for Left Eye

first drafts & thoughts 23 years later 🎶

April 25, 2025, marks 23 years since Left Eye, artist and member of TLC, passed away in a car crash in Honduras. This weekend also marks 23 years since a major, catastrophic family event turned my world upside down.

My older brother and I sat in a room watching MTV at our aunt and uncle’s house. The news broke, and I was devastated. Aaliyah, another favorite singer of mine, had also passed away—in a plane crash—less than a year before, in August 2001. My dad broke the news about Aaliyah to me as if telling me a family member had died because he knew the singer meant that much to me as a young, budding, and hopeful musician and songwriter. My dad wouldn’t break the news about Left Eye to me. He had other plans that weekend.

You can continue reading this piece and a first draft poem below or on Patreon.