Today at UUCV we’ll be com­mem­o­rat­ing Nation­al Trans­gen­der Day of Remem­brance.  (What’s that?  Take a look, but not if you need to put on your hap­py face any time in the next few hours.)

I am pleased about one thing: I’ve used Namoli Bren­net’s music in wor­ship enough over the last year that I feel okay about using more of it today.  (I try not to fall into the trap of using Jew­ish music only on Yom Kip­pur, African-Amer­i­can music only in Feb­ru­ary, etc.….)  The choir is singing “We Belong,” from her sopho­more project Wel­come to the After­glow; I’m doing a solo ver­sion of “I Belong,” from 2011’s We Were Born to Rise (prob­a­bly my all-time favorite of her albums, though the new­er ones are catch­ing up); and I’m doing pianis­tic noodlings based upon a cou­ple of her oth­er pieces as offer­to­ry and prayer under­scor­ing.

I’ve sat here try­ing to come up with words to describe how much I respect Namoli for a long time now, but prob­a­bly the best way to give you an idea of how amaz­ing she is, is to just give you a taste of her music.  So, here it is.  Lis­ten.  Feel.  Remem­ber.