Big Daddy Wilson “The City Streets”

Rural eastern North Carolina once gave little Noelle and her father, John, the kind of freedom only country living can provide, but today, it doesn’t appear to offer teenage Noelle the kind of excitement that she imagines or has heard about in the latest song. Not unlike many teenage Black and brown girls in the US, Noelle is preyed upon in her vulnerability and lured into a life of violent crime. Years later, when she finally escapes “the life”, Noelle begins a new journey to find community among women, not unlike herself. When she returns home, her neighbors welcome her lovingly. Though Noelle doesn’t find all of what she was expecting and hoping for, what she does learn is that the prayers her father once spoke were in communion with a spiritual energy that’s always protected her, and in that energy is connection, healing, and truth.