'Mid the discordant noises of the day I hear thee calling;
I stumble as I fare along Earth's way; keep me from falling.Mine eyes are open but they cannot see for gloom of night:
I can no more than lift my heart to thee for inward light.The wild and fiery passion of my youth consumes my soul;
In agony I turn to thee for truth and self-control.For Passion and all the pleasures it can give will die the death;
But this of me eternally must live, thy borrowed breath.'Mid the discordant noises of the day I hear thee calling;
I stumble as I fare along Earth's way; keep me from falling.— Claude McKay, A Prayer
“Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death is a video by artist, director, and award-winning cinematographer Arthur Jafa. Set to the searing highs and lows of Kanye West’s gospel-inspired hip-hop track, “Ultralight Beam,” Love Is The Message is a masterful convergence of found footage that traces African-American identity through a vast spectrum of contemporary imagery. The meticulously edited 7-minute video suspends viewers in a swelling, emotional montage that is a testament to Jafa’s profound ability to mine, scrutinize, and reclaim media’s representational modes and strategies. Jafa discloses both his vulnerability and authority as an artist—what it means to contribute to the vast and complex terrain of Black representation. While Love Is The Message poignantly embodies the artist’s desire to create a cinema that “replicates the power, beauty and alienation of Black Music,” it is also a reminder that the collective multitude defining Blackness is comprised of singular individuals, manifold identities and their unaccountable differences.”