08/02/2025
𝗗𝗿. 𝗡𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮 𝗞𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗮-𝗠𝗮𝗲 is a multidisciplinary artist, award-winning scholar, and truth-teller whose work moves at the intersection of art, activism, and ancestry.
For over 35 years, she's used music, theatre, and critical writing to explore — and now, propose — responses to the social, political, and economic forces that shape our lives.
Her new album is both personal and political — a sonic extension of her acclaimed research-creation project, 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲, which examines Black expressive culture across music, performance, literature, and digital media.
The project asks what freedom looks like and feels like for Black people — and this album is one of her answers.
Written and recorded in 2024 after a five-year pause from songwriting, the ten-track project marks a shift in Keleta-Mae's creative approach: from analysis to offering, from bearing witness to building vision.
Inspired by artist Zak Ové's reflection that he tries ‘not to bleed on the canvas but to propose solutions,' Keleta-Mae brings her full self — feminist scholar, artist, mother, and woman — to every lyric.
The track “𝗔𝗕𝗖𝗗” lays the foundation — a mantra of persistence through failure and uncertainty. “𝗚𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗹” is a tender acknowledgment of struggle that insists on hope. And “𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗲,” rooted in the traditions of dancehall and protest, rejects hollow words in favor of lived action: “𝘔𝘪 𝘯𝘶𝘩 𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘥𝘪 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨.”
Part mantra, part memoir, part mirror — this album is Black And Free in sound. A declaration. A reckoning. A legacy in motion.
𝗔𝗠 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗠 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗡𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮 𝗞𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗮-𝗠𝗮𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘀 𝗥𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗼.
