Often, during the last 300-odd days, I have thought about Beyoncé’s lyric in “Feelin Myself” when she said, “I stop the world, world, stop… carry on.” When the spread of COVID-19 brought every thing to a screeching halt last spring (and I finally watched
Contagion), I didn’t see how we could carry on.
But then one night of endless phone scrolling, I answered a text from my coworker that said “Go to D-Nice’s page right now: He’s giving me life!” D-Nice was in his living room, playing hip hop classics and R&B deep cuts, and creating an experience that would become Club Quarantine. Thinking back on that March night, and several after, it wasn’t the fact that Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and J.Lo were all in the Club and reacting in real time when D-Nice played their respective songs. It was the fact that music was connecting us: mind, body and soul. In that moment, my world carried on.