The Medley 009
Featuring: announcements, a recap, and a thematic playlist challenge!
Dear music friends,
How is the new year treating you? I’m currently in the midst of ongoing maintenance for the directory, so it’s been a little quiet on this front. Still, I didn’t want to let the month pass without offering some announcements and reflections.
Announcements
Directory maintenance will continue into the beginning of February. After reviewing a few categories, the majority of the required changes equate to updating the subscribe widgets to match new logos and descriptions. If you’ve changed your publication name in any capacity, you will likely be tagged again when the updates roll out (just wanted to give that heads up!). In terms of minor name changes and/or logo updates, I’ve already identified those adjustments, and they’re being handled in the drafts.
In the case of major overhauls, there are a handful of folks that I need to reach out to confirm whether the listed details still align. If you’re reading this and you know that you’ve made big changes to your platform since your initial submission, I advise requesting a maintenance update via the corresponding Google form.1
If you need a refresher of what you’ve submitted, you can visit the directory homepage and search for your name/publication name to see where you’re listed. You can also look under specific categories and use your device’s search function to go precisely to your entry.
New submissions will be added in this update, so there’s time to submit if you haven’t already. I will also be rolling out another batch of recommendations very soon—someone from each of the listed categories will be featured, as I’ve primarily selected single-category submissions (except the educator category, where every entry is featured elsewhere).
Thanks for your patience as I sort through this expansive database! With interviews and chat prompts on pause, the rest of this Medley edition will look slightly different than usual—read on for an intentional event recap and a playlist submission challenge!
Refresh & Renewal: A Recap
Last month, I announced a collaborative virtual event with Nielly centered around mindfulness and music. During Refresh & Renewal, we experienced a sacred space to focus on our individual needs and desires while being held by community. Below, we offer some takeaways from the gathering with prompts that can be done individually.2
A Tarot Forecast
When I interviewed Nielly, we pulled tarot cards for each other, which guided the flow of our conversation. For Refresh & Renewal, we circled back to this divinatory practice. Combining numerology and tarot, we reflected on the energy of 2025 and forecast what’s to come in 2026. Here are the cards and keywords associated with each year.
2025: The Hermit (IX) — Introspection
2+0+2+5=99 = conclusions & endings, vibrations of universal spiritual laws
2026: The Magician (I) and The Wheel of Fortune (X) — Alchemy & Change
2+0+2+6=10
1+0=1
1 = newness, new ideas, expansion
Meditation
One of the most powerful meditations Nielly has participated in was a variation of the Goal Achievement Meditation.3 Through this activity, she was able to see clearly all that was meant for her if there were no such thing as boundaries on time, money, or ambition. In other points in her life, the meditation showed her absolutely nothing. While that sounds discouraging, it was a great check-in tool for her to know that she needed to work through some blockages and overcome self-doubt.
Personally speaking, the goal achievement meditation was quite refreshing—it occurred a day before I announced my newsletter restructuring process, so the mindfulness helped with centering myself in that present moment to fine-tune my focus for the year.
Intuition
We also learned how to “hear” clear yeses and no’s that helped during goal setting. During any intuitive/somatic practices, it’s all too easy to get caught in self-doubt (Is this “correct?” Is this “enough?” Am I finished? Is there more to do?). Using muscle testing helped us to whittle down our question to a simple “Yes” or “No” and use our bodies as a guide. For anyone reading this, that specific tool may be helpful and provide a sense of clarity as you work through your goals.
Goal Setting
Vision boards. SMART goals. Manifestation. For us, forward-thinking goal setting was the star of the show; it’s a useful framework and coping skill for us to forget the past and keep it movin’. However, what many goal-setting activities miss out on is 1) intentional reflection of what did and didn’t work, and 2) making space for celebration in the grand and mundane.
Using the language of “harvest,” we reflected on the “seeds” we planted throughout 2025. Some seeds have been watered, and others were left to dry out. Some have grown and sprouted fruit, while others have sprouted weeds. Other seeds didn’t take at all, no matter how much TLC we gave them. Therefore, this form of reflection helped us decide if we want to try to grow it again.
The harvesting activity lays the groundwork for more aligned future-looking goal setting. While the language of the harvest is often associated with autumn, the framework is great for regular reflection or following life accomplishments!
Song of the Year
It wouldn’t have been a Nielly & Shanté gathering without tying in our mutual love of music and acknowledgment of its power in manifestation and self-healing. Playlists are our love language, and we made one specifically for this occasion! Our gathering empowered us to listen to our intuition to identify a song that’s aligned with our goals, rather than simply picking a song we like.
For example, in 2024, one of Nielly’s manifestation songs was “Find Someone Like You” by Snoh Aalegra. A simple reading of the lyrics relays the elation that Snoh feels when she finally finds the romantic partner she’s been asking for. But the song arrived at a moment in Nielly’s life when the “someone” she was looking for was herself. She was working toward a 2024 that left her feeling radical love. As the year passed, she found that and romantic love. The song now holds deep personal significance and demonstrates that tapping into the higher vibration and multiple possibilities of the music and lyrics can unlock a beautiful life and perspective.
Meanwhile, I am no stranger to using music as a divinatory practice—I’ve written about the concept of shufflemancy on my personal newsletter and often listen beyond the words to discern messages relayed by the music and its frequencies. As mentioned in my 5th newsletter anniversary recap, I’ve chosen the song “all my prayers” by Deem Spencer featuring Slyy Cooper to anchor me this year.
The Refresh & Renewal playlist is organized in themes:
High vibration/manifestation: affirmation-style mantras, instrumentals, and energy. Think: how do I want my year to feel in my body?
Lifestyle/homemaking: family, new apartments/homes, moving to new cities, going home
Employment/work attitudes: new jobs, more work-life balance, etc.
Leave it in the past: no way out but through
Romantic love: personal connections, lifelong partners, affirming love
Getting over heartbreak: take your lessons and move on
Money: skrilla, cheddar, loot, moolah, bread, paper (you get the point!)
Self-confidence: ain’t no love better than the kind you can give yourself—heavy on the “bad b*tch energy”
Inner peace & divine timing: complete and utter faith that everything will come in its right time
Our challenge to you as you navigate the playlist is to not play the songs before selecting one. Try saying just the song title aloud and waiting for that zingy “yes!!” in your body. You may surprise yourself.
If you missed this gathering, we’ve bundled the tarot forecast and harvest activity into a downloadable digital item, available via Ko-fi.
Your Playlists About Love (And Heartbreak) 002
Last year, The Music Directory hosted the first community playlist challenge to commemorate Valentine’s Day. This year is no different—I am bringing back the same challenge and invite you to participate. Folks may recall that I borrowed the following prompts from a book in my collection called Music Listography by Lisa Nola.
List a song that reminds you of each lover you’ve had
List love songs you’d want to be serenaded with
List your break-up mixtape songs
List songs for your wedding or commitment ceremony
List songs for your perfect makeout mixtape
If you participated last year, I challenge you to try a different prompt. I am accepting submissions through 2/12 at 11:59 PM EST (note: the date has been extended by a day since the initial announcement and the submission form will automatically close at that time). Please note that the playlist(s) can be compiled for streaming, or you can list and annotate the songs in a newsletter post. All submissions will be compiled and featured in a community roundup.
That’s all I have for now, but you know where to find me if you have any questions. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a few songs that have been in my heavy rotation.
Harmoniously yours,
Shanté
I value the merits of rebranding, so I typically exhaust all possible options to determine whether inactive newsletter links are associated with new accounts. In the event that I am unable to locate your new publication, your information will be removed from the database, and you are invited to submit a new entry.
Thanks to Nielly for the co-write!
Visit the link and scroll down towards the bottom to find this meditation.
I LOVE this post!!!
incredible prompts omg