AYONI PROVES THAT THERE IS POWER IN VULNERABILITY ON “UNMOVED (A BLACK WOMAN TRUTH)”

In case you somehow missed it, we are in the middle of a modern civil rights movement (Yes, still. I don’t care if your Instagram feed has “gone back to normal.” Still happening). With mass protests sweeping the country, the movement is calling for officials to dismantle systems that perpetuate racism.

20 year old Barbadian-born artist Ayoni has created one of the most powerful songs of 2020, “Unmoved (A Black Woman Truth). Her beyond-impressive voice sits atop acoustic guitars. Accented with harmonies, the arrangement fully supports the strength and emotion of her lyrics.

AYONI - “UNMOVED (A BLACK WOMAN TRUTH)”

You get a new leader and think you know trauma
I’m 20 years of breakdowns and mantras
Spare me the shock in looking at yourselves
It scares me there’s shock I could love myself
How I do
Cry in the bathroom
But they’ll never have you
It’s always been bigger than this
And I fucking swear I swear down
That we love ourselves politically
It’s rebellious

The lyrics tell a story of the pain that Black women know all too well: inequality and injustice in the United States (and the rest of the world) completely still exists, and many of our “not racist” friends are actually perpetuating it. For entire lifetimes, Black women have been forced to bottle up and swallow every instance of racism, every back-handed compliment, every micro-aggression, and every notion that an act of self-love is defiant and political. And while it’s great that the rest of the world has finally woken up to this, we cannot act like it’s new.

In her own words, Ayoni knows that “in reality, the dishonouring of the Black womxn, especially the Black trans woman, seems to be a commonly accepted world view.” She states that “Unmoved is my fight to be heard and for the truth I know to be acknowledged.”

This track is pure truth. Thank you Ayoni for putting to words what so many have felt.

Readers: If you have not done so yet, please take 2 minutes to register to vote here!

Arielle Tindel is from Cleveland, Ohio. She recently graduated from Berklee College of Music with degrees in Music Business Marketing and Songwriting. In her free time, Arielle can be found gardening or playing bass.