Pitchfork’s Jenn Pellyprofiles Moor Mother, a musician, writer, activist, and teacher who turns her truth and anger into a vital protest againstinjustice.
“After a decade spent in the Philly underground—as show-booker, community organizer, punk musician, rapper, poet, and multidisciplinary visual artist—Ayewa’s work has coalesced into a total vision. It is concrete-heavy, abrasive, and generative. Ayewa reimagines protest songs as radical electronic noise montages, but her lyrics about systemic racism and historical trauma are searing Afrofuturist statements. Take, for example, this incendiary line from Fetish Bones, her recent solo debut: ‘I’m bell hooks trained as a sniper,’ Ayewa snarls, transmuting the intersectional feminist theorist into a warrior. She then declares herself ‘Sandra Bland returning from the dead with a hatchet,’ referencing the 28-year-old black woman who was found dead in jail after being pulled over for a minor traffic violation last year. Befitting the tremendous fire of Ayewa’s words, a 122-page book of poetry was released alongside Fetish Bones.”
Moor Mother’s latest, Fetish Bones, is out now via Don Giovanni Records. Listen to the full album over at Spotify, and watch the video for “By The Light” below.