Strike / Out by Jessica in The Rainbow

released January 31, 2026

Improv songs by Jessica Wolfbird, written in parking lots in Stevensville Michigan (Goodwill), Benton Harbor Michigan (Kohl's), Mishawaka Indiana (Target, Bowl of Pho), South Bend Indiana (Pinellia), and Mishawaka Indiana again (Whole Foods, University Park Mall / Barnes & Noble).

My day consisted of...

~Donating a carload of stuff (Goodwill)
~returning slippers to Amazon via Kohl's (Love & Light)
~sitting in parking lots just to reflect on certain box stores (Donkey)
~intentionally and defiantly spending money to support two immigrant-owned businesses (Participation Trophy, Migration Song)
~wrestling with personal trauma triggers around violence, and also around painful memories of fawning & imitating in community, confronting resentment around both aggressive leadership & abandonment wounds (It's Not Love, if you have to earn it)
~doing some mall-walking to use a bathroom while not buying anything
~witnessing many people out shopping, from all walks of life, in a multicultural working class area near South Bend, confusing my ethics and sense of reality (Sports!)
~not-buying some needed supplies (went out the next day instead, even though it added two hours of driving)
~but then buying a symbolic journal in the end (note to self Jess: clues - pink, bird, wedding) - to signal to myself that this has to stop (for me) (Rest In Peace).

In other words, this improv album is deeply personal, as a raw and emotionally-difficult attempt to not self-abandon while participating in the strike - while simultaneously realizing I'm out of the game (I'm an independent now, as of today).

xoxo


p.s. note to self: track 9 cut off while recording...it's title came from a part that didn't record, but the full title was 'Rest In Peace, season of life'.