Janelle Monáe Protests Police Violence on 'Say Her Name'
Black Lives Matter

Janelle Monáe Protests Police Violence on 'Say Her Name'

Janelle Monáe has released a new single called "Say Her Name (Hell You Talmbout)."

A follow-up to 2015's "Hell You Talmabout," the protest song — created with the African American Policy Forum and 15 activists — was released ahead of International Daughter's Day as a way to honor Black women killed by police violence. The powerful, 17-minute track includes the names of 61 Black women, girls and femmes to "bring more awareness to what has not been covered," per Monáe herself.

"[The song] allows their families an opportunity to be able to hear people sharing their stories about their daughters as the human beings they were and as the daughters they were," she told People,

"Each of us is a daughter and we came together on a human to human level, sister to sister level to honor these names," Monáe continued, later adding that the song is meant to "uplift their names in this song is taking a piece of American history and taking a piece of what has happened so that history won't repeat itself again."

Not only that, but African American Policy Forum co-founder, Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw, noted that there's a "silence that surrounds the killing of Black women is what we have just witnessed," before pointing out that few people know the names of the Black women killed by police versus Black men like George Floyd and Eric Garner.

"So what are we going to do to reverse it?," she said. "The saying her name was the creation of that cacophony of sound. We needed to not only say their names, but explode the sound barrier by saying the names that had been erased for so long."

"Say Her Name (Hell You Talmbout)" also features Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Chlöe x Halle, Tierra Whack, Isis V., Zoë Kravitz, Brittany Howard, Asiahn, Mj Rodriguez, Jovian Zayne, Angela Rye, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Brittany Packnett Cunningham and Alicia Garza. All proceeds go toward the AAPF's #SayHerName initiative, which provides emergency resources for the loved ones of those who've died and supports art that allows families to tell their stories.

The song honors Rekia Boyd, Latasha Nicole Walton, Atatiana Jefferson, Kendra James, Priscilla Slater, Yuvette Henderson, Renee Davis, Kyam Livingston, Cynthia Fields, Kindra Chapman, India Kager, Shelly Frey, LaJuana Phillips, Kisha Michael, Dannette Daniels, Crystal Ragland, Pamela Turner, Latandra Ellington, Crystalline Barnes, Korryn Gaines, Michelle Cusseaux, India Cummings, Sandra Bland, Symone Marshall, Yvette Smith, Margaret Mitchell, Mya Hall, Tyisha Miller, Alesia Thomas, Kayla Moore, Alberta Spruill, Breonna Taylor, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Nizah Morris, LaTanya Haggerty, Layleen Polanco, Shereese Francis, Sheneque Proctor, April Webster, Kathryn Johnston, Michelle Shirley, India Beaty, Tanisha Anderson, Sandy Guardiola, Shukri Ali Said, Duanna Johnson, Eleanor Bumpurs, Jessica Williams, Sarah Riggins, Charleena Lyles, Sharmel Edwards, Deborah Danner, Joyce Curnell, Natasha McKenna, Darnesha Harris, Pearlie Golden, Miriam Carey and Tarika Wilson.

Watch the video for "Say Her Name (Hell You Talmbout)" below.

Photo via Getty / Dimitrios Kambouris

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