Tasha / Christelle Bofale

Tasha, a native of Chicago, Illinois, has dreamed of a better world for years, working with local racial justice organization Black Youth Project 100 and being on the front lines for protests around the city. Returning to the guitar, an instrument her mother taught her to play when she was 15, Tasha began exploring how music can be a powerful force for healing.

On her debut album Alone at Last, Tasha celebrates the radical political act of being exquisitely gentle with yourself. “These songs are bed songs,” Tasha notes. “Songs about the place that one might go when they finally need to be away from whatever it is that might be causing them stress or anxiety or sadness or fear.”

Songwriter Christelle Bofale, based in Austin, Texas, infuses hints of the Congo into her music, bridging the musical influences of the diaspora with juxtaposed elements of indie rock, soul, and jazz. From singing and dancing with her mother as a child to praying to Congolese music with her grandmother, Bofale’s journey as a musician has been defined in tiny intervals throughout her life.