Our heroine keeps walking, and we follow, unseen ally, shadow of hope, anticipating the thrills and horrors lying in wait.

Literature, Music, SelectionsAmrita ChakrabortyApril 28, 2021k.d. lang, Orla Gartland, Susanne Sundfør, The National, Soap&Skin, Agnes Obel, BANKS, Hayley Williams, Bat For Lashes, Daphne du Maurier, Maggie Rogers

Finding Solace in Sade

Sade makes pain the centerpiece: showing us how bearing witness to the tragedy of history is a beautiful and necessary act in itself.

Music, Personal Essay, PoliticsAmrita ChakrabortyAugust 12, 2020Sade, Jacob Bernstein, Sade Adu

Harmonium Dreaming

It’s a strange thing, to have a relationship with an instrument as complex and fraught as mine is with the harmonium.

Music, History, Personal EssayAmrita ChakrabortyMay 4, 2020Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein, Alexandre Debain, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Wuthering Heights in Words and Song: Female Hysteria, Melodrama, and Racial Complexity

The women of Wuthering Heights take up substantial space in their caustic, expansive splendor.

Literature, Music, Personal EssayAmrita ChakrabortyMarch 24, 2020Kate Bush, Hayley Westenra, Emily Brontë, Constantin Héger

Spotlighting Trans, Nonbinary and Gender Non-Conforming Artists: A Selection

“Can’t forget that I’m a miracle, it’s true”, he sings, “don’t you forget you’re a miracle too”—and it’s damn near impossible not to believe him.

Politics, Music, SelectionsAmrita ChakrabortyFebruary 25, 2020Dorian Electra, Angel Haze, Shea Diamond, SOPHIE, Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers, Against Me!, Ah Mer Ah Su, Linn da Quebrada, Shawnee, Tunde Olaniran, Rae Spoon

As Wings to a Bird: Pride and Prejudice, Annihilation, and the Magnetism Musical Scores Bring to Film

Whether you’re a film aficionado or a casual viewer, if you’ve ever watched a movie, you have inadvertently been impacted by its musical score.

Film, MusicAmrita ChakrabortyNovember 5, 2019Joe Wright, Dario Marianelli, Jane Austen, Jean Yves Thibaudet, Andy Trudeau, Ramin Djawadi, Hans Zimmer, Walt Disney, Geoff Barrow, Ben Salisbury

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

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

Cinematic Spring (a selection)

For this languid, near-summer day, a selection of standout songs to ease you into the world of Bengali musical cinema.

Film, Music, SelectionsAmrita ChakrabortyJune 25, 2019Bishwajeet Chatterjee, Lata Mangeshkar, Tanuja, Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Rabindranath Tagore, Sandhya Mukherjee

Animating the Mundane: The Role of Music in Transportation

It’s the last step before leaving my house, the last act required to start the day. I find the right playlist on my phone and click play.

Music, Personal EssayAmrita ChakrabortyMarch 6, 2019Young the Giant, Fleetwood Mac, Relient K, Switchfoot, Owl City, Nina Simone