D.B. Woodside Instagram – What a fuckin’ year, am I right? Yes, there’s been tremendous pain and loss. No doubt. However, for me, it’s also been one of glorious self-discovery — as an artist and as a black man. See, 2020 unearthed pain in me that I never wanted to acknowledge let alone examine. Pain that I had been compartmentalizing since my youth. I never realized that by doing that, the torment I’d been suffering had seeped into many parts of my life as an Adult. It affected my judgement when it came to many of my friendships and it corrupted most of my relationships. Boom. That’s the truth. I know that I’m not alone in that. Many of you have done this for most of your lives as well. So while 2020 can kiss my ass I would always like to thank 2020 for bludgeoning me until I fell to my knees. For leaving me with nothing but myself. I had to become more intimate with me. I had to be brutally honest with myself. I’ve lost friends this year. And that’s always sad. I wish them well (most of them). I’ve also found some new friends. Brave friends. Honest friends. Friends that challenge me to let go of old habits so that I can make room for new ones. Friends that embrace my introversion, my broodiness, and my optimistic spirit rooted in the type of pragmatism that comes from surviving in this city and in this country as a middle-aged black man. I have needed this year to cocoon while the world stood still. I needed to grow, to transform, and to heal. I won’t make grand declarations of what I’m going to accomplish in 2021. I will hold those dreams close. I will simply say that I will be present. I will be humble. I will be kind. I will be unapologetically raw. That’s enough. I’ll see y’all on the other side. Happy New Year Fam. – David