"To mourn is also to acknowledge the limitations of language." (Gavin Yuan Gao on Elegy)

Elegy is the séance we hold as we pray for a visitation from the ones we have lost. We invite them to haunt us. We sing to them, and listen for song in return.

Literature, Music, Personal EssayGuestJune 29, 2022Gavin Yuan Gao

X: Elegy | Uncomposed: "Shrine to July"

I was praying the only way I knew how. I was trying to build a boat, to take me through the waves of grief on your street, right up to your door.

Columns, Music, Literature, Personal EssayPaola BennetJune 23, 2022uncomposed

IX: Synaesthesia | Silver-Tipped Swallow: "Come as You Are"

With my suitcases packed & the sky creased to its perfect middle, I’m the most beautiful I’ve ever been without having already left.

"It's the unison where the magic happens." (Darnell "DeeSoul" Carson on Synaesthesia)

When I listen to music, it moves through me because it has to. The soundwaves hit my ears, and my body decides where it needs to go next.

IX: Synaesthesia | Uncomposed: "Daughter, Peach"

I could be sharp-tongued, curious, fucked-up—what had never felt available to me. For the first time, French was no longer borrowed, but mine.

Personal Essay, Music, ColumnsPaola BennetJune 29, 2021uncomposed

"The essential mystery of things is sometimes best articulated by their own organic resonances." (Ryan Griffith on Synaesthesia)

The artist’s dictum “trust your materials” only started to make sense in collage, with strange fabrics and colors and patterns coalescing in startling meaning.