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Sound Up! Joy Oladokun

Sound Up! Joy Oladokun

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We kick off our Pride season Sound Up series selection with a proud queer, Black woman who has been delivering stories that make us feel, think, and experience what art does for community: Joy Oladokun.

The singer-songwriter is not new to using her art as a form of processing the world around her and who she “should” be. Her single “Sunday” exploded Pride month of 2019 as her lyrics dove into the conflict and guilt of coming out as a young person in a religious household.

Oladokun told Billboard that there was a lot of fear in coming out and it’s taken her a long time to feel comfortable being so vulnerable in her lyrics. However, the more honest and authentic she is through her art, in turn creates a space of safety for her fans to be more authentically themselves.

Related article: Why the Queer Community Needs to Stand with #blacklivesmatter

“That’s the biggest lie we LGBTQIA people get told, that our love is less than or deficient. It’s not. That scene on the beach was kind of an artistic moment to defy that logic,” Oladokun said.

Once again, the independent and confessional artist is taking to music as a way to process what is going on in America in 2020. In her new single “Who Do I Turn To?,”Oladokun asks that emotional question with raw pain exuding from every line.

In order to honor the experience and story of Oladokun, and so many other people of color in the country, the full set of lyrics is below. Now, it’s time to turn the sound up, allow the feelings to wash over you, and use those feelings to advocate and activate. Happy Pride month, OUT FRONT followers. We are in this fight for equity and justice together.

I’m scared, of getting pulled over ’cause of someone else I look like.
I’m scared, of raising my voice ’cause everyone’ll think that I’m gonna fight. This world was made for them. This world is made for me.
How am I supposed to exist, when a friend is an enemy?

If I can’t save myself,
If it’s all black and white,
If I can’t call for help in the middle of the night
If i can’t turn to God, and I can’t turn to you?
Who do I turn to? Who do I turn to?

I’m tired, of watching my kind be accused while they’re young, and they’re innocent.
I’m tired of turning on the news, and wondering why it happened again.
No one’s putting out the fire, they only fan the flames.
Tell me who’s gonna make it right, when the good ones are to blame?

If I can’t save myself,
If it’s all black and white,
If I can’t call for help in the middle of the night
If i can’t turn to God, and I can’t turn to you?
Who do I turn to? Who do I turn to?

Who’s gonna watch over me? Who do I turn to?
Who’s gonna watch over me? Who do I turn to?
Who’s gonna watch over me? Who do I turn to?
Who’s gonna watch over me? Who do I turn to?

If I can’t save myself,
If it’s all black and white,
If I can’t call for help in the middle of the night
If i can’t turn to God, and I can’t turn to you?
Who do I turn to? Who do I turn to?

Photo from Joy Oladokun’s Facebook page

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