No one can deny the power of music. It can inform us, teach us, inspire us, soothe us, rally us, bring us to tears, or fill us with hop. In her latest album, “Dirty Computer,” Janelle Monáe achieves all of those things
Living and existing on the margins and in the intersections is painful. As a black woman who has travelled the journey of discovering and owning her sexual identity, Janelle Monáe knows that pain and this album and her recent coming out as pansexual in RollingStone is not only her personal declaration that she is not invisible and that she is enough, but it an inspirational message to all who live at the margins and in the intersections. As she said, “I want young girls, young boys, nonbinary, gay, straight, queer people who are having a hard time dealing with sexuality, dealing with their sexuality, dealing with feeling ostracized or bullied for just being their unique selves, to know that I see you.”
In a world where a premium is placed on being a white, heterosexual man, Janelle Monáe’s message is sorely needed. As Alisha Acquaye powerfully writes at okayafrica.com, “People on the margins of society—people of color, queer communities, women, trans and gender non-conforming identities—are often treated like something other than human, as if not fitting the social standards created by whiteness and men automatically means we are the problem, we are the machines that need rewiring.”
Janelle Monáe’ rejects that notion. So do I. I urge you to listen to what Acquaye describes as her “unfiltered messages of love, inclusivity and resistance” and to find your own role in spreading those messages.