BONNIE IN GREENWOOD
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“I’m from White Center.”
That’s usually how I introduce myself. Growing up, my family and I had it rough. In 2006, we lost two of our boys in the same month to gun violence. I was there to witness the death of one of my brothers and it changed me forever. Every year after that seemed to present new struggles and it was like we could never catch a break.
I was this scrubby kid who wore the same clothes to school everyday even tho my many mothers were workin' day in and day out to take care of us. Shit wasn’t easy. But again, I’m from White Center, when has anything been easy?
In the Samoan culture, we tell stories. Our history and traditions are passed down orally. We take pride in our descriptive and beautiful language and I too wanted to tell stories. My story.
So that’s what Cham Ba and I decided to do through music. We wanted every song, every visual and every word to paint a picture of my reality (really, it was both of our realities just with different cultural nuances).
When I look back at pictures of myself as a teenager all I want to do is go back in time, hug myself and say:
“I promise you everything will be alright.”
That’s what this album [Bonnie in Greenwood] has allowed me to do. It gave me an outlet and took me on a journey. Back to all my trauma, pain, and suffering so that I could hug 12 year old Glendal and say:
“I’m proud of you. Everything is fine, and it will always be fine because you never gave up.’’