Organizing Black Power to Create Change Through Music, Drives US Singer-Songwriter-Performer Cole Williams Every Minute of Every Day

by Meryana Tamera

Meeting some musicians is life-changing; this is how I feel about Cole Williams, a superstar of magnetic and passionate proportions, and I just feel humbled in her presence.

Cole Williams is a powerhouse of political action, motivated to help others through her music. She does not rest and her message is clear. ORGANIZE!

By this she means that the world needs to organize and take control of the things that truly matter; such as helping those without homes, without food, without hope, and bring out the ‘genius in them’.

So, I was beyond thrilled when Cole’s management team organised for me to speak to her, especially since Cole Williams is a very busy woman. Her life revolves around helping others and gathering fellow revolutionary warriors in the fight to change the world.

She’s an ultra sought-after singer-performer-composer-songwriter, a businesswoman, a radio show host and a mentee to so many people. And it’s music and injustice that fires her. I am in awe.

But before we get into the political power and artistic/musical excellence behind this GRANDE DAME of RnB/SOUL, do yourself a favor and listen to her moving track “ORGANIZE” — her message and passion will grip you and never let you go. You’ll love the music of COLE WILLIAMS.

Our DJS and MUSIC SUPERVISORS at AUDIOSPARX-RADIOSPARX marked “ORGANIZE” as BRILLIANT across our playlists. Play it as you read her words below. Her beautiful soul just shines through in everything she does.

And please listen to Cole William’s 2024 remixes of her track — entitled “ORGANIZE HUMANITY MIX”, both the vocal version and the instrumental version, click on these links: VOCAL — INSTRUMENTAL.

Here’s Cole William’s stellar bio:

“Cole Williams is a Brooklyn-born recording artist, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist/bandleader with The Cole Williams Band, WWOZ New Orleans show host, and Organizer. Throughout her career, Cole has provided vocals and percussion for Joey Bada$$ (Curry Chicken), Chiddy Bang (Ray Charles), Lisa Lisa, and others. Williams has appeared on NCIS New Orleans and has been nominated for Best Female Vocalist by Offbeat Magazine. William’s has been featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, Huffington Post, Glide Magazine, Wax Poetics, and NME.”

So, let’s get up close and personal with Cole Williams.

RADIOSPARX: Welcome Cole, it’s fantastic to meet you, and thanks for sparing us the time from your busy schedule. We’re intrigued by all you do. First up, talk to me about your day, and how things usually pan out for you, with your political action, your music, your composing and your life as a radio show host.

COLE WILLIAMS: Thanks Meryana, it’s great to be with you today. This is a very easy question to answer, and I thank you for asking it. Every morning I wake up in gratitude. My health, My cat Snoopi and just I enjoyr the morning sounds. Then I journal everything I’m grateful for while I listen to something inspiring. Coffee is a must. I answer emails, and chat with my father or cousin Marsha and we just talk about life, current events, we joke a lot. Then I text or email my management team, usually with my ideas for growth, new music, and a rundown of everything happening professionally and personally. We’re very transparent. Justin, Gladys and Uncle Tony who’s my personal manager and my actual uncle — so a relative — share their visions, check in with me about opportunities, and listen a lot to what I have to say. We make a great team.

Right now I’m composing, producing, and writing for several new projects so I’m much more intentional about my studio schedule. I like to compose and produce earlier in the afternoon and record vocals in the evening or night. If I have a deadline for a voiceover or jingle then I just have to warm my voice up earlier in the day and “suck-it-up, buttercup.”

On Tuesdays, I host my weekly radio show on wwoz for three hours so Monday nights and Tuesday mornings are a little more structured. WWOZ is the ‘Guardians of the Groove’ — a wonderful New Orleans Radio Station, and I’m proud to be one of their many hosts. It’s a privilege. You can check me out here — https://www.wwoz.org/profiles/cole-williams

On Saturday mornings from 7am-10am when I’m in New Orleans I volunteer-organize with The Greater New Orleans Citizens Relief Team.

It’s an organization I founded in 2020 to reclaim and renovate homes with house-less people who will live in them while they learn marketable skills. In 2021 we expanded our efforts to include grocery distribution and to-date we have distributed over 40,000 bags of groceries to our house-less and low-income neighbors in Central City, New Orleans.

Being trained in the Ella Baker style of organizing by Curtis Muhammad changed my perspective and purpose. It’s these experiences that fuel the messages in my songs. I’m living it then singing about it. It’s a wonderful feeling to accept one’s assignment with joy and compassion. My album “Give Power To The People with Cole Williams Band” is the beginning of my journey as a Freedom Music artist and it’s exactly where I belong.

Every night is different but my nights always include reflection. I’m a thinker. I hear melodies throughout the day sometimes I receive the answer to a question before falling asleep. Right now I’m just enjoying life and my process; I’m living.

RADIOSPARX: I feel so empowered by your words, Cole, so thank you. You talk about being based in New Orleans. Were you born there? Tell us more.

COLE WILLIAMS: Yes, you’re right, I live in New Orleans, a wonderful city of action in Louisiana, USA, but I was born in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York. I’m a Jamaican American.

RADIOSPARX: Beautiful. New Orleans is such an incredible city; its history, its activism, all it’s been through. Tell us about your relationship with music, how it makes you feel, how it affects you day to day.

COLE WILLIAMS: That’s easy; music Is LIFE. Music Is HEALING. Music is my favorite love language, and music has the power to change the world because it always does.

I am who I am because I’m a musician and creator. I compose 98% of my music so it’s a vital part of me and I’m always grateful and respectful of my gift.

I hear music all the time while I’m driving, or walking. There’s rhythm and melody in most of life, and I’m always listening. Music saved my life and I’ve worked through so much of my personal stuff because I could write it out and sing it.

Singing my songs made me realize that we all go through the same trials so I think maybe if I share how I got over my things I can inspire someone the same way I’ve been inspired by Bob Marley, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, The Gladiators, Nina Simone, Gil Scott-Heron and more of those greats.

My mentor Curtis Muhammad helped me discover the genius inside of me and taught me how to help other people discover the genius inside of them that they don’t even know exists. This is my assignment as a musician.

RADIOSPARX: Awesome and moving, what an empowering philosophy Cole. What technology and software do you use?

COLE WILLIAMS: To record I use a midi keyboard, Garage Band, Logic, and sometimes ProTools. I’m pretty basic and I like natural sounds it’s my personal preference so I don’t use a lot of additional technology to create my music. I’ll leave that to someone else who has that calling.

RADIOSPARX: Cool. You have such a beautiful voice, and your voice is your instrument, so no tech is needed — we see that. How do you get inspired to write music, and how does your song writing develop to the finished product?

COLE WILLIAMS: Thank you so much. Every song is different. I’m in a place where I let the songs write themselves so sometimes I hear a melody and I start playing it on piano or singing into my voice memo app. Sometimes it’s the words that come first and I start writing. And sometimes everything comes to my mind simultaneously and I just sit at my computer and compose while I produce while I write and sing. My music is supposed to encourage people, using my experiences as tools to help in the process of living not existing.

I always try to think of the people and write for them, so my message starts with me but always ends with us — our humanity. I have musician friends I can always ask to replace an instrument line I write on the keyboard with a real bass, horns or guitar.

I see Music Videos in my mind when my songs are complete. I don’t plan it, I’ll just be sitting in my studio and listening to the song and start seeing movement and scenes. I guess that’s the moment when I know it’s time to let go.

Take “ORGANIZE” for an example. This song wrote itself. I knew I had to write a song using one of my favorite quotes from Curtis Muhammad

“We can’t build a revolution or a movement without figuring out how to pick us up from the bottom.”

You can hear Curtis saying these words in my videos with The Greater New Orleans Citizens Relief Team, and these words have motivated me for years. So I decided to motivate us and put Curtis’ profound words to music.

The melody just came to me, or through me. In the first verse I’m outlining nine principles for humanity based on the Ten-point program created by The Black Panther Party in the 1960s. And during this time The Black Panther Party created a free breakfast program for children because that’s what the community needed, so the community stepped up for itself.

And this is what my song “Organize” is about; how do we use the resources we have available to make our homes, streets, neighborhoods, schools and cities better. when the people we elect and institutions we hold accountable don’t do the right thing. We don’t need permission to take care of ourselves and our communities. Let’s step up and ORGANIZE!

So Curtis taught me how important it is to organize from the bottom up while sharing our gifts, skills, talents and resources with those of us who have the least. When we uplift from the bottom we all win. Can you see it?

RADIOSPARX: Your politics is fuelled by your music, and vice versa, and that’s fantastic. There are so many political musicians out there. So you’re in very good company, Cole. What’s your favorite musical style/genre?

COLE WILLIAMS: Thanks. It’s a matter of life! And as I said, music is life. On music, I love anything African and I love 1970s reggae. There’s a feeling in the music that goes deeper than sound. All the rhythms in my music connect to my love and respect for these music genres. But I also love classical music. Vladimir Horowitz playing Chopin grounds me.

RADIOSPARX: Sensational. Tell us about your life, in music, growing up, your influences, your loves and any people who impacted you greatly.

COLE WILLIAMS: I was born at the intersection of culture, race, religion, and generational trauma. I’m one of the black sheep in my family. My mother is Jamaican, father is American, born in Brooklyn like me. I was raised in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn; lots of Caribbean people.

All of my friends were first-generation Caribbean Americans like I am. I’m an only child, like my father. He got me started in music pretty early; piano lessons started at four years old. Recitals in church and Carnegie Hall. I sang in the school and church choirs.

Looking back I was one of those children that didn’t really act like a child. I was an old soul. I grew up with my grandmother in the house so I was always around old people. To date, most of my friends are significantly older than me.

I didn’t really have a lot of free time when I was younger but when I did have space and time, I liked reading and writing stories. I liked escaping through my books, music and my thoughts of course.

This is how I relax, besides getting my nails done. I love going to the salon and painting my nails in different colors. Life seems more fun when my nails are fun, it’s just my thing.

Oh, I’ve always loved fashion as a form of expression. I wear what I feel, mixing/matching colors, patterns, fabrics, and anything goes.

My first vocal coach, AnkhRa Amenhetep taught me to run towards my feelings and pour them into my music authentically. My mentor, Curtis Muhammad taught me about my legacy as a BLACK WOMAN, and helped me recognize that my space in the Freedom movement is directly related to my relationship with the people at the bottom. He taught me how to be an ORGANIZER. Nina Simone and Ms. Lauryn Hill are two women who always stood standing. I love their courage, strength and tenacity. Laverne Dunn is a dear friend of mine. I call her my mommy-aunty because when I moved to New Orleans and I knew no one in town she treated me like family no questions asked. I admire her character and I learn from her.

My life is about service to myself and others. How can I become a better person and motivate others to transform their pain into peace. I’m an Organizer and Artist.

RADIOSPARX: So powerfully put, Cole. Thank you. Talk about how you approach the business side of your composing life.

COLE WILLIAMS: I live a holistic lifestyle. I’m just, transparent and a woman with a lot of patience but very little tolerance. I meet all types of people, you know the business and you know life. I’m always gracious and I listen and pay attention to character and actions. I pray for guidance. And I stand up for myself and use every setback as a teaching moment on how to treat people with transparency and justice. I find when I treat others the way I want to be treated everything comes out in the wash at the divine time.

So here I am, a BLACK WOMAN, not signed to a major record label with the audacity to think she can make a difference in the world with Freedom Music. There’s nothing like natural law and justice in action and I thrive because we, the BLACK WOMAN collective thrive.

RADIOSPARX: Thanks Cole. Please list the musical equipment you use and please tell us their brand names.

COLE WILLIAMS: I use a Shure SM7B and PreSonus interface. MacBook Air for light edits and Mac desktop for composition/production. LP bongos and percussion toys (tambourine, shaker, cowbell, woodblocks). I use a Sennheiser mic for live performances and rehearsals. My upright piano is in my childhood home in Brooklyn so I use a Yamaha keyboard in New Orleans.

RADIOSPARX: Awesome. What would you advise a young person getting started in the music industry? How can they be different yet authentic in an overcrowded yet amazing industry?

COLE WILLIAMS: Vision and collective energy are two things. I think all things work for the best when we give and receive. I think it’s important for young music industry professionals to think of yourself as the product, use your experiences and put them in your music and use the old music as a roadmap for your journey.

Find a mentor you admire and learn. No one is giving away information and most artists don’t want to do much else than create, so we don’t always take the time to learn and understand the business of the music industry. Relationships are a two-way street so show gratitude within your circle.

I still have mentors. Some like Curtis Muhammad and Anhk Ra Aminetep have recently transitioned on.

We live in a world of instant gratification and it kind of feels like everyone is in this fog of trying to be what they think they should be while battling to feel free. Art and music are freedom and you must be authentic if you want to develop as a true voice. I guess it’s like life, you always find what you’re looking for.

RADIOSPARX: Beautifully put. Are you on the side of AI in life and music? Do you think AI is something musicians should embrace to aid their composition of their music?

COLE WILLIAMS: This is my opinion without judgment on anyone who uses AI. Do your thing. I’m more interested in how humans communicate and interact with other humans.

I think AI will go where humanity goes and nothing replaces the essence of humanity and human connection.

I think music is a tradition that is played before it is notated so I think AI is secondary in the long and deep tradition of music. It’s today’s technology using yesterday’s foundation.

RADIOSPARX: And with Cole’s wonderfully powerful words, we’ll say goodbye to our BLACK SISTER, a BLACK WOMAN of power, intelligence, talent and supreme knowledge. We thank you Cole, for your time today and thank you for being part of the AUDIOSPARX-RADIOSPARX family.

Check out some press about Cole here: https://tinnitist.com/2024/01/26/cole-empress-williams-urges-you-to-organize/

Cole Williams is one of our top playlisted artists. Check out some of the playlists she’s featured on by clicking on the words below the graphics, as follows, and enjoy.

To listen to Cole Williams’ catalog of tracks on AUDIOSPARX click here.

To listen to Cole Williams’ catalog of tracks on RADIOSPARX click here.

Black Divas

Harlem Nights

New Orleans Cafe

1970’s Flashback Pop

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‘In Conversation’ is the RADIOSPARX magazine on MEDIUM. Check out the RADIOSPARX — www.radiosparx.com/videointro — Change Your Music, Change Your Life with RADIOSPARX.