Meshell Ndegeocello offers powerful meditations during micro performance at the office

Meshell Ndegeocello brings the power of reflection and gratitude to NPR's Tiny Desk. On Tuesday, the musician visited NPR to perform songs from her upcoming album August, No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin, along with some classics.

Ndegeocello opened her performance at the Tiny Desk with “Travel,” where she played bass as singers Justin Hicks and Kenita Miller sang the track. “James Baldwin said you think your pain and heartbreak is unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read,” DeGeocello said before introducing “Thus Sayeth the Lorde,” the track that references feminist poet Audre Lorde.

“If I didn't define myself for myself, they would crush me into other people's imaginations of me and eat me alive,” she said, referencing Lorde and Baldwin as she closed her performance of the song.

Ndegeocello joined Miller and Hicks for the instrumental-backed “Love.” “Love doesn't begin and end the way we seem to think. Love is a battle. Love is war. Love is about growing. Love takes off the mask you fear you can't live without, but think you can't live in,” he mused.

Ndegeocello asked the audience to raise their hands and open their chests as she expressed gratitude for her five senses before sharing a poem about the power of giving during brief pauses in “Virgo.”

“I'm so blessed, I've been making music for 30 years and you've met someone who takes you somewhere you can only dream of… That's how I feel about you,” Ndegeocello said of her singers Hicks and Miller previously. a rendition of her hit “Outside Your Door” from 1993; Plantation Lullabies.

This month, NPR is paying tribute to black women in music to celebrate Black Music Month. The concert series has already featured Kierra Sheard, Chaka Khan, Tierra Whack and Tems.