By Nathalie Alcime

My name is Nathalie “Joy “ Alcime, and I am a musician. I use my voice to sing as a way to glorify God. I also use my voice as my career and as a therapeutic approach for self and others. When I was a little girl, my mother taught me songs in our native language because it was the best way for her to share her culture with us. Music became a way to communicate and to infuse culture in order to maintain our Haitian cultural heritage. But, it was also connected to faith. The songs she taught us were my introduction to religion, an idea of a higher Being, a place of safety when the pressures of life kick in. It was through songs that I learned who Jesus was and what it meant to have purpose in the songs I sing. 

Over the years, my voice emerged through experiences. Life has a way of bringing us through the heavy rains and low valleys, while also to the mountain tops and high places. My experiences have taught me pain, fear, heartaches, sorrows, joy, love, peace, grace, and purpose. It was through faith I began to learn the healing power of God and my “whys” in my singing. 

Soulful singing emerges from a place of desperation and purpose. It is an opportunity to communicate life through songs. It helps to engage with emotions and to feel the very things the world tells us to hide. When my parents were on the verge of a divorce, I remember often crying and sensing that I did not know what family meant anymore. Tears became my comfort, allowing me to question if God was really there. After the divorce, our family entered into a whirlwind of non-stop pain and chaos. It caused a shift from what seemed to be a great life, to one with constant disasters of confusion, abuse, and fears. But, as I lived life, I learned more of who I was and who I wanted to become. Jesus had a way of tightly interweaving the strands of faith and purpose in my life with my voice. 

When I sing, I look to the words of a song to communicate the very things I am walking through or have experienced in life. I ask myself, “Can I relate with the text through this lens? Does it speak to an area in my or someone else’s life, drawing from past, present, or future situations?”

Soulful singing is an expression of a lived or desired experience that can help you connect deeply to a song in order to release yourself from the bondage of repression or celebrate beautiful moments of life. When I sing, I have the opportunity to walk myself through a journey of healing while sharing that emotional experience with someone else that might need that reminder, encouragement, or permission to feel. 

Soulful singing has a way of awakening our hearts and connecting our mind, body, and soul to feel alive and human. To live life without an emotional connection would rob us from our own freedom of release. We are not robots; we are emotional beings that desire to be and feel love, acceptance, and belonging. “Let There Be Tears” allows us to not live a life of pent-up emotions that isolates us from engaging in this world. To cry means to live in freedom and share our ups and downs with God, others, and self, as a reminder that we are fallible humans seeking for true purpose, faith, and hope for something more. 

Listen to Natalie’s soulful voice as she sings I’ll Be There, Like I’m Gonna Lose You, Rise Up, and The Passion.

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Life has a way of zapping energy out of us. 

Was it the frustration of a job loss? Was it the heartbreak of a relationship? 

Was it the loss of a loved one? Or was it the grief of a broken dream? 

Oftentimes, the unexpected waves of life toss us back and forth in a space of uncertainty and fear. 

And yet, in the space of our own brokenness, a call for help pierces through the inner parts of our being. 

A cry of desperation in the midst of internal and external chaos that overwhelms our personhood. 

How do you breathe when anxiety rests in the crevices of your mind, inhaling fear and exhaling more fear? 

There’s a build up in your soul that wants to release freedom. 

Yet, somehow, we’ve become an enemy to ourselves, hiding from reality what we are truly experiencing. 

We hide our pain, we hide our fears, we hide our brokenness, we hide our bruises, we hide our successes, we hide our talents, we hide our failures, we hide ourselves, we hide our feelings, we hide our shame, we hide our trauma, we hide our tears. 

But, LET THERE BE TEARS. 

Our experiences teach us lessons about tears. 

Do we hoard our own thoughts and emotions, or do we release the sigh of tears? 

There are tears of sadness, when the pressures of life try to overtake you. 

There are tears of sorrow, when the heart aches for the return of a loved one. 

There are tears of anger when you feel frustrated or powerless. 

There are tears of disappointment, when a realized dream just always seems to disseminate in the wind. 

There are tears of failures, when you feel tied to the ongoing defeat of missed expectations or life deadlines. 

There are tears of inadequacy, when your efforts seem tied to your mistakes and shortcomings. 

But, LET THERE ALSO BE Tears of joy because of the triumph over the invasion of fear and doubt. 

LET THERE BE Tears of peace when your heart finds solace in groundedness of true self-worth.

LET THERE BE Tears of love when you feel the sense of care and belongingness. 

LET THERE BE Tears kindness when you give and receive a genuine act of grace undeserved. Tears have a way of identifying the needs of our soul and helping us choose which way to go. 

Wherever you find yourself—let there be tears in your song.

Nathalie Alcime

Nathalie Alcime is a versatile artist in various genres such as classical, gospel, and christian-contemporary music. She has been fortunate to record on several albums in English and Haitian Creole. She is Haitian-American and a native New Yorker. She currently works at a church as a Worship Director and as a Substitute teacher in her area.

You can connect with Nathalie on Instagram at @nathaliejoy_alcime.