“She was called fragile. But she held entire storms inside her chest.”
Keeana Kee, on Small Fragile Woman
Nothing was choreographed.
Before we filmed, Keeana told me to feel the music. There were no steps to remember, no sequence to get right. There was the song, the two of us, and the trust we had already built over years of performing together.
She invited me to embody the warrior spirit in her video for “Small Fragile Woman.” I approached it through movement, instinct and listening. The same things I return to when I play percussion.
You listen. Something moves you. You respond.
Meeting the warrior
Released in April 2025, the video brings together a young girl, a warrior and a woman between them. Different parts of the same self, meeting across fear, memory and possibility.
I play the warrior.
That word carries a lot for me. As a percussionist and athlete, I explore strength through the body. My background in martial arts is part of that, too. Timing, balance, awareness, knowing when to act and when to listen. Those experiences shape how I move, even when nothing is choreographed.
Strength requires sensitivity. You have to feel your own balance, another person’s presence, the moment something changes.
That is what interests me about the title “Small Fragile Woman.” How much do we assume about someone’s power from what we can see? How much can tenderness hold?
The video also stars Christina Blair Hudson, with filming by Ronald Weaver II and song production by Arturo Brambilla Cabrera. We filmed my part in a New York City studio.
A brief shoot, with a lot inside it.
Inside Keeana’s vision
What I admire about Keeana begins with the music itself: her voice, the beauty of the composition, the poetry in her lyrics. Then there is her ability to imagine a whole visual world around it and bring it into being.
She wrote, directed, produced, edited and color graded the video herself. Having been inside that process, I loved seeing how she brought all the pieces together. A movement I remembered from the studio became part of a larger story through her choices.
She had a clear vision and still gave me room to respond in my own way. That combination of intention and trust made this collaboration especially meaningful to me.
A conversation through the body
The movement came from what we were feeling in the moment.
Keeana trusted me to lead, and I could feel her responding. My own movement changed with hers. We were discovering the exchange as it happened.
It was intense and emotional. There is a particular kind of vulnerability in moving with another person without knowing what comes next. You have to stay present. You have to let yourself be seen before you have time to edit the feeling.
Looking back, that is what stays with me: how much we could communicate without explaining anything.
Ten years of listening
Keeana and I met about ten years ago through a platform for women musicians. She was looking for a percussionist for a live performance at a studio. We connected immediately.
Since then, we have shared stages, traveled and watched each other’s work evolve. The connection has had time to deepen, but there is still something spontaneous about it.
When we perform, I listen to her voice, her phrasing, her energy. She responds to what I bring. We leave room for each other, and that room is where some of my favorite moments happen.
The video gave that exchange another form. This time, I was responding with my whole body.
The people beside us
So much of this story also includes Ariana Castelli.
The three of us often perform together, each bringing our own music, personality and way of connecting with an audience. Ariana brings incredible energy and a presence that is unmistakably hers.
People sometimes assume we are a band. We are three individual artists whose work keeps bringing us together. Over time, that has become its own kind of family.
We have shared stages at Pride celebrations in New York City, Miami, Washington, D.C., San Diego and Texas, as well as The Dinah in Palm Springs and private events.
What matters to me extends beyond the performances. We take care of each other. And with them, I can be completely myself.
That support moves in every direction. Keeana and Ariana also joined me at The Church in Sag Harbor during my residency for The Sapphic Gospel, alongside Alona Lapkovska, who helped make it happen.
There is something meaningful about having people who make room for your work while you make room for theirs. We each have our own artistic world. We get to visit, contribute and witness each other becoming.
What strength can hold
I keep coming back to the woman and the warrior inhabiting the same body.
Can we be vulnerable and still trust our strength? Can we feel deeply without treating that sensitivity as something to overcome?
Those questions stay open for me.
The video is now close to a million views on YouTube. It is moving to think about how far something we created with so much soul has traveled.
For me, the memory is still close: the music, the movement, and someone I have known and trusted for a decade. That history was there in the studio with us, even when neither of us said a word.
Video written, directed, produced, edited and color graded by Keeana Kee · Filmed by Ronald Weaver II · Song produced by Arturo Brambilla Cabrera · Starring Mila Tina and Christina Blair Hudson