密歇根新闻广播 弗林特歌手Tunde Olaniran最新专辑讲述种族和暴力

He's not only a singer and songwriter, he's a producer, designs his own costumes, and choreographs¹ his own shows (accompanied by backup dancers). By day, Olaniran is an outreach manager for Planned Parenthood. This past year, he's spent his free time creating a new album.

The album, Transgressor², is being released Friday. It touches on themes of body image, love, identity and starving artists, but themes that appear in many songs on the album are race relations and violence.

Police violence towards black men has made headlines in recent months. Olaniran says he feels like he's constantly having to go through cycles of grief and loss after he hears that kind of news.

"Over the past year I feel like we've had to have so many moments of grieving, especially as a black person living in this country," Olaniran says.

The last verse of the Olaniran's song "Everyone's Missing" was written after a New York City jury in December decided³ not to indict⁴ a white police officer for using a choke-hold on Eric Garner⁵, a black man, who later died.

"Everyone's Missing" :

"Hands up still bang bang bang

crowd control is non lethal⁶

But an LRAD's the exact same thing

miles to go until we the people

they said earn respect like we used to

had sharp suits and they spoke⁷ well

MLK was respectable, still gunned in that motel

i'm tired of vigils we been blowing the whistle

straight homicide but then he gets acquittal"

In the chorus of the song, Olaniran sings the words, "Everyone's missing, but I'm still here." He says those lines were inspired by a writing workshop he led in Flint, which is one of the most violent cities in the nation.

"A theme that kept coming up [in the workshop], especially among the younger people, was loss. It was, 'I will be in school and I don't know if this person next to me will be dead in a month,''' Olaniran says. "That was very real. I'd worked with youth, I'd been to funerals of youth in my program."

Olaniran can be seen performing his new album this weekend. His CD release show will be in Detroit on Saturday night.

1 choreographs   

v.设计舞蹈动作( choreograph的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• And Nick Gillard, the fellow who choreographs the fights, came out as well. 设计这些打斗动作的尼克-吉拉德也去了。 来自互联网

2 transgressor   

n.违背者

参考例句：

• We expect the transgressor to make any atonement possible to him. 我们期待犯了过失的人有可能做到的赎罪行为。 来自辞典例句
• We expect transgressor to make any atonement possible to him. “我深信，”西丝又重说一遍，“这是你能做的唯一的赎罪的办法。” 来自互联网

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 indict   

v.起诉，控告，指控

参考例句：

• You can't indict whole people for the crudeness of a few.您不能因少数人的粗暴行为就控诉整个民族。
• I can indict you for abducting high school student.我可以告你诱拐中学生。

5 garner   

v.收藏；取得

参考例句：

• He has garnered extensive support for his proposals.他的提议得到了广泛的支持。
• Squirrels garner nuts for the winter.松鼠为过冬储存松果。

6 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。