You are so eloquent and this is so sad. I'm embarrassed to say I did not know the details of Fred Hampton's assassination, after reading about it I feel like it is echoing loudly this year.
Khalilah, you’ve expanded my world once again. This is all new - the artist, the bitter histories, even the very cool present-tense “This Christmas”. (My wife knows it, but it’d escaped me…) Thank you as always!!
I remember when Donny jumped. Skipper was with Peabo at his place. They both were in Atlanta. They heard a scream that they couldn’t identify. Skip told me that the scream freaked him out because neither he nor Peabo could figure out where it came from.
Not long after the unidentified scream, Ed Howard (one of Donny’s co-composer’s) called and said Donny had jumped. Skipper said they heard that scream right around the time of Donny’s suicide. To this day that moment hit everybody hard.
Donny Hathaway was a genius and his death was a huge loss.
I remember it like it was yesterday. Here’s a little known fact. For a long time Donny was just a composer and instrumentalist. The record company asked him to sing; and Donny did not think he could sing.
He asked his wife Eulalah what should he do? She said “Just open your mouth and start singing.”
Just open your mouth and start singing. I’m absolutely floored. Eulalah knew he had this beautiful instrument, this incredible gift before he did. Luther thought he was a just a songwriter, just background. Both of them had to be told: you have this. Use it. Thank you for this.
“feel an unbridgeable gap between what they’re supposed to feel and what they actually feel.” Wow...I feel this sums up how so many people feel, and how so many people forget how others feel. Well said — such a strong message. Thank you for this.
You are so eloquent and this is so sad. I'm embarrassed to say I did not know the details of Fred Hampton's assassination, after reading about it I feel like it is echoing loudly this year.
Thank you for this depth of joy within sadness, seeking freedom.
🖤
Khalilah, you’ve expanded my world once again. This is all new - the artist, the bitter histories, even the very cool present-tense “This Christmas”. (My wife knows it, but it’d escaped me…) Thank you as always!!
I remember when Donny jumped. Skipper was with Peabo at his place. They both were in Atlanta. They heard a scream that they couldn’t identify. Skip told me that the scream freaked him out because neither he nor Peabo could figure out where it came from.
Not long after the unidentified scream, Ed Howard (one of Donny’s co-composer’s) called and said Donny had jumped. Skipper said they heard that scream right around the time of Donny’s suicide. To this day that moment hit everybody hard.
Donny Hathaway was a genius and his death was a huge loss.
That scream. Skipper and Peabo heard something. They felt it before they even knew what it was. Thank you for sharing this with me.
I remember it like it was yesterday. Here’s a little known fact. For a long time Donny was just a composer and instrumentalist. The record company asked him to sing; and Donny did not think he could sing.
He asked his wife Eulalah what should he do? She said “Just open your mouth and start singing.”
Just open your mouth and start singing. I’m absolutely floored. Eulalah knew he had this beautiful instrument, this incredible gift before he did. Luther thought he was a just a songwriter, just background. Both of them had to be told: you have this. Use it. Thank you for this.
Thank you again for reminding us of the joy in music and the positive impact gifted Artist bring to our lives.
“feel an unbridgeable gap between what they’re supposed to feel and what they actually feel.” Wow...I feel this sums up how so many people feel, and how so many people forget how others feel. Well said — such a strong message. Thank you for this.
🖤
Achingly sorrowful and gratifyingly healing. Thanks for these tributes, beautiful sights and sounds, the sounds ring loud. ❤️
The sorrow and the healing are inseparable, aren’t they? Thank you for reading with such care and intention.