Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys is making me proud and she is doing us good. It is sad that her movement is slightly overlooked. Movement? Yes, movement. A movement of Black female empowerment. Black female respect. A belief in black love.

You disagree? Think I am overstating? Figure she is a simply a singer and performer, nothing more?

Answer this: Ever notice that every video features black men and women of full Black beauty. Ever notice the subtle references and innuendo's to our culture, past and present. Ever notice how every brother, street or not, represents the belief of black men, of their innate beauty and power. She makes it a point to capture those images, to radiate them.

Consider this: Ever seen her naked? Ever seen her expose herself, despite the talent (ala every other artist in the industry)? Ever seen her background dancers or singers half ass naked. No, instead her characterizations are of that faithful girlfriend, loving woman, supportive and special, believing in him more than he believes in himself?

It's purposeful.

Alicia is taking the road less traveled. Now, I luv me some Beyonce, so please don't start the comparison. Beyonce brought Black women affirmation and "luvin being a lady" back in a way that no other artist has since, maybe, Pam Grier. But Alicia has tapped into more of an idea of community, a belief and displaying of black love and romance, a ground belief, in powerful black women and men. She radiates that message carefully, without preaching, with every single release and video.

Unbreakable. Fallin. Women's Worth. Teenage Love Affair (delightful play on Spike Lee's School Daze - and she must have used him to direct, because they do that annoying sitting still/walking camera trick that he insists on using in all his works) and, now, Superwoman.

Superwoman has a Chaka Khan/Whitney "I am Every Woman" vibe, over a much more mellow piano riff. But the video goes a little deeper. Alicia portrays different facets of Black woman - the welfare mom in college, the African sister trying to get an education, the working mother and an astronaut. She acts out the skits with segments of her playing the piano interspersed. But then an amazing thing happens. The faces of the actual women who Alicia is enacting merge over her image. Jada Pinkett Smith (who, looks surprisingly similar to Alicia) and Joan Higginbotham, are among the four.

Joan Higginbotham is a NASA astronaut, I see her picture 100 times a day at work. (i work for NASA). She has spoken on Center and participated in a number of goodwill projects. She is beautiful and intelligent and...well... an astronaut. And Alicia provided her an international forum of recognition. The video is seamless and flawless...and I am so very proud. Of both Alicia and the ladies she recognizes.

Pay careful attention to Alicia...she is a movement in her own right.