Black History Month

February is Black History Month, and for 2021, we turned our eyes and ears toward family and the many tenets that are central to the collective. That family—including both those who share the same DNA and those who don’t—is a patchwork of people and experiences that come together to shape the culture.

For the final portion of our celebration, we showcase a new generation of leaders and explore their ideas for the future of culture. Artists like Pink Sweat$, WILLOW, and Willie Jones have all made their respective truths integral to their brands. For Sweat$ it was important to lead with love, his debut album PINK PLANET carving out a vision of inclusivity for the world as we know it. WILLOW went from becoming the youngest artist to have a double-platinum single (“Whip My Hair” at age 10) to one of her generation’s most influential voices as a cast member—alongside her mother and grandmother—on the Daytime Emmy-nominated Facebook Watch talk show Red Table Talk. Willie Jones, and his debut Right Now, exists at the nexus of hip-hop, soul, and country music, cultures some would claim to be most naturally at odds with each other. These three, along with prolific and prodigious singer-songwriter Nija Charles and lawyer and activist Derecka Purnell, help us celebrate with original playlists speaking directly to the future of Black culture. There’s also a short film directed by Sean Frank exploring contemporary Black youth culture and how the struggles and victories of movements past inform and empower it today. Apple is proud to uplift the voices and visions of the next generation of leaders. These are but a few of the people who will have a definitive hand in pushing culture forward, from now until their messages are received.

• Apple Books

Here, we shift the focus to nourishment and resilience, two principles integral to the Black experience. Historically, Blackness, and the influence it radiates, has been marked by survival. Black culture, like the bodies that carry it through, does not survive without nourishment. Physically, nourishment is food, sun, and water; mentally and spiritually, it’s tradition and community. The individuals we honor in the name of nourishment and resilience are people of different ilks, all working toward a future steeped in access and education. Whether by way of disseminating information about healthier eating habits (urban horticulture advocate Ron Finley), fighting for policy reform (author, editor, and activist Kenyon Farrow), soundtracking the revolution as we know it (acclaimed MC, actor, and activist Common), or delivering actual food (founder of organic grocery service SÜPRMARKT Olympia Auset), the dedicated missions of these individuals actively working toward a more holistically inclined community are vital parts of Apple Music’s celebration. Below, you’ll find words of encouragement from Farrow, along with playlists from himself, Common, Finley, and Auset. There’s also an original short film exploring the history of wellness practices in the Black community and a connection to the outdoors. These were all created with the express intention of better preparing Black minds, bodies, and souls for the journey ahead.

In this section, the people who offer love and support despite the absence of shared genetics take the spotlight. Much is made of the nuclear family, but the value of the circles we create and who love us by choice remains under-celebrated. Chosen families exist anywhere that humans exist, and they often blossom via shared qualities and interests that, in mainstream spaces, would make them outsider or outcast. There are also those who find a family where their nuclear one has failed. Within the LGBTQ community, the significance of chosen families is magnified. We are able to see not only a system of seeing and of support but also a unique culture within the broader one that pours out so much beauty into the world, even as it struggles to return that love. Below, we celebrate these chosen families through music and film, including a short directed by Jean Estene that shines a light on the various ways and spaces in which we find belonging. Saeed Jones, award-winning author of How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir (available on Apple Books), contributes an original essay and companion playlist, and original playlists specially curated by artist and producer Syd, singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun, and rising singer Durand Bernarr round things out with a soundtrack that brings the Black LGBTQ community’s seminal place in music to the forefront. We also present a collection of albums and songs created by some of the most beloved and well-known musical families, collectives, and supergroups.

One thread of that family is matriarchs. There could be no Black history without Black women and the role they have played inside and outside of the community from the beginning. The matriarch is a powerful figure across many cultures—the giver of life in the most literal sense, but also the nurturer whose care sustains those around her. Entire movements, from slave abolition to civil rights to Black Lives Matter, have been mounted on the often invisible and erased labor of Black women, the true matriarchs of the country. Below, we celebrate their lives and honor their contributions through music and film, including a short directed by India Sleem that employs portraiture and symbolism to highlight the importance of passing down wisdom, confidence, and strength. Clover Hope, author of The Motherlode (available on Apple Books), contributes an original essay and companion playlist; original playlists specially curated by R&B legend Monica and influential makeup artist Pat McGrath round things out with a soundtrack that brings Black women’s seminal place in music to the forefront.

• Metallica Show