#SINGLE COLLECTION CRAZY KEN BAND RARA FULL#

My mother taught me the importance not just of being seen but of seeing myself. To see such human growth and connection-I live for those moments.

#SINGLE COLLECTION CRAZY KEN BAND RARA FULL#

When Jay and I sang our final song, we saw everyone smiling, holding hands, kissing, and full of love. Less than 90 years later, two black people performed there to a packed, sold-out stadium. This is a site that was used to promote the rhetoric of hate, racism, and divisiveness, and it is the place where Jesse Owens won four gold medals, destroying the myth of white supremacy. One of the most memorable moments for me on the On the Run II tour was the Berlin show at Olympiastadion, the site of the 1936 Olympics. It was a celebration of all the people who sacrificed more than we could ever imagine, who moved the world forward so that it could welcome a woman of color to headline such a festival. IвЂ™m not happy if IвЂ™m not improving, evolving, moving forward, inspiring, teaching, and learning. IвЂ™m not happy if IвЂ™m not creating, if IвЂ™m not dreaming, if IвЂ™m not creating a dream and making it into something real. IвЂ™m not alive unless I am creating something. I now feel so much more beautiful, so much sexier, so much more interesting. I look at the woman I was in my 20s and I see a young lady growing into confidence but intent on pleasing everyone around her. Through it all I have learned to laugh and cry and grow. I have had disappointments in business partnerships as well as personal ones, and they all left me feeling neglected, lost, and vulnerable. I have experienced betrayals and heartbreaks in many forms. IвЂ™ve been through hell and back, and IвЂ™m grateful for every scar. I pray that I am able to break the generational curses in my family and that my children will have less complicated lives. Male and female energy was able to coexist and grow in my blood for the first time. I now believe itвЂ™s why God blessed me with my twins.

I questioned what it meant and tried to put it into perspective. I had to process that revelation over time. I researched my ancestry recently and learned that I come from a slave owner who fell in love with and married a slave. Connecting to the past and knowing our history makes us both bruised and beautiful. Only when I saw that clearly was I able to resolve those conflicts in my own relationship. I come from a lineage of broken male-female relationships, abuse of power, and mistrust. EveryoneвЂ™s voice counts, and everyone has a chance to paint the world from their own perspective. The beauty of social media is itвЂ™s completely democratic. They will hire the same models, curate the same art, cast the same actors over and over again, and we will all lose. If people in powerful positions continue to hire and cast only people who look like them, sound like them, come from the same neighborhoods they grew up in, they will never have a greater understanding of experiences different from their own. They opened the doors for me, and I pray that IвЂ™m doing all I can to open doors for the next generation of talents. Imagine if someone hadnвЂ™t given a chance to the brilliant women who came before me: Josephine Baker, Nina Simone, Eartha Kitt, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Whitney Houston, and the list goes on. Photographed by Tyler Mitchell, Vogue, September 2018 My kids and husband did, too.ДЇloral headdress by Phil John Perry for Rebel Rebel. But I was patient with myself and enjoyed my fuller curves. I became vegan temporarily, gave up coffee, alcohol, and all fruit drinks. After six months, I started preparing for Coachella. During my recovery, I gave myself self-love and self-care, and I embraced being curvier. Some of your organs are shifted temporarily, and in rare cases, removed temporarily during delivery. After the C-section, my core felt different. Today I have a connection to any parent who has been through such an experience. I was in survival mode and did not grasp it all until months later. I am proud to have been a witness to his strength and evolution as a man, a best friend, and a father. My husband was a soldier and such a strong support system for me. My health and my babiesвЂ™ health were in danger, so I had an emergency C-section.

I was swollen from toxemia and had been on bed rest for over a month. I was 218 pounds the day I gave birth to Rumi and Sir.

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