In 2012 when I founded RMI, it was an act of acceptance of how much healing our world needed. Connecting music to that yearning for positive change, both in society and in the hearts, minds, and souls of individuals, had already been my own artistic focal point, but at that point I pledged to make that “official” moving forward and to extend that to the perspective through which I and this organization would nurture others, fellow artists and audiences alike. I wish this work was not relevant, but as recent displays of brutality and racial injustice have put in sharp focus, we are a long way from that point. In the meantime, music will remain a vital way to reflect on the world, to cry out in the face of grief, to educate, inspire, and challenge people, to mutually process overwhelming things, to amplify the call for a just world. The music itself does this, and the soul behind that music (and in particular the Black American Music that is RMI’s primary focus) often attracts people who are inspired to engage equally in activism off the bandstand. The entire Resonant Motion team affirms our pledge to honor every black life in their right of living free of oppression, bigotry, and violence. Black lives matter, and we all must work tirelessly to protect that truth.