"Hard Knock Radio" Impression

This evening I listened to the Media Island International, KOWA radio segment "Hard Knock Radio" and was greeted with a mix of sound effects and music that reminded me of a 80's TV show entrance. I was excited when the lead sentence was the "resistance radio" which lead me to believe it would be about problems across the country and possibly even the world and how we need to fight against them. The mix of hip hop music was not to my taste, but I can explore other radio programs and see if those fit "me" better. It was a nice change to hear an artist talk about their personal struggles influencing their music and having it be about them, their life, and overcoming the impossible. In mainstream music, it seems that all music is written by someone else and the artist lacks the emotion of the music. However, within the first 15 minutes of the segment, I learned about a new artist, listened to their music, felt the emotion, and began to understand what they went through fighting sickle cell disease. Osunsemi Wanbi Njeri, the guest on the show, discussed how using positive affirmations everyday would eventually change your outlook on life and how you feel about yourself, and I resonated with this so much. Not only do I recite affirmations in the morning, night, and whenever I'm feeling down, I also believe fully in the mind over matter approach. Not only did she continuously use the term "Warrior Woman" to describe her song about healing from sickle cell disease, she described that every woman needs to see themselves as a warrior woman, and I think that message resonated throughout the 2017 and 2018 Women's Marches. This connection I made proved to be true, as Njeri sang her song "Warrior Woman" at the Women's March on January 20, 2018. There was a lot of conversation about African roots and spirituality in music, and Beyonce's Lemonade album was brought up and complimented for its beauty and  creativity. Listening to this radio show gave me the impression that it was focused on African American roots, growth, history, and current struggles. This was an eye opening hour for me, not only did I learn, but I had a lot of self reflection on my own privilege and status in life.

While not a community radio, I do enjoy listening to "The Minimalists" podcasts with Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus. They talk about their own personal struggles in life and careers, and learning to embrace what they believed to be important to them even if society did not agree. Their podcasts follow multiple topics ranging from how they got to where they are, and peoples questions about the lifestyle. I am very passionate about living a minimal lifestyle in every way that I can. I live a life with as much meaning as I can, keeping only items that bring me joy and serve a purpose, and I do the same with my food. By eating a vegan lifestyle and saving resources that can feed animals and humans alike without starving the other, and only purchasing and having items that serve me, and this feels spiritual to me. Not in the same ways that were discussed on the Hard Knock Radio, but the beauty about spirituality is that it is different for everyone.

My overall impression from the Hard Knock Radio, is that this hour of radio can be both educational and bring out your inner warrior woman, to fight for rights for everyone, and embrace our countries diversity and history. I not only learned about a prominent artist, but political issues surrounding the African American community.