Sugarwater / Pack Light

I had the honor of going to the Sugar Water Festival last night out in Jones Beach. What an amazing experience. Shouts to my coworker ebro for hooking me up with the BOMB press seats. I was giddy sitting there waiting for the lights to come up. I just sat (really stood, danced, sang along and acted like a damned fool) all night in awe of the effortlessness with which those women manipulated the sound that emanated from their mouths. I’m always quietly envious of it, but more so admiring. I love music. It is my first love, truly. And the way people use music to express themselves moves me in a way that NO other emotion has ever moved me. It’s so powerful to me. In one set, Jill was doing a rendition of “Crossed My Mind” and the drummer was doing this thing with the high hat…. I SWEAR I almost came on myself. I know… it’s graphic… but the music just took me over and there was this overwhelming feeling of ecstacy. I LOVE MUSIC.

Floetry was the background music to us (me and JB) getting our food. Performance wise, they never have excited me. They just stand there at their respective microphones and sing. It was cute, though, because they ended their set with a rendition of “Let Your Soul Glow” from Coming to America complete with announcements of “Sexshul Chaklit” as they walked off the stage. I laughed at that. Then Latifah, Jill and Erykah came out and did a set together just to get the audience going. I was VERY impressed with Miss Dana Owens. She represented for us thick sisters. Her voice is pretty, her presence on stage is empowering and her words were uplifting… as they’ve always been. She had to throw in some old rap stuff from when I was in High School and that was fun to remember along with the audience. Then… JILL! Oh man… how excited was I? Can you imagine chills for 40 minutes straight? Yes. At the end of one song, she started setting the stage to sing “Petition” and I was TOO amped. It’s the one song I haven’t heard her sing in performance. And I waited, and waited and waited for it… and she started singing “He Loves Me”… Y’all…. I POUTED. Like… seriously… crossed my arms against my chest and pouted. JB poked me in the arm after a little while and was like… “C’mon… you can’t be mad at THIS song.” He was right… I was already starting to sing along (again). All her songs make me think of when my baby and I first started out… and how amazing that felt, then. I wished she could have gone for longer. She had 5 minutes left (we had a GREAT view of the timer). But… better on time than late, I suppose. Erykah’s line between genius and insanity is sufficiently blurred in her sight now. Her music is whimsical, amazing, exciting, intelligent and masterful. But SHE… is crazy, y’all. LMAO! Gotta love her, though. Her set felt more like a medley than a collection of her best songs. I can really only describe the whole thing as being weird. But I indulged in as much music as I could (when she wasn’t playing this weird beat machine that she was making UFO sounds out of). At the end of her time on stage (she actually ran over)… she sang “Bag Lady” (complete with So Addictive guitar in the bg). She kept repeating the line… “pack light…” and encouraged all the women in the audience to sing along. I’ve never sang two words with so much heart and feeling before. This was the message that I was there to receive. I’ve given, in the last few years, too many things and people WAY more importance than they could have EVER deserved. And maybe that’s unfair to them. It’s a LOT for them to live up to in my eyes. And maybe… light and airy is the way to go. The more importance something carries, the more potential it has to stress you out and possibly hurt you. And maybe I haven’t been packing so light lately. I must do some cleaning. This heaviness is on my heart.

The car ride home was quiet and reflective and for the first time in 4 weeks… I slept and really was rested when I woke up this morning.

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