The Music That Frees Us: Jonathan Lykes and BYP100 a Special Feature from the Movement History Initiative

Post contributed by Mattison Bond, Movement History Initiative Coordinator as part of the Movement History Initiative Movement Makers Series

The Music That Frees Us: Jonathan Lykes and BYP100

As we celebrate summer, Pride, and Juneteenth, we are also reminded of the profound role that Black music has played in shaping this country’s culture and its movements. For the Movement History Initiative, that connection between music and organizing, past and present, is never far from mind. In this issue of Movement Makers, we turn our attention to Jonathan Lykes, co-founder and the current Director of Culture & Organizing with Black Youth Project (BYP100), whose approach to cultural organizing has always kept music at its center, as a strategy, practice, and passion worth sharing!

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Photo courtesy of Jonathan Lykes

Jonathan’s Early Organizing Years:

Before Jonathan Lykes (he/they/she) became the co-founder of The Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) he was a statewide organizer for the Ohio Youth Voices for Justice. He was fifteen when he started working with the organization and in 2006 would lead the organization’s first ballot initiative campaign that lobbied to raise the minimum wage in Ohio and then successfully get the bill passed.

“That’s the first time I felt powerful. First time I realized that we could bring people, working class people together.”

Photo courtesy of Jontahan Lykes

He would carry this experience and momentum as a young organizer to the University of Chicago where he would meet and study under Dr. Cathy Cohen and Dr. Charles Payne, deepening his understanding of the movement in a theoretical and cultural way.

The Founding of BYP100

Jonathan stated that Trayvon Martin is viewed as the Emmett Till by his generation of organizers. The death of the teenager, and the unjust acquittal of his killer ,were the catalysts that led to the bringing together of many Black youth across the nation to rally and organize against police brutality and an unfair legal system. In 2013, under the leadership and vision of his professor, Dr. Cathy Cohen, 100 Black youth leaders from across the country would gather at the Beyond November Movement Convening in Chicago. From this convening BYP100 would come into being, with Jonathan being one of its founders.

Unique to the organization was the need and push to function under a Black Queer Feminist lens. The core founders of BYP100 noticed that, oftentimes, leaders of the movement were Black, cisgendered, and heterosexual , but what they wanted to accomplish would require a different approach. In order to reach “true liberation for all” the organization would need for those who were most vulnerable (queer, trans, femme, poor, disabled, and undocumented Black people) to be at the center of their organizing work.

“It was not an easy task to get everyone on the same page about this, but centering those silenced and vulnerable groups within Black communities recognizes and humanizes our people who have historically been left out. This was one of the central and strongest threads that kept the organization together.”

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Lykes

The Intergenerational Spirit of Cultural Organizing

Also, deeply ingrained within BYP100 is the method of cultural organizing, the ability to use art and culture to shift policy, practices, and the minds and hearts of people . The 100 youth that met in Chicago that fateful day, while from different walks of life, were well versed in the importance of sewing culture into their organizing practice. During the founding meeting, youth like those of the Freedom School tradition at the CDF’s Freedom School, Highlander Center and those from Camp Akili in Oakland, would begin chanting and singing into the space, setting a framework for the organization to function for years to come. This aspect of organizing had been central to Jonathan even in his early years. During the reading of petitions to an Ohio senator, in order to get the minimum wage ballot passed, he would perform poetry, because of his experience as a spoken word artist in high school.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Lykes

That framework set at the founding convening would eventually crystallize into two values that still guide BYP100’s work today. The first, a holistic energy, which is the practice of bringing one’s whole self into organizing by using things like call and response, art, singing, and dance to carry the movement’s message as it works to shift policy and practice. The second is a polyrhythmic praxis, which originally belongs to music theory, but has been adapted by Jonathan to fit into his organizing work.

“Polyrhythmic praxis is how we get a whole bunch of people doing different things, moving in their individual energies to come together, not in complete unison, but in differentiated coordination…We have to be nimble, fluid, and our talents must show up everywhere…with our full selves in all the places we’re building. So polyrhythms, or polyrhythmic praxis, allows us to demonstrate metaphorically, through the power of our own voice, what is taking place in this larger movement.”

The strategic use of art and culture in organizing is one that has been passed down by organizers from different generations, and that was the case for Jonathan and BYP100. SNCC (also known as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) was known for their use of music during the movement. Not only were there singers who used their voice in order to call meetings to order and calm organizers during desperate times, they also created a group called the Freedom Singers who would travel throughout the country, rallying people to the cause of liberation in the South. These young singers – themselves Movement organizers grounded in struggle – would create albums and focus on specific freedom songs at different times and places within the movement. They were very aware of the strength and unity their singing brought to Movement gatherings.

SNCC Freedom Singers, Charles Neblett, Bernice. Reagon, Cordell Reagon, and Rutha Harris, photo by Joe Alper, found at crmvet.org

For Jonathan personally, the SNCC Freedom Singers, alongside Sweet Honey in the Rock and the Highlander Center for Research and Education – where for 5 years he co-facilitated the cultural organizing train-the-trainers program, – represent the musical and spiritual roots of what BYP100 has always tried to do: make the movement something you can feel in your body, not just understand in your mind.

SNCC and its legacy have been woven into the very fiber of BYP100’s movement work since the very beginning, both figuratively and literally, as Jonathan and a few of its members have had relationships with some SNCC veterans. SNCC Legacy Project chair, Courtland Cox, was present at the creation of the founding documents of the organization; Charlie Cobb and Judy Richardson joined local BY0100 chapter members to provide advice and mentorship.

“We were fortunate to be inspired, mentored, and supported, not just by the historic direct actions [but also] the music actions that took place within SNCC’s history…what I love about SNCC and the SNCC Legacy Project is they have such a rich history, but they’re still fighting with us in the present moment.”

The Black Joy Experience Album

The Black Joy Experience Album, Volume Two

The clearest expression of BYP100 and Jonathan’s cultural organizing work is The Black Joy Experience , a two-volume album that captures the chants, songs, and political messages that have defined the organization at key moments in its history. The recording of Volume 1 began in 2016 and was released in 2018, with members flying in from chapters across the country to record at Howard University’s radio station in Washington, D.C., on donated studio time and without dedicated funding. Released alongside the album was a resource guide containing BYP100’s history, a 20-activity holistic energy curriculum, case studies on freedom music, and testimonies from members on why freedom songs are critical to Black liberation.

“This wasn’t just music for entertainment, it was music to change the material conditions of Black people’s lives. We wanted to ensure we were adding political education, even though you could just listen to the album without any additional context, once you listen you will leave more informed and connected to our ancestors just by entering into our organization’s musical and cultural experience…”

In the time that the album was released, the choir would tour to their chapter cities. In 2019, BYP100 took the project to West Africa, touring Sierra Leone, Togo, and Ghana during the Year of Return, sharing their music and message with Black diaspora communities across the continent. Spotify also spotlighted the album and displayed Jonathan’s music in Times Square New York during Pride Month in 2022.

Present Day and Still Singing

When asked if Jonathan had a favorite freedom song, or one that keeps them going, he smiled and answered honestly: “That’s a hard question. There’s so many.”

Just like SNCC and the Freedom Singers realized, freedom music is not meant to apply to the whole movement, but instead to specific moments and places. So for Jonathan, his favorite song changes from “week to week or year to year”. He chose to shout out Bernice Johnson Reagon’s “There’s a New World Coming.” because of its direct connection to the theme of Afrofuturism and the building of a Black radical space that BYP100 is currently focusing on.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Lykes

“I Love Being Black” from The Black Joy Experience and another of Jonathan’s personal favorites, serves as BYP100’s unofficial anthem with music by Jonathan and lyrics written by Je Naè Taylor this song speaks directly to how Jonathan understands freedom music. He believes it lives within communities, not on the charts. For Jonathan, commercialized music has not only been anti-Black, but a tool of capitalism and of the enemy. He doesn’t rely on it for that kind of spiritual enrichment. Freedom music, by contrast, is built to grow community, communicate values, and preserve history. It’s difficult to find, and when it surfaces, it’s often suppressed. For Jonathan, that’s not a reason for despair, it’s a reminder of why direct, people-centered organizing still matters most.

For those looking to find more freedom music, Jonathan’s answer is both practical and urgent. Base-building organizations must center it in their work as a rigorous cultural practice embedded in everything they do. In BYP100, that means opening and closing every meeting with song and chant, carrying the tradition forward the way SNCC once did. And for those who stumble across freedom music on their own — say, finding The Black Joy Experience on a playlist, Jonathan encourages them to follow that thread, to seek out what they haven’t yet heard, and, if they feel the call, to create their own.

BYP100 is celebrating its 13th birthday on July 13th, which is no small feat for an organization that continues to face systemic opposition designed to silence movements like theirs. Through it all, Jonathan remains rooted:

“I’m excited for the next 15 years of building Black political power and sharing radical freedom music with the masses.”

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Lykes

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Hello Reader,

We want to take a moment to say thank you!

At the Movement History Initiative, we understand, as SNCC knew well, how essential communication and community are to the movement. As our community, we are grateful for your continued support, and for helping us keep this history alive.

We are taking a summer break, but will return in August with more movement history, archival finds, and upcoming events. In the meantime, stay connected with us through our socials and explore our partners on the website. Also, keep an eye out for updates on events and fellowship opportunities.

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We’ll see you in the fall!

Forward Together,

Mattison Bond, Movement History Initiative Coordinator.