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So many of the times in my life when I broke, I broke. Like painful, suffering broke. This moment was the anchoring of all the triumphant breaks. Janet’s music helped build the foundation for my ultimate healings and recoveries. Her music taught me how to live in my body first.
I learned that my body could twist. And turn. And shake. And undulate. And move. And feel. That music could change and impact and usher my body, not only my brain or heart. Janet’s music quickly became the foundation for my own craft as a lifelong artist, writer, and performer.
Janet’s music was the first place I learned to actually dance, not only literally, but also metaphorically. I think of Janet and I am a child on my back in my living room choreographing a dance to “Throb” and I am exploring consent.
I am a young child, gyrating my hips and creating my foundation for expression and consent. I will later be sexually assaulted and raped. And when I heal, it will be my learning my body through Janet Jackson’s music that will help usher me to heal.
@JanetJackson is part of my holy trinity. She is one of the three most important musicians and performance artists who have most directly impacted my work as a performance artist. It’s Janet, @Phish, and the @GratefulDead.
Until I heard “Rhythm Nation” I didn’t know that my body was allowed to be free. To move according to its own desires and abilities and needs. That no one else was in charge of how my body was supposed to move but me. That my body was its own unique mystique.
And so when the horrors came, when I broke and other people tried to break me, I had that moment on the rocks by the swimming pool in Palm Springs, when Janet Jackson taught me how to be free.
For me, every day has been #JanetJacksonAppreciationDay since I was a child. Every day her work planted seeds that have continually ushered me closer to myself. For me, she has always been one of the greatest artists we will ever witness and see.
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