PEMBROKE — Lumbee vocalist and former “American Idol” contestant Alexis Raeana Jones is calling her debut single, “Keep My Memory,” a story of her rebirth and a voice for the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women movement.
“I always said that my debut single would be an indigenous anthem and that is what ‘Keep My Memory’ is, an indigenous anthem,” Jones said. “Every word means something, and it’s so powerful and so deep.”
The song released on Feb. 21 was co-written by Jones, fellow University of North Carolina at Wilmington graduate Wylie Withers, and local Lumbee singer Charly Lowry, who is featured in the song. It was recorded and produced by Withers in Nashville.
A month after the song’s release, the music video premiered and generated more than 50,000 views in its first week, Jones said.
Jones dedicated the song to the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women movement. The purpose is to shine a light on the prevalence of violence against indigenous women, Jones said.
According to the U.S Department of Justice, American Indian women face murder rates that are more than 10 times the national average. Homicide is the third-leading cause of death among American Indian and Alaska Native women between the ages 10 and 24 years of age and the fifth-leading cause of death for the same population group between the ages of 25 and 34, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Jones said her plan to make the song a vehicle of awareness has been successful.
“We just got so much feedback despite this coronavirus,” Jones said. “Considering the circumstances it’s doing phenomenal.”
Featured in the music video are a former Miss Lumbee, Public Schools of Robeson County employees, survivors of domestic violence, and family, friends and allies of murdered or missing indigenous women. In the video, they are either wearing red clothing or red paint on their faces.
Red is the official color of the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women movement, but the color has deeper cultural meaning. In various tribes, red is known to be the only color spirits see. It is hoped that by wearing red, the missing spirits of women and children will be called back and laid to rest, according to the movement’s website.
Jones said different people will have different interpretations of the video. Although the video’s purpose is to bring attention to the MMIW movement, it has a personal meaning for Jones. It is about struggles she has faced throughout her life and how she has come out stronger despite them. This is depicted in the video, she said.
“The music video is super deep,” Jones said. “There’s so may ways you can interpret this music video and one way isn’t the right way and one way isn’t the wrong way. I’ve heard so many people interpret it in so many different ways.”
The video opens at what is a controversial scene for Jones, the Jeco Kwik Mart, where she was featured in the Feli Fame music video “Big Face Hunnits.” The video resulted in the suspension of Jones from the title of Miss Lumbee in 2016. Jones said the incident played a key role in molding her into who she is today.
In the opening scene Jones is bound up at the store and struggling to get free when three women come in and save her. The gray flannel is the same flannel she wore in the Feli Fame video, Jones said.
“From my perspective, I wasn’t being beat up physically, I was being beat up mentally for my past,” Jones said.
As the video goes on, it seems Jones and Lowry are plotting revenge against her captors.
“That’s what it looks like,” Jones said. “That’s how many people will see it.”
The video takes a turn and Jones ends up at the Wire Pasture access of the Lumber River State Park. Jones said that area has indigenous historical value and was rumored to be one of the last places Henry Berry Lowrie was seen.
Instead of getting back at her captors, Jones is baptized in the river.
“Our revenge is a rebirth,” Jones said.
Jones said this is representative of how far she has come from her earlier struggles, to being cast on “American Idol” and now releasing her first single.
“It messed me up. That whole situation. A lot of people thought that they would bury me,” Jones said. “What they didn’t know was that I was a seed. This was preparing me for moments like this. This was preparing me to shoot off like a rocket.”
