Sabrina Nelson has a calming spirit that you embrace immediately when interacting with her. The Detroit artist now has a new role for this year’s Detroit Diaspora Day Party: DJ.
Recently, Nelson stopped by rolling out before her 2 p.m. set at the party on May 28 at The Epiphany Community House, located at 10103 Kercheval St., Detroit MI 48214.
What are you most excited about at this year’s Detroit Diaspora Day Party?
Normally, I paint … I’m painting live, and people get to see a piece being created right there on the spot, very colorful. I let the music inspire what the image is gonna be, and then we raffle it off as a fundraiser prize gift. This year, I’m actually excited to be a selector. I don’t call myself a DJ because when I think of DJs … I like selecting sounds to set the mood and the vibe for what’s happening around me. I have a plethora of music.
Drake Phifer asked me to have a set, so my selector name is “Selector Sabra.” Sabra is from the sabertooth tiger. It also means burning bush. It is the basis of my name – that’s where Sabrina comes from.
What does Tina Turner’s legacy mean to you?
She went out like an old soul record. Old soul records that are spinning on an actual player. When they stop playing, there’s a crackling sound that you still hear, because they’re still spinning. So, even though the music stops a little bit, you still hear a little bit of the crackle, so her spirit is still with us.
There’s a lot that I take from her, just like I did when we think about Betty Davis. Black women weren’t afraid to perform in a genre that was typically titled “White males rock.” Tina Turner did it.
The way she healed herself by practicing Buddhism, she became her own medicine. I am the medicine I seek, and I have everything in me to heal myself. She found that out in the latter half of her life dealing with her ex-husband, the abuse, and moving beyond that, but still having her own voice and using that voice to bring joy to others.
I take from her strength, endurance, tenacity, courage, and also the ability to give herself permission to heal herself. I take all of that … [and] just knowing even though her physical self isn’t here anymore.
We still have the recordings of her voice, her body, her movement and even the film that was made in her honor. I love her disco music, but I also love listening to her chant. That’s what I take from her. I know everybody has their own parts, like “Nutbush” and the songs that she was made very famous for. I love her disco because it’s sort of the grandmother of house music.
