By: Ashley Super

              All June, we celebrated black music! Black music month is so important because it celebrates our music’s rich history, which has survived the times and inspired many genres of music throughout the world. Experts have agreed that the first music in world history originated in Africa. With the migration of the human species and overall settling of people, many things have evolved like language, civilization, medicine, and music. Music has evolved greatly over the past thousands of years; however, American slavery began in 1619, roughly 400 years ago.

When I think of my personal African American music history, I fondly remember singing with my grandfather, Mr. Super Sr. as a child and being obsessed with the lyrics and melodies of our songs! I also think of my mother’s father Al Banks, lead singer of world famous Doowop group “The Turbans”. He began writing his #1 Hit “When You Dance” in June and wasn’t afraid to sound different. His unique expression of music inspired a new genre called “DooWop” and they achieved worldwide success with his #1 song remained on the charts for over a year. At that time, they toured a newly desegregated America. I am inspired by his courage to share his songs no matter what obstacles he faced. I believe the rich history of music in my family inspired me to become a lover and creator of unique music.

African American music came to America first on slave ships. On these ships, enslaved Africans would use their instruments and voices to perform inspirational and uplifting music for both the seamen and the slaves. Once in America they continued creating music.  From songs inspiring survival, to songs planning escapes, our music has evolved throughout the time. After slave liberation, free African Americans were able to express themselves mores and some even pursued and achieved successful careers in music. Singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn helped make African American music mainstream and helped desegregate the airways and musical performance venues. They helped make it possible for the unique music of our people, then and now, to be appreciated.

I am very grateful to every African American musician and vocalist who paved the way for African American music, like mine, to be heard and appreciated throughout the world! I hope that everyone can take the time to appreciate and support some new or different African American created music this and every month!

Ashley Super’s #1 EP “The Master’s Peace” can be streamed on all music platforms, with more music free at AshleySuperMusic.com. This chart-topping EP is filled with inspirational sounds, seamlessly combining R&B, Hip-Hop and Soul music to motivates, and endures the times.

Every day is a Salvador Dali painting. Particularly the one with the melting clocks. Oddly enough, it is not because of the idea that “time is an illusion” has never been more relevant before now. Moreso, that the surrealist reality that I and, casually, the rest of the world are experiencing has identifiable elements—a clock, the fresh bloom of spring. But now, everything has been tilted on its head. A quick run to the grocery store is now a potential death march. The level of strategy that I am grateful that I learned in college, in order for my roommates and me to get to the fewest amount of stores in the least amount of time as possible, is still useful today. Like the painting, we are a moment of history that will be remembered for the chaos and inspiration.

I am a teacher with degrees, aspirations, and more goals than hobbies. I love my students, appreciate my coworkers, and grateful for the leadership from my administration. At least we are getting leadership from somewhere. In the beginning, admittedly, we as a school could have planned better. A few coworkers had been murmuring about this for months, warning all of us to take the extra precaution of washing our hands and covering our mouth. It was nearly a month later until our school closed—sadly, we were some of the last schools to do so. I will argue that no one knew. How could we? No one could have known. No one on our level, a public citizen level. However, even though we were hesitant to close, to deny our students the best education for the time at hand, we prepared for the long term–not just one or two weeks, but months. Even though our life was getting more and more surreal, disjointed and warped, my fellow educators and I still lesson planned, called parents, answered the same 79 million questions from students about submitting homework. We still persevered.

According to the government, I am young. I am one of those desensitized millennials who has lived through Y2K, a millennia change, 9/11, US’s first black president—Barack Obama, and the regression of the Wingéd Dorito who has lead this country into the ground. I continuously look at world news outlets and get weirdly jealous of how many other countries are claiming: “We flattened the curve because our president knows what he’s doing” or “Our leadership listened to the CDC for recommendations early”. Teases. Simple things like this would keep me from missing work. How I long for the days where the most annoying thing I had to worry about is how I was going to grade papers, clean my apartment, and go grocery shopping all in one weekend. Now, all of my papers are graded, much to the demise of my students who are tried to enjoy their Spring Break. My apartment is a reflection of my creeping depression, but at least I have an overabundance of time to clean. And my pantries and fridge are stocked for the next two weeks so there is no reason to leave the illusion that is the protection of my home. I love that I have time for all the things I said I would do if I had time, I lie from my bed as I continuously scroll through my phone.

All the boring shit that I attributed to my status of an emerging adult is now piled on top of what feels like the longest weekend ever/apocalypse. I am being overly dramatic as I say apocalypse; we are just in a financial, social, and health downturn that has no clear end in sight. I can joke with my friends that in a few years’ time Tyler Perry is going to write a movie about the Coronavirus and the black stereotyping that follows that fun hour and 37 minutes, but that still does not lessen the fact that we are not living the normal. But as I struggle to come up with how to end this article, it is mostly because we are in the middle of everything. We are still living in this crisis.

            We are still living in “unprecedented times”. A loaded buzz worded phrase that simply means that no one still living knows what the damn hell to do, but stay home until we figure it out. I knew things were getting real because my credit card, phone bill, and rent are saying “Nah fam, do what you can in times of need, we got you in this time of crisis.” Even though the majority of us are sitting idle, we can still be active in supporting our community. As a teacher, I am being 100% a teacher for my students as I answer emails or setup google hangout office hours. Make a TikToc, facetime your best friend who might not be coping as well as you are at this time, text an extrovert because you know they are needing to talk to someone. I know, if you are bored and have a minute, thank an essential worker who is willing to do no contact deliveries or respect the handwashing game that they have perfected as they do it 9,000 times a day. We as a country have enough time on our hands to read a political article so we know who to vote for when our world does start once again because it will. If our history has shown us anything, we are built to last and not going fucking anywhere.

2020 certainly came in with a bang didn’t it?! I think most of us visualized the future as the following: driving flying cars, wearing flashy metallic outfits, witnessing flying saucers, and operating fancy gadgets (insert “The Jetsons” here). What we were NOT considering was 2020 ushering in a virus so dangerous that the entire world would be at a standstill. As an independent contractor for an education agency, I recently discovered that as a result of COVID-19, I’m now jobless. Not only are all schools closed for the remainder of the school year, but Mayor Kenney foresees social distancing occurring throughout the summer months too. Due to these unfortunate times, I’m sure the majority of us have asked ourselves “now what?”

Personally, after adjusting to this new normal of being home and social distancing, I had to find ways to maintain routine and purpose in my life. Aside from being an educator, I am an actress and model who was still in production for a feature film and prepping to walk in Miami Fashion Week. I was also getting into shape and started going to a gym with a friend. As of now, all of that has been interrupted…so what’s one to do? Well, after feeling sorry for myself a bit and using sleep as a way to pass the time, I decided to remember all of the talents I was blessed with and to remember that nothing will change if there is no change. Still, I continued to wake up, shower, get dressed, and do my hair and makeup as if I had somewhere to go. I began designating times to complete certain tasks and started to sew again. At the end of the day, people always admire creativity and are willing to support a quality product. My suggestion to everyone is to remember who you are at your core. If COVID-19 taught us anything, it taught us how much jobs cannot be relied on. The good news is that once you discover your passion, embrace it, and hone your skills, you arrive at success. Social media is at all of our fingertips as well. This is the time for all of us to refresh and rebrand ourselves. Stay encouraged and safe!!!