Thread by @danamo

i cannot believe the singer-songwriter Irene Cara is gone. she really told us, in 1980, that she was gonna live forever. and i was young enough to believe

Irene Cara was a beacon for me — for so many of us — In "Fame," she was singing and dancing in the literal streets of NYC and going tenaciously after what she wanted — a creative life

i have no prepared thoughts about Irene Cara — just snatches of things. like, i literally just mentioned her in my Playlists newsletter *yesterday* view.flodesk.com/emails/638128e…

i do have this memory from like 1993 or '94. i'd just moved to NYC. there was a regular get-together for the Black cadre of the music industry at a club in the West Village — i want to say the place was on 7th Ave South. i will never recall the name of it [me 3rd from left ⬇️]

back then, i was that super brand new country mouse from Oakland, CA — working at Billboard as R&B Editor. i'd heard that Fab 5 Freddy was known to be at this club. that Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest was known to be at this club. Queen Latifah and her Safari Sisters, too

I got there, got in with my business card, and the first [famous] person I saw was Luther Vandross. Vandross who I adored and respected, and who I had seen on his 1985 The Night I Fell in Love tour when I was a rowdy-ass teen.

man listen I tried to speak to Mr. Vandross about that perfect evening at the amphitheater in Concord, CA — the stars were really shining brighter than most of the time [⬇️ not my backstage credential]

Mr. Vandross was basically like, Lil Girl, if you don't get yourself a cocktail, and find your friends. i got it, i got it: i was doing way too much 😂

i'd arrived at the spot alone, tho, so: I'm walking around, by myself, still in disbelief that I live in #NYC, and as I push into a throng of folks trying to get what? caipirinhas? Long Island Ice Teas? i was suddenly standing next to Irene Cara

i need to reiterate that I was not ... giving cool, or sophisticated at all. i *was* deeply in love with culture and felt like I had stepped through the back of a wardrobe into musical Narnia

so here I am — next to Irene Cara. she's giving chill native New Yorker elegance. no-makeup makeup, messy bun, stunning

me? i'm in extra-hype, East Oakland super-fan mode: omg, Irene Cara, omg it is so great to meet you! I'm Danyel. R&B. Lalalala ... going on and on. Irene Cara is looking at me, patient, listening.

I mean we're basically both trapped in this crowded space and I'm rambling about the film #Flashdance, and how she so deservedly won the Best Original Song Oscar for its theme, "What A Feeling"

i was talking fast! I mentioned her #Grammy wins, and how amazing she was as Coco Hernandez in 1980's "Fame," and how she sang that song like "fame" could mean *anything* that *anyone* wanted — even if it was just to get out of their hometown, and find a life

i know Irene Cara was wishing the crowd would thin faster because then I had my moment to tell her that her “I Sing The Body Electric” from the aforementioned "Fame" film was a PERFECT song, so perfect that I with 150 other Black girls sang it at our baccalaureate mass, and the…

…feeling in her voice — so strong and intent — got us all through our high school graduation

I'll look back on Venus
I'll look back on Mars
And I'll burn with the fire
Of ten million stars
And in time and in time
We will all be stars

in NYC, at the West Village club, i should have stopped there (or way before then), but I was still learning how to act, so then I started telling Irene Cara (all loud) how I had *grown up* with her as a symbol of joy and Black Girl promise (omg)

#IreneCara was distracted by the energy of the club (it was popping!), but she did say kindly that she appreciated what I was saying.

and that one day I'd know how it is to have a person come up to me at an event talking about my work, and quote unquote alllllllll of the years between us, and I'll know that while it is kinda lovely, we're all just here to have a good time, and hang out with some creative…

…people, and hear some music, and enjoy the ambiance. and then she squeezed her way past me, over to some folks she knew

i could only stare after her w respect. and i can't believe I finally know what Irene Cara was talking about that night at the club

back then i could only see the 'star' who sang it so hard:

Give me time
I'll make you forget the rest
I got more in me
And you can set it free
I can catch the moon in my hand
Don't you know who I am?
Remember my name
I'm gonna live forever

FOREVER. paraphrasing my 'Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop,' the reason so many Black women can't or won't stop working — won't rest — is because if we stop, we will be forgotten. that is the fear.

and it's not an irrational fear, because so much of Black women's work is undervalued and strategically un-remembered. what if not just our work, but our spirits and the details of our stories, are never truly known? #IreneCaraRIP

#IreneCara did tell us though, that she was gonna make it to heaven, and that she would light up the sky like a flame. "Baby, remember my name," is what #IreneCara sang with the most urgency and strength. so let's do that, may she rest in peace. let's do that.