We are thrilled to welcome our friend and collaborator Tofu Resistance to our free download series with a very unique, powerful and expressive arrangement. “The Awakened“ combines formidable beat skills and soothing instrumentation with a poem of empowerment that makes you wonder and think about our current status of equality of gender, race or nationality.

Alicia Keys took the stage at Madison Square Garden during Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards in 2016. Keys noted it was the 53rd anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” and she wanted to share a poem. It was a moment without the glitz and production we saw from every other performer. Instead, as Keys stood in a floor-length red dress and, in keeping with a vow she publicly announced months ago, little to no makeup, she recited these lines. They came in a mix of spoken-word delivery and a cappella singing:

"If war is holy, and sex is obscene, then we got it twisted in this lucid dream.
Baptized in boundaries, schooled in sin, divided by differences sexuality and skin ..."