I'm creating art that can be healing. Art that can make you feel like you're not alone, like you're not an outsider. Art that is useful.

Naming something, putting it on record, in a lyric, feels like affirming people. Ideally, that's what politicians should want to do: to put laws or policies in place that speak to people's experiences, to make them feel heard.

I really liked 'Blk Girl Art.' It's like a manifesto saying why I create, whether it's poetry or music.

I think of music as creating a space. I like to put things in that are comforting to me and are nostalgic. To me, that's what sampling does in songs; it's making deeper layers for people who know where it comes from, but also referencing another part of my history and my memory or a memory that I have.

For black and brown people, caring for ourselves and each other is not a neutral act. It is a necessary and radical part of the struggle to create a more just society. Our healing and survival are essential to the fight.

When you're in a choir, it's about blending into how everyone else sounds.