Meshell Ndegeocello Delivers Powerful Meditations During Tiny Desk Performance

Meshell Ndegeocello brings the power of reflection and gratitude to NPR’s Tiny Desk. On Tuesday, the musician visited NPR to perform songs from her upcoming August, No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin, along with some classics.

Ndegeocello opened her Tiny Desk performance with “Travel,” where she played bass as vocalists Justin Hicks and Kenita Miller sang the track. “James Baldwin said that you think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read,” Ndegeocello said before introducing “Thus Sayeth the Lorde,” the track referencing feminist poet Audre Lorde.

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“If I did not define myself for myself, I’d be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive,” she said, quoting Lorde and Baldwin as she closed her performance of the song.

Ndegeocello joined Miller and Hicks for the organ-backed “Love.” “Love doesn’t begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle. Love is a war. Love is a growing up. Love takes off the mask you fear you can’t live without but you think you can’t live within,” she mused.

Ndegeocello asked the audience to put their hands up and open their chests as she expressed gratitude for her five senses before sharing a poem about the power of giving during the short pauses on “Virgo.”

“I’ve been so blessed, I’ve been making music for 30 years and you’ve met someone who takes you somewhere you can only dream of… That’s how I feel about you,” Ndegeocello said of her vocalists Hicks and Miller before a performance of her hit “Outside Your Door” from 1993’s Plantation Lullabies.

This month, NPR is paying tribute to Black women in music to celebrate Black Music Month. The concert series has already featured Kierra Sheard, Chaka Khan, Tierra Whack, and Tems.

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