The Key To Ending Racial Injustice: Grammy-Nominated Imani Winds member Monica Ellis

This article is adapted from an episode of The Forte Podcast, which we recorded earlier this year. To listen to the full episode, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-forte-podcast/id1519681720?i=1000484532944

Me: What do you see as the best way to unify as a group of musicians against the social injustice issues that have really come into the light in the last few months?

Monica: I would say that acknowledgement is first. You could just say “Oh that’s politics, that’s social stuff, but I’m a musician, I’m an artist, I’m going to keep practicing the Mozart Bassoon Concerto.” Well, ok- that’s a way to go about it, but it’s almost like a slap in the face to the movement when you’re not realizing your stake in it all.

These problems that are arising are going to affect us as artists. It may affect you differently because you’re a composer and you’re going to write about it; it may affect you differently because you’re in your own world practicing your instrument, but it’s going to affect the audiences that come and see you. It’s going to affect the presenters and leaders that will hire you. A community is truly one and truly united, and that’s why recognizing the interconnected problem is so important.

Once you get past the acknowledgement of the problem, you need to think about what you as a musician can do to contribute to this cause in a meaningful way. That can manifest itself in very personal ways, very overt ways, or very introverted ways- it’s going to be different for every person. I just think that looking inward at this time- especially for white musicians and non-musicians of color- is showing us what is necessary to do on that front. People in positions of power and the capability to make a real difference have to look within, they have to say “What can I do better to help this cause, to help further the causes of those who have been disenfranchised, and what have I done to prevent causes from moving forward.” The real keys are recognizing the problem, looking for change, admitting where you haven’t done anything, and seeing what you can do. Coming to any situation like this in an honest way is always going to be the best way- and people see that honesty.

However, folks that have been blasting on social media saying “Hey, solidarity, Black Lives Matter” and don’t have the goods to come with something else, something more than just that, they’ve been blasting a little bit. It’s shown that you can’t just say things without any real meaning behind them. That’s not to say they’re bad people, but I think we’re in a place right now that requires a higher level of honesty and commitment to really show that you have invested interest in wanting to change the scope of things.

Me: I was listening to a talk the other day on racial justice with Anthony McGill (the first black principal player in the New York Philharmonic) where he said “I haven’t done enough” in terms of advocating and working towards racial equality. That was really an eye-opener for me and everyone watching because many of us (certainly I do) see him as one of the leaders- if not the leader- of the racial justice movement in classical music.

Monica: His presence as the first black principal player in the New York Philharmonic is an act of resistance on its own. What he’s doing has never been done before, and we’ll never truly know what he’s had to go through. I think it’s really humbling to hear him say that he needs to do more, because he has a platform and he knows how to use it, because hearing him say that makes you want to do more, so it’s a pay-it-forward type of mentality.

Me: Do you think we’ll be able to look back 50 years from now and 2020 will be distinguishable as a time of major change in our society and art?

Monica: If you look at the pivotal steps that were made in 1964 like the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act, they were a result of several years’ worth of work before government changes actually occured. Now, of course these protests today are very pivotal, but this ain’t the first protest- by far. Sadly, very sadly so, George Floyd is not the first person that the police murdered. This really could be the tipping point because of so much that has come before it, and I think it may be the perfect storm of sorts with COVID-19 and the political unrest. There is something that is kind of palpable about this very summer, like right now, July 2020. Something is happening that I think is different than in past times.

As far as art goes and the reaction to it, I wouldn’t go as far as 50 years from now because that’s a little unattainable, I would look at 5 years from now, 2025 (it seems crazy that 2025 is only 5 years away!), and we would see that there were some shifts in people’s trajectories. I think a lot about Nina Simone, who was famously quoted saying “As a black artist, how can you not be affected by the change that is occurring around you politically?” Her own trajectory was originally one of an upper-class singer and later morphed into an extremely radical one. She went deep once she knew in her heart that she wanted her music to reflect the issues that were happening to black people in the 60’s and 70’s.

Her story is over many decades. Since we’re only at the beginning of something right now, it will take another chunk of time to be able to have that perspective to examine whether something really did shift. But something is going on. Something’s in the brewing process.

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To listen to the full episode with Monica, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-forte-podcast/id1519681720?i=1000484532944

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