day 10,934



relief is not a luxury.
by ALYH ABOVE


dispatched May 2, 2025













Relief is for right now.

day 10,934 explores the role of relief in black fulfillment, and how black folks (including ALYH ABOVE) make their way towards it in their daily lives. This is in attempt to archive and also create a database of practices we can immediately reach toward when we are in need of relief.

the episode’s title is inspired by Audre Lorde’s “Poetry Is Not a Luxury”.


THREADS + THEMES


✷ the audacity of black folk to humanize themselves, and therefore, require relief
✷ finding relief in resting in the midst of difficulty
✷ black, ancestrally led ideas about what it means to be human
✷ everything/anything/many things as possible relief practice


✴︎ 01 INTRO — NAMING:


• Darkseid — Isaiah Rashad
• Agitation — Erykah Badu
  (Mixed by ALYH)


✴︎ 02 INVITATION:


• WELCOME by ALYH ABOVE
• 8 Words, by Jas, Doc, WAYV, Foxy, Raylá, and ALYH ABOVE


✴︎ 03 OPENING CEREMONY — EXISTENTIAL MAPPING:


• YOU ARE HERE by ALYH ABOVE (beat: find it by ALYH ABOVE)


✴︎ 05 AUDACITY:


• Quote by Dorothy Jenkins Fields, archivist, speaking to   the Miami Herald, 2021
• Quote by Terry Lewis from Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of   Black Genius), 2025


✴︎ 06 TRADITION AS RELIEF:


• Improvisation over Human Nature (originally recorded by   Michael Jackson) — Chaka Khan + Miles Davis Live in  Montreux, 1989
• Quote by Amiri Baraka, on KPFA radio, early 1980’s
• Wholy Holy — Aretha Franklin (from Amazing Grace,     Recorded at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church, Los Angeles, CA, 1972)


✴︎ 07 DIVINE PEACE, CELEBRATION, + BIDDING AS RELIEF PRACTICE:


• I! Gits! Weary! — KeiyaA
• Bravo — The Internet
• Wasted Words — KAYTRANADA + Thundercat
(Mixed by ALYH ABOVE)


✴︎ 08 PRACTICING RELIEF as a SUSTAINED TRANSFORMATION:


• reading from “you are here: Location Ourselves Within the Ever-Changing Context of our Humanity”, written by ALYH ABOVE
• Wither — Frank Ocean
• an end — ALYH ABOVE


✴︎ 09 RITUAL/PRACTICE AS RELIEF:


• “I need to write this piece” — ALYH ABOVE
• Rise/5200 — Solange + Maxo Kream (Mixed by ALYH ABOVE)
• Hot Coffee Freestyle — April + Vista
eeeee — ALYH ABOVE


✴︎ 10 OKAY:


• I DESERVE TO FEEL OKAY — ALYH ABOVE
• Solo Lunch Sounds @ Neighborhood Park