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By Verónica Bayetti Flores • @veroconplatanos • 8 years ago

Feministing Jamz video of the week: Destiny Frasqueri’s “Soul Train”

Formerly known as Princess Nokia, Destiny Frasqueri has left behind the futuristic sounds we’ve known her for until now for a new name and a new direction and girl, we are feeling it! 

The video for Soul Train is an aptly 70’s-inspired disco number — a black and brown New York City block party, where Frasqueri is from originally. Studded with gorgeous faces from the block, Puerto Rican flags, salsa and line dancing in the middle of the streets, it captures the very essence of summer in the communities of color in the city that Frasqueri shouts out (“Harlem, Boogie down, Lower East too!”). Even the raspado man makes an appearance!

Frasqueri has spoken at length about how integral feminism is to her art and her life, from making art specifically and explicitly about her indigenous Taino and Afro-descended womanhood to most recently at LatinoUSA. About this video, Frasqueri says: “To me, this is a video of Black revolution. In a time of racism, it’s for the Black and Latino communities in America, and it was created to honor the lifestyles that cultivated our culture and the positive and artistic outlets that healed us in hard times.”

Basically, Destiny is the baddest. Keep an eye on her!

New York, NY

Verónica Bayetti Flores has spent the last years of her life living and breathing reproductive justice. She has led national policy and movement building work on the intersections of immigrants' rights, health care access, young parenthood, and LGBTQ liberation, and has worked to increase access to contraception and abortion, fought for paid sick leave, and demanded access to safe public space for queer youth of color. In 2008 Verónica obtained her Master’s degree in the Sexuality and Health program at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She loves cooking, making art, listening to music, and thinking about the ways art forms traditionally seen as feminine are valued and devalued. In addition to writing for Feministing, she is currently spending most of her time doing policy work to reduce the harms of LGBTQ youth of color's interactions with the police and making sure abortion care is accessible to all regardless of their income.

Verónica is a queer immigrant writer, activist, and rabble-rouser.

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