Musical all-star Rhiannon Giddens ’95 has released a stand-alone song, “Cry No More,”  in response to the Charleston, SC, church shooting in June. The song is stripped down, says NPR Music, and “features only Giddens’ haunting frame drum, her voice and a choir that echoes her.”

Giddens explained her reasons for creating the piece: “The massacre at the AME church in Charleston is just the latest in a string of racially charged events that have broken my heart. There are a lot of things to fix in this country, but history says if we don’t address this canker, centuries in the making, these things will continue to happen. No matter what level privilege you have, when the system is broken everybody loses. We all have to speak up when injustice happens. No matter what.”

Read the full story, and watch the video, on NPR Music.