Titled Last Human, my album is a Folk-inspired sonic mood board with quiet Bluesy undertones, thoughtful lyrics, and the meditative sounds of singing bowls and percussive instruments. It’s rich with vocals inspired by the Gospel choirs that I sang in throughout my youth. There are also fully improvised vocal sections borrowed from the song-style of Bobby McFerrin’s circle singing. The album sounds powerful and soothing at once. Some songs are paired down to just voice and one accompanying instrument, highlighting my enchanting vocal presence. What results is an artistic intimacy that listeners feel included in, touching on a sense of belonging, self-awareness, and the beauty of song as an indelibly natural human expression.

I knew as a child that I wanted to engage in art that heals. To me, it’s important to make art that addresses issues affecting us on personal, social, and global levels. My influences range from the socially conscious lyrics of American Folk and activist music, to the dynamic wisdom of healers around the globe, to the powerful sciences of life on Earth and in the Cosmos. My goal is to release the album as awareness increases that our community roles must advance our human legacy alongside an artificial intelligence revolution. Motivational speaker Vishen, founder and CEO of Mindvalley (a personal growth platform), says that 2025 is “the last normal year in human history.” In the difficult days that lie ahead as we integrate our human relationships with digital technology and eventually robotics, I want to offer a sonic map that points toward our irreplaceable human experiences with grief, love, intuition, and our relationship to the natural world.

I grew up as an all-around performance artist- an actor and dancer with a primary focus on singing. My life was changed, however, when I was introduced to herbalism and nutrition science after suffering injuries from a car accident when I was 18. My relationship with plants grew exponentially over time, and I now oscillate between working in the performance industry and in the horticultural field, including farming, gardening, plant-scaping, and herbalism.

I approach music from a unique background influenced by a 150-year canon of Black American music and Brazilian Bossa Nova, with special attention to global rhythms that resurface in me from what I call blood memory. My blood memory is an expression, thought, or pattern that comes to me from an unknown source, but that I find reflected in the music, culture, and art of people around the World who have preserved the integrity of their ancestral cultural practices. I find this kind of connection with groups of singers, like the Umthombo Wokuphila Ministry, a choir in South Africa; with dance practices, like Contact Improvisation in the U.S. and Margie Gillis and Rhiannon’s Murmuration Project in Canada; and with the more than 5,000-year-old etiquette techniques of Chinese and Ayurvedic functional medicine.

In making my album, Last Human, it’s most important that I’m attentive to the energetic frequencies exchanged throughout the process. As love is a high frequency, I put standards in place to ensure that, when I approached the mic or any relationship with a collaborator, I came with the best of my authenticity, creativity, and positive energy. The process requires a deep listening practice for what I call the Spirit of the music. Each time I approached recording, I’d listen to the silence in the room; I’d listen for a sound, a word, or a voice to emerge out of it before I disturbed it. Then, to the best of my ability, I’d produce the sounds I heard with my voice and body. Plenty of the background vocals on the album are made-up words and tone phrases that came out of that process of listening to silence. I learned that, to be a good singer, you have to be a good listener. 

Some of the songs on the album were written over 10 years ago when my voice was younger and purer. Now my voice is stronger, my range is wider, and my voice makes new tones as a result of the effects of years of professional singing. I’ve had to approach old songs with a new voice, and having a band back my songs added another differentiating element to the music I had only performed as a solo artist. Although I have years of live production experience, I had never worked in a professional recording studio before. I learned how to use microphones more effectively, how to translate my ideas to other musicians with my limited knowledge of music theory, and how to use the many more tools available to me in a studio setting versus in live performances.

The year 2023 was my biggest production year. I recorded the backbone of my album- the acoustic guitar and lead vocal parts- while I was in between tour dates with the performance company of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower: the Opera, written by Toshi Reagon and Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon (d. 2024). I played the lead role in the acclaimed “congregational opera” for 4 years. I also studied circle singing- a method of improvisational group singing popularized by Bobby McFerrin. At two separate points in the year, I suffered mental instability characterized by doubt, insecurity, and dread at the thought of releasing my very intimate songwriting into the public. I faced these times with patient self-reflection, and I employed plants to supplement the trust I lacked in my ability to meet my own artistic standards. I used psilocybin in microdoses to restore a sense of play and pleasure in the ever-unfolding process of making recorded music that is authentic to me. Between my use of plant medicines and being in the wooded setting of Tree & Booms Studio where I recorded, nature has made a significant impact on my quality of life and the album we've produced.

I hope to reach music lovers across the Diaspora of American Folk and Country music listeners, from here to Trinidad & Tobago to Nairobi, Kenya. My music stands out in singing quality, soothing sound tones, and poetic lyricism. I intend that all the positive energy we cultivated into a sonic frequency- in that 800-square foot studio nestled in the foothills of Appalachia’s treasured Blue Ridge Mountains- will be projected to a World-wide audience of potential listeners who desire to meet with authenticity, subtlety, beauty, and presence in music. As does all of my work, this album converses with nature, love, spiritual ritual, and the development of personal and social values. I am eager to share it, hopeful and grateful for what conversations it will advance in art and culture, and welcoming of how it will return to me with innumerable reflections of the music.

A sum of $40,000 and countless hours have been invested into the project thus far. My next step is to create promotional materials, avenues for easy access to streaming, project-related digital content, and share a collection of behind-the-scenes footage from the years in the making.