The Long Goodbye That Isn't Really Goodbye by Rokeeda Tatum
The Songs We Carry When Home Begins to Change
Some stories continue after the last sentence.
For Rokeeda, this playlist offers another way into hers.
Selected by Rokeeda to accompany her August Legacy Feature, these seven songs add another layer to the portrait on the page: womanhood, love, strength, faith, joy, and home.
They don't explain her story. They don't need to.
They're simply another piece of what she chose to leave in The Living Room.
Press play and stay awhile.
Editor's Note
When we invited Rokeeda to share her story, we also asked her to share some of the music she would bring into the room.
What she gave us is a seven-song collection moving across different expressions of womanhood, love, strength, joy, and faith.
We haven't asked the songs to explain The Long Goodbye That Isn't Really Goodbye. Instead, the playlist sits beside the feature as another piece of Rokeeda's archive—music chosen by the woman whose story you've just encountered.
Sometimes knowing what someone listens to tells us something an interview cannot.
Now Spinning
Press play before you continue, or let the music accompany your reading.
Liner Notes
I'm Here — Fantasia
From The Color Purple, I'm Here is a declaration of selfhood after a life shaped by what has been endured, lost, and survived. Its power comes from the realization that a person can arrive at herself without denying everything that came before. As the opening song in Rokeeda's Playlist, it introduces a collection accompanying a woman at a threshold: after eighteen years centered around motherhood, another version of Rokeeda is waiting to be discovered.
Superwoman — Alicia Keys
Released in 2007, Superwoman speaks to the complicated strength expected of women who carry families, relationships, responsibilities, and dreams at the same time. But its strength is not presented as invulnerability. It makes room for weariness too. Within Rokeeda's Playlist, the song echoes something her Legacy Feature reveals clearly: motherhood showed Rokeeda how much she was capable of, even as this new season asks who she is beyond everything she has spent years carrying.
1+1 — Beyoncé
Built around a deliberately simple idea, 1+1 strips love down to devotion rather than circumstance. There is little interest in explaining or intellectualizing it; the song simply insists on love's ability to remain when everything else feels uncertain. In Rokeeda's Playlist, it arrives at an especially fitting moment. Her story is changing not only as a mother but as a wife, as she and her husband begin imagining what their life together will look like when it becomes "our time to have us" again.
Sunday Candy — Nico Segal
Warm, joyful, and rooted in family, faith, and affection, Sunday Candy closes the collection on a note of abundance. After songs that move through selfhood, strength, and romantic love, its presence widens the playlist toward community and the relationships that make a life feel full. As the final track in The Long Goodbye, it leaves the listener not with departure, but with warmth.
About This Collection
Curated by
Rokeeda Tatum
Collection
The Long Goodbye
Published
August 21, 2026
Songs
7
Era
2000s–Present
Genres
R&B • Soul • Pop • Musical Theatre
Listening Time
32 min 4 sec
Collection Summary
A personal soundtrack to a season of transition, capturing the love, faith, strength, and joy that remain as motherhood changes shape and a new chapter begins.