Shining Out in the Wild Silence: Writing in the Space Between Poetry and Music

I find myself now more and more prolonging these moments of genrelessness: a few breaths in, filling my lungs with clarity.

Music, LiteratureAmrita ChakrabortySeptember 18, 2019Jamila Woods, David Berman, Mitski, Sufjan Stevens, St. Vincent, Pat Pattison, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Tupac, Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell

& I'll Cry If I Want To: A Selection of the Sad Girl in Music

We all have our Sad Girl songs—the ones that hit right at the center of our biggest shames, our runny mascara nights, our whispers from the alleyway.

Art, Music, SelectionsLexi CovalsenSeptember 11, 2019Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Lana Del Rey, Audrey Wollen, Lesley Gore, Marina and the Diamonds, Sky Ferreira, Lorde, SZA, Donna Tartt

Circles

When I listen to Maggie Rogers’ “Falling Water,” I always hear I never loved you fully in the way I could so deeply, completely.

Music, Literature, Personal EssayHana WidermanSeptember 3, 2019Maggie Rogers, the Young Romans

From the Editor & Contest: Tamara Jobe's Hag

Here’s to the ugly & the marvellous, loud enough to reach the edge of night.

Announcements, From the Editor, Literature, MusicTopaz WintersAugust 24, 2019Tamara Jobe

"I wanted to know the scent of new earth, to hold light in my hands, to be human as furiously as I could." (Tamara Jobe on Hag)

When I think of the word hag, I think of the greying light beyond the horizon before a storm. I think of possibility hanging heavy in the air.

Literature, Music, Personal EssayGuestAugust 19, 2019Tamara Jobe

"I find myself drawn to places where myth was once born." (An Interview With Tamara Jobe)

What if we encountered our bodies the way they are and said, “this is good enough”?

Music, Literature, InterviewsKate WilsonAugust 14, 2019Elana Dykewomon, Tamara Jobe

"I turned the songwriting process into my diary at a time I was trying to develop the ability to forgive myself." (An Interview With Barroo)

I think of my work as being temporal by nature.

Film, Interviews, MusicKate WilsonAugust 6, 2019Monoprices, Barroo, kendall :3, Cate Wurtz, Clover & Sealife, June Lalonde, rabbit music, klslwsk

Singing While Rome Burns (A Selection of Music for the Apocalypse)

I’ve found a catharsis in musicians’ emotional responses to the strife in the world right now, and in their visions of what might spring from the ashes.

Selections, MusicAmrita ChakrabortyJuly 30, 2019Hozier, Mavis Staples, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, James Brown, Janelle Monáe, Cage the Elephant, Sufjan Stevens, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bastille, Florence + the Machine, the 1975, Donald Trump, St. Vincent, Leonard Cohen, Richard Siken

That Summer Feeling (a selection, a remembering)

The summer of 2016 belongs to “Self Control,” white brick walls, the rumble of the MARTA train—to the warmth and the horror of being alone in a city.

Selections, MusicLexi CovalsenJuly 15, 2019Richard Ayoade, Matt Berninger, Alex Turner, the National, St. Vincent, Sylvia Plath, the Front Bottoms, Frank Ocean, Lorde, Rostam

"When music comes to you as pure catharsis, it’s very dark, very beautiful." (An Interview With Taylor Robert Hawkins of Western Daughter)

Music can reveal itself as simply escapism or enjoyment, but it can also be something much deeper, more abstract and substantial.

Music, InterviewsKate WilsonJuly 8, 2019Taylor Robert Hawkins, Western Daughter, mewithoutYou, Joyce Manor, American Football, Big Thief, Hop Along, The Sidekicks, The Menzingers, The Book, Songs Ohia, Yo La Tengo, Animal Collective, Fugazi, The Spirit of The Beehive, Frank Ocean