Melanated Melodies: Journaling as a Path to Creative Freedom

Music.

It captures our experiences, our heartbreaks, our victories, our prayers.
But before a melody can be birthed into the world, it often starts as a feeling — unshaped, raw, aching to find its form.

That’s where journaling steps in.

For me, writing things down has always been the bridge between what I feel and what I create.
Some days, it’s messy. Pages full of fragmented thoughts, questions I’m scared to say out loud, lyrics that may never make it into a song.
Other days, it feels like a symphony — thoughts flowing with clarity, ideas layering over each other like the perfect harmony.

Either way, the act of putting pen to paper creates movement where there was once a block. It reminds me that creativity is less about perfection, and more about permission. Permission to explore. To be curious. To be human.

As a black creative, this is sacred work.
Our stories, our struggles, our joys deserve to be preserved, even if no one else ever sees them. Especially then.

I started using a specific journal — the Lavender Sky Journal — during a season when my ideas felt stuck in my throat.
There was something about its open-ended pages that encouraged me to be bolder, to stop editing myself before I even began.
It’s not magic, it’s just space.
Space we often don’t give ourselves.

Journaling has taught me that every melody I’ve ever loved first lived somewhere unseen — inside someone’s heart, someone’s mind, someone’s scribbled notes on a kitchen table.
It humbles me to remember that creativity doesn’t start when the world applauds you. It starts when you give yourself permission to listen inward.

So as we continue building this Melanated Melodies community, I invite you to pick up a journal — any journal — and start catching those whispers before they float away.
And if you’re looking for one made with black creatives in mind, the Lavender Sky Journal is a beautiful place to begin.

Because our voices matter.
And sometimes, the first step to sharing them with the world is simply writing them down.

Until Next time,

Orianna Joy