an artistic research project by ALYH ABOVE
the current and upcoming episodes feature music, audio journals, quotes, conversation, film, spoken and written word, installation-based works, and other art forms.
why fulfillment?
fulfillment has always been a form of black resistance. we have always decided that we were going to thrive anyway, whether that meant subverting dehumanizing systems to serve us, or creating our own, more beneficial infrastructures. we have used this form of resistance to create worlds within this world — ones that can support and preserve the fullness of our humanity.
Relief is for right now.
day 10,934 explores the role of relief in black fulfillment, and how black folks make their way towards it in their daily lives. This is in attempt to archive and also create a database of practices we can immediately reach toward when we are in need of relief.
the episode’s title is inspired by Audre Lorde’s “Poetry Is Not a Luxury”.
✷ the audacity of black folk to humanize themselves, and therefore, require relief
✷ finding relief in resting in the midst of difficulty
✷ black, ancestrally led ideas about what it means to be human
✷ everything/anything/many things as possible relief practice
✴︎ 01 INTRO — NAMING:
Darkseid — Isaiah Rashad
Agitation — Erykah Badu
(Mixed by ALYH)
✴︎ 02 INVITATION:
WELCOME by ALYH ABOVE
8 Words, by Jas, Doc, WAYV, Foxy, Raylá, and ALYH ABOVE
✴︎ 03 OPENING CEREMONY — EXISTENTIAL MAPPING:
YOU ARE HERE by ALYH ABOVE
(Beat: find it by ALYH ABOVE)
✴︎ 05 AUDACITY:
Quote by Dorothy Jenkins Fields, archivist, speaking to the Miami Herald, 2021
Quote by Terry Lewis from Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius), 2025
✴︎ 06 TRADITION AS RELIEF:
Improvisation over Human Nature (originally recorded by Michael Jackson) — Chaka Khan + Miles Davis Live in Montreux, 1989
Quote by Amiri Baraka, on KPFA radio, early 1980’s
Wholy Holy — Aretha Franklin (from Amazing Grace, Recorded at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church, Los Angeles, CA, 1972*)*
✴︎ 07 DIVINE PEACE, CELEBRATION, + BIDDING AS RELIEF PRACTICE:
I! Gits! Weary! — KeiyaA
Bravo — The Internet
Wasted Words — KAYTRANADA + Thundercat
(Mixed by ALYH ABOVE)
✴︎ 08 PRACTICING RELIEF as a SUSTAINED TRANSFORMATION:
reading from “you are here: Location Ourselves Within the Ever-Changing Context of our Humanity”, written by ALYH ABOVE
Wither — Frank Ocean
an end — ALYH ABOVE
✴︎ 09 RITUAL/PRACTICE AS RELIEF:
“I need to write this piece” — ALYH ABOVE
Rise/5200 — Solange + Maxo Kream (Mixed by ALYH ABOVE)
Hot Coffee Freestyle — April + Vista
eeeee — ALYH ABOVE
✴︎ 10 OKAY:
I DESERVE TO FEEL OKAY — ALYH ABOVE
Solo Lunch Sounds @ Neighborhood Park
Released Oct. 6th, 2024
Misogyny is a spirit we call “He”.
Day 10,700 explores misogynoir as a child of oppression and an entity which has its own will and stays alive through our conditioning and commitment to it.
This is in attempt to point out the importance of continually telling the complex stories we’ve survived, while contextualizing our experiences within the larger experience of oppression, and re-humanizing ourselves as we move towards liberation.
When “He” is spoken throughout the episode, it is meant to reference the spirit of misogyny itself, though it may also represent a person or archetype.
✷ the omnipresence of misogynoir
✷ the feigned elusiveness of oppression
✷ oppression as a force that separates us from ourselves
✷ that misogynoir has no one body, but moves through bodies. no matter what we look like, we are capable of channeling oppression.
✴︎ 01 INTRO — THE VENT:
I Gotta Find Peace of Mind — Lauryn Hill (Chopped by ALYH)
✴︎ 02 BUYING IN/THE LIE:
from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella:
Impossible — Whitney Houston + Brandy
Sweetest Sound — Brandy (Chopped by ALYH)
✴︎ 03 TRYING:
Lil Lonely — Devin Morrison
Division of Joy — J*Davey
(Mixed by ALYH)
✴︎ 04 JUST WRONG:
Snippets from ‘Poem About My Rights’ — June Jordan
Done — TeaMarr (Chopped by ALYH)
✴︎ 05 WHICH WAY IS I?:
20 Feet Tall — Erykah Badu
✴︎ 06 A LINE, BLURRED:
Reminders — Mariah The Scientist
Moments in Love — Art of Noise
Jaguar Wright on “Monsters”
(Mixed/Chopped by ALYH)
✴︎ 07 A PAIN LOOP:
My First Love — Avant + Keke Wyatt
Don’t Wake Me Up — Lianne La Havas
Like Some Dream — Sirens of Lesbos featuring JID
✴︎ 08 ASKING + INDIGNATION:
Words by Nikki Giovanni
✴︎ 09 I FOUND MY NO:
I’ll Come Too — James Blake (Chopped by ALYH)
✴︎ 10 GETTING ON (WITH IT [?])
Formwela 4 — Esperanza Spalding
(Chopped by ALYH)
Nikki Giovanni + James Baldwin in Conversation on Ellis Haizlip’s “Soul!” Network
✴︎ 11 LOVE AS LAW
Ne Me Quitte Pas — Nina Simone