To hear the interview of Erykah Badu and Nation19 goto: http://soundcloud.com/nation19/exclusive-nation19-interview Erykah Badu is going B.L.I.N.D. It started years ago when her desire to service the youth, affected her vision, causing her to lose sight of how she used to perceive things. “Before I was an artist, I was a teacher. I worked in a community center,” says Badu. “As a Black woman growing up in a Black neighborhood, my focus was black children.” But a change in her outlook took place after she began touring the world. Now, she can’t see things the way she used to. Her culturally diverse experiences abroad lead her to the realization that “poor is the new black” and out of this the soulful songstress was inspired to launch B.L.I.N.D., which stands for Beautiful Love Incorporated Non Profit Development. Founded in 2003, the organization provides communitydriven development for inner-city youth through music, dance, theater
and visual arts, and the name comes from the idea that love is blind. “My agenda is to give children choices to see themselves on a broader scale and the world on a broader scale, because we do feel this is the beginning of a new world,” says Badu. She also meets with young people around the world after her shows to dialogue about the issues in their communities and build bonds that will hopefully translate into positive change on a global scale. It seems Ms. Badu is always finding ways to help and heal either through her music, her organization, or her role as a holistic health practitioner and a mother. “I have faith that I’m being guided,” says Badu. And so her spiritual insight has lead her to see that love is not limited, but is indeed B.L.I.N.D.
“As a Black woman growing up in a Black neighborhood, my focus was black children.”