Last summer, security staff at Lollapalooza reportedly jumped Dev Hynes and then girlfriend Samantha Urbani after they gave a speech about racism and police brutality while wearing t-shirts with the names of famous victims scrawled in Sharpie.
The couple took to Twitter to publicize the incident noting the irony of becoming victims themselves.
Since then, Blood Orange‘s commitment to activism has only gained fervor, with Dev relentlessly organizing events, concerts, benefits and putting out new music spreading the message of the grave importance of the Black Lives Matter movement.
This past weekend, Dev teased us with a photo of hand-written poetry, titled “Sandra’s Smile” before he dropped the single and video today. He reposted the poem again with a photo of Sandra Bland, who died in police custody this past summer, leaving no guessing to what the crushing lyrics were about.
The 10 line ballad heartbreakingly recants the tragic ends of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and Sandra Bland while the black and white video features Dev, Junglepussy, Ian Isaiah and Litefoot dancers coming together in solidarity around downtown New York.
Additionally, Dev announced an upcoming ‘Blood Orange & Friends‘ show at Harlem’s Apollo Theater with all proceeds going to the music education program Opus 118 Harlem School of Music, because, the singer says, “I just want to give back to people.”
Credits
Text Taylor Ford
Photography Beau Grealy
The Music Issue, No.335, Pre-Spring 2015
Styling Andreas Kokkino
Hair Dennis Gots for Jed Root using L’Oreal Professional.
Grooming John McKay at Defacto Inc.
Photography assistance Porter Counts, Bummy, Tyler Ash.
Styling assistance Lesley Macleod.