herself as a collaborator with artists [like] Erykah Badu, with whom she introduced the notion of “staying woke” to the world, years before it was appropriated as a hashtag.
“Overload” opens with her doing some crazy muttering and sounds. I didn’t think I’d like the song at first, but it got really funky with some cool keys from Mokichi (his keys dominate most of the songs as the main instrument) and a very cool six string bass from Bronson Garza. I really like the chours. By the end she is totally intense and into it–an amazing performer
I know they want to kill ya. I know they want to break ya.
I’m sure they envy you because your love is so true.
They want to break your mind they want to drive you crazy.
They don’t love no black man unless hes in slavery.
But let my love raise you higher.
It’s pretty awesome.
Some time would pass before she eventually released her debut album, Olesi: Fragments of an Earth, in 2006. Since then, she’s released well over a dozen, mostly self-produced projects. While much of her music’s focus has been on the healing, preservation and education of African American people, the themes are universal: family, struggle and of course, love.
Up next was “a reworked and animated versions of the song ‘Flowers.'”
She and the band were floating the possibility of swapping the duet with her partner in music and life, Dudley Perkins with another song. But she decided it was more important to showcase their shared love on the song “Flowers,” originally from Perkins’ 2003 album A Lil’ Light.
It’s a softer song. She sings the beginning and then Perkins takes over. I don;t like his voice all that much and find this song rather dull. But they clearly had fun plying it.
They end the set with an extended and jazzy version of “Ciao.” She plays bongos to start this one which accentuates Renaldo Elliott’s drum kit. It has a jazzy bass line and feels really improvised. She starts riffing on going to Africa–South Africa or Togo she stars rhapsodizing about all the places they could go Nigeria left alone by the police there because we’ll be in the majority.
Pack my bags and go where the equator hugs me, maybe even pick me a mango.
Georgia Anne Muldrow is a force of love and it is hard, and somewhat foolish to resist her.
[READ: April 10, 2019] Be Prepared
T. has had this book at home for quite a while (she’s quite the collector of graphic novels). I have seen the cover for ages and so I had an idea of what the book was about. Boy was I wrong. For I assumed it was about summer camp. And while it is, it is about so much more.
I really enjoyed her drawing style in Anya’s Ghost but I like it so much more in this book. Her drawings of Vera with her big glasses is just so charming and sweet. I was hooked from the first page.
As the story opens we see Vera at a birthday party for Sarah Hoffmann. The party is important–an ice cream cake, pizza, (with a stuffed crust) and of course, a sleepover. All the girls have fancy sleeping bags, but Vera’s is Russian and very utilitarian. All of the girls gave Sarah accessories for her fancy historical doll. While Vera drew her a picture. The girls wonder where Vera’s doll is, and Vera lies (badly) about hers being at home.
When Vera has her own party later, she tries to create the same atmosphere–but fails miserably. The ice cream cake is a Medovik tort (with writing in Russian), the pizza is from Dmitri’s and the drink is Kvass (carbonated beverage made from rye bread). Everyone slept over, but they all called home to get picked up in the middle of the night.
Vera didn’t really fit in with anyone. But she still had friends (and Sarah was certainly nice enough).
But really the crisis for Vera was in July when everyone went to summer camp–tennis camp, fat camp, space camp, art camp–expect her and her brother.
And that’s when (at Russian mass) she found out at about Orra a Russian camp. Vera is so excited to go. She says the church will pay for part of it and her brother, Peter, can go too (he doesn’t want to ). Soon enough she was accepted.
When they arrive at camp, Peter is grabbed by a friendly counselor and given a cookie. Now he is very happy. Vera’s counselor is a frazzled young adult not much older than her. She’s also dealing wit a crisis–a girl brought her guinea pig to camp and it is lost already.
Vera is put in a tent with two girls names Sasha who are best friends and are older–fourteen. Vera is nine, one year old enough to be in their group and not the younger kids’ group.
They are shocked she doesn’t wear a bra. And she is instantly horrified when she discovers Hollywood (latrines that are just holes in a board).
The bonfire is spectacular but when she hopes for smores she is told there no candy allowed at camp–she hadn’t even considered there might be bears there.
Things got worse. Everything was in Russian–Vera could speak it and her accent was good but she was a novice reader. And of course all the usual indignities of camp–bugs, bad food and homesickness.
The big excitement is Napadenya (capture the flag). Its boys vs girls and the winner gets to give the loser a chore.
Vera starts to make friend through her drawing skills. She draws nice pictures of the Sashas and they ask for one of the hunky boy Alexei. Although her counselor tells her to watch how she makes friends–friends you buy aren’t as good as friends you get for free. Vera is concerned about this but she winds up buying them even more with her bag of Skittles.
Then she is found out and all candy is confiscated. Once that happens she becomes everyone’s enemy. It becomes even worse when she winds up losing the flag because no one wants to guard it with her.
By the time the two weeks is up she can’t wait to go home (meanwhile Peter wants to stay). But it turns out her mom just got a new job interview. If she get the job they will have a lot more money. But she can’t bring them home this week.
The third week is the bog hike (I can’t believe they make these novice hikers hike for 12 miles–it must have been blister city.
There’s only one other person as sad as Vera and that is Kira, the girl who lost her guinea pig. She hasn’t stopped crying since she got here.
The only person who has it worse than Vera is Gregor a counselor’s son in his final year at camp. Turns out that hunky guy Alexei is, as Veras suspected, a bully, especially to Gregor. When Gregor loses his boot in the mud, Alexei is there to mock him. At first Vera is delighted to have someone else be the butt of the cruelty. But, really it doens’t make her feel all that much better,
The final week of camp is the week you earn a patch–the coveted patch that Vera really wants. Everyone is studying very hard.
But Vera decides that trying to cheer up Kira and hanging out with her is actually kind of fun. Kira likes to draw too. Maybe it was something to do with her being younger, but it felt like a more satisfying relationship. Kira also helps Vera to learn to sneak around in the dark at night–perfect for the final Napadenya.
By the end of the story priorities are changed for Vera (and for others as well).
There’s a surprise twist (that has nothing to do with camp) at the end which is not dealt with afterward at all. It’s quite a shock, frankly.
In the afterword Vera explains that most of the events depicted are true although things don’t work out as neatly as they do in fiction. There’s even some pictures of young Vera at camp with a menagerie of pets (and an actual letter she wrote home from camp).
This was a wonderful story–perfect for anyone who feels excluded.
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