Written by DaSean Stokes and Gordon Cortney

 

This is an open letter from one disheartened student to another, though its message is for all–for the afflicted and the afflicters, the oppressed and the oppressors. It is for those who resonate with its content and those who walk away deafened by the noise of their own privilege and self-affirming righteousness.

 

I am tired. On Monday, I had to ask myself, what’s the difference between anger and passion–and why am I always angry, and never passionate? Tuesday I was called the wrong name – again. On Wednesday, I went to a choir concert. Of course, you already know Moses Hogan was the closer. Thursday, I had the sidewalk all to myself. Guess my smile wasn’t big enough. Friday, my classmates looked at me when William Grant Still was brought up. Was I supposed to say something? Didn’t we do the same readings? Saturday I binded my coarse curls in a ponytail to perform. At least I looked “professional,” right? Sunday. I can finally rest. It’s been a long week, and I am tired. But six days of relentless racism is too much to recover from, so I don’t. My week starts over and so too does the dirty looks, the expectation of unlearned knowledge, the one-sided compromises, the outright opposition from some, the hollow support of even more.

 

I am tired. I am dissatisfied. I am angry and not just because someone said I am. I want more. I want to know that wanting more is allowed. I want to know who to ask for permission to want more. When you ask for more of music, what do you get? Nothing. Music asks us for more and I have given more than I thought I could give. I have given my time, my creativity, my heart, my identity. I have done all I can to meet a standard that does all it can to ensure my voice is silenced, that my humanity is stripped away. I have lost myself. Have you lost yourself?

 

I am tired, but I persevere. I refuse to be patient and wait for someone else to do something. I have picked myself up, like I have so many times before, and I’m taking action – I am taking my Blackness back. My friends and I came together to form the College of Music Black Alliance at FSU, an organization dedicated to promoting the academic, artistic, and personal success of the Black community within the College of Music. On March 6, 7, and 8 of 2026 we will be hosting a conference that centers Black music in all its forms through oral and poster presentations, performances, a panel discussion, and keynote address from musicologist Matthew D. Morrison. We invite you to join us to give Black music what it has merited yet been deprived of for too long–-care and not just any level of care but that which we ascribe to Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. To not just care for Still, Price, and Joplin, but to go beyond and ascribe care to Freeman, Boykin, Okpebholo, and to care and keep caring for all Black music practitioners across all place and time.

 

We are tired but we persevere. We are disheartened but we are hopeful. We are tired of being tired and WE are taking action.