My 10-year-old self needed to see a woman like that then. “Every day I realize that this might / Be the last day of my life / Walking down the streets I find / I’m coming closer and closer to losing my mind” she wailed on “The Life.” My young heart wailed back. It was then that I learned to lean on her words to help make sense of the messy reality all around me. Three months later two planes crashed into the World Trade Center. Back then her image-flawless braids, tough-as-nails exterior-was the goal for me: I wanted to look like her I wanted to be her.

When Songs in A Minor dropped in 2001, I listened to the CD over and over on my dad’s computer in our house in New Jersey. I have been a fan of hers since I was 10 years old. Few artists are able to distill the chaos and connect us to one another quite like Alicia Keys. The songs we sing, and the melodies and words we let sink into our bones, allow us to reconcile our lived experiences with the conflicting messages that surround us.

At its best, music can cross boundaries of race, gender, and class.

Alicia keys as i am album cover