Unrealistic & Unfortunate Expectations

We selected June Jordan’s “Poem About My Rights” as a work from the syllabus for our track. In the poem, the speaker conveys how she has been constantly blamed for factors that are out of her control. She has been called “the wrong sex, the wrong age, the wrong skin, the wrong nose, the wrong hair…” However, by the end of the poem, the speaker expresses that she refuses to be suffocated by these labels; she chooses to resist, rather than to pity herself. In this piece, the speaker conveys two prominent messages: we must abolish the restriction of our expression and we must regain control of our bodies to recognize that there is no sole definition of perfection. June Jordan’s poem embodies these messages, both of which we feel passionate about and can relate to.

We believe the song “Drew Barrymore” by SZA complements the poem and our message because the singer is also constantly reminded of her imperfection. Throughout the song, the singer expresses that she is lonely enough to accept insufficient treatment in a relationship. She forgets her worth and apologizes for not reaching unrealistic expectations. Like the speaker of the poem, the singer has been exhausted from being pit against the standards of others and longs to be accepted.

In our own audio recordings, we aimed to create a positive message that rejected the ideals of perfection and worth, and encouraged defining ourselves by our own terms. We layered the tracks in a way that seemed to flow nicely with SZA’s song, introducing a smooth tempo and overall theme. We then layered June Jordan’s piece and used it as a guide in our own commentary that followed.