We arrived just before 8 for the concert at Radio City Music Hall. It was the first popular music concert I had ever attended that began on time. Radio City doesn't play around. The seats were half empty when the lights dimmed and the first warm up act began.

A white married couple sat on our left and struck up a conversation with my date. He learned a lot about the woman while I was marveling at the art deco design in the restroom. She also liked to ask a lot of nosey questions. I took advantage of the empty seats on the right and placed my coat on one of them.

Floetry In Concert

The real show began when Floetry arrived on stage. The two British women excited the audience. At the beginning of their performance, a large black woman dressed completely in white took her seat two seats away from mine. She knew all the words to Floetry's music and she sang them aloud for everyone else to hear. In the breaks between the songs, she screamed so loudly that everyone in the theater must have heard her.

In the middle of Floetry's performance, I had to give up the seat I had used as a coat rack on my immediate right when a young black woman walked in with a ticket. I smiled and removed my coat. Noticing the pin on her black sweater, I asked, "What flag is that?" "It's from Ethiopia," she told me. "Oh, are you from Ethiopia?" "We're all from Ethiopia," she said. "But I'm from Trinidad." I took a moment to think about what she was saying and decided not to ask any more questions.

My date was not so lucky. The white woman on his left peppered him with running commentary and questions all night long. "Are you two a couple?" she asked. "Yes," he answered. "Why aren't you holding his hand?" she asked. Her effort to demonstrate her liberal views obviously ignored the privilege of white womanhood that enabled her to assume that society treats all relationships equally. The stares (from women) and glares (from men) that greeted me every time I stood up to get refreshments or use the restroom reminded me just how unusual it is for some people to see two black men together at a romantic concert.

India.Arie In Concert

By the time India.Arie appeared on stage at 9, I was ready for some good music. I had forgotten how many of her songs I liked until she started singing them.

This was Arie's first performance since the holidays and her first as a headliner in New York City. She sang "Video," "Promises," "Strength, Courage and Wisdom," "Nature," "Back to the Middle," "Ready for Love" "Always In My Head," and "Part Of My Life" off her first album. She did not sing "Beautiful," which a few people noticed as they discussed the concert.

When Arie sang "Brown Skin," the white woman on our left sang along, leading us to wonder how her husband felt about her celebrating the idea of brown skin on top of brown skin.

During an ad lib between songs, Arie commented on a review she read in Atlanta from a critic who misunderstood her lack of interest in winning a Grammy. Afterwards, she sang "Little Things" off her second album, Voyage to India. The song says, "I do this for the love of music, not for the glitter and gold." In that moment, I could completely feel her. So much of our popular culture is shaped by the empty pursuit of fame and fortune without substance that it's refreshing to see an artist with a different agenda.

Also from her second album, Arie sang "Slow Down," which always reminds me of Billy Joel's song "Vienna." In her song, "The Truth," she sang without the familiar backup phrase "girl, you know what he did" from the CD. In my favorite line, she sings, "If he ever left me I wouldn't even be sad, no, because there's a blessing in every lesson and I'm glad that I knew him at all." The audience also reacted to the song "Beautiful Surprise," a romantic song about the surprise of love.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night came when Arie invited her mother on stage to sing "Can I Walk With You," a song the two women created together. Her mother, dressed in all black, made a perfect contrast to Arie in white, but mom did not disappoint with her voice. The song is a romantic invitation to spend your life with someone special.

I could feel the emotion when Arie sang "Good Man," a song about a woman who's husband goes off to duty and may not return. Despite some kinks and experiments, Arie did a wonderful job of keeping the show flowing with a good mix of slow and fast-paced songs, including the up tempo song "Interested."

During another break between songs, Arie told how she grew up in Denver, Colorado and then moved to Atlanta and never really learned to dance because most of the people at her school were white. Rather than dance that night, she twirled in her dress and moved as she felt the music. It may not have been as pretty as a dancer, but it was real, and that's what mattered. Arie doesn't give you a lot of flashy fireworks and dancers and sideshows to keep you entertained. Her voice is the entertainment, and that combined with her down-to-earth charm carries her farther than any gimmicks ever could.

India.Arie finished her concert with the one song that the audience most wanted to hear — "Ready for Love." Her voice sounded beautiful as it reverberated across the huge concert hall, and the mesmerized audience sang along almost in tears.

I am ready for love
Why are you hiding from me
I'd quickly give my freedom
To be held in your captivity

© Copyright 2003 by Keith Boykin.