Someone, please astral project me into a BadBadNotGood song!
Don't worry, I hope this message finds you in any state you want to be in 🌫
Hello there,
Life has been indescribable for all of us this past year. While I’m extremely grateful to be working and continuing my research and writing, I can’t help but feel a spectrum of emotions and feelings. 🌊 I decided to share more of what goes on in my mind and heart through my letter writing project this year titled #cosmicpropulsions after David Medalla’s work of the same name. He passed away (December 28, 2020) a couple of days before I started the project on January 1, 2021. I came up with the title the first day of the year when Bay Area-based curator Lian Ladia shared an interview Medalla had done years ago. I knew I would do this project, I just didn’t know how it would unfold. I don’t expect people to reply (this is not why I write the missives). But when I do receive them, I’m grateful and, sometimes, overwhelmed by the reciprocity of vulnerability and care in the response.
Also, something else I wanted to share, which is why I’m sending this newsletter after a little over a year of not writing anything here has to do with my rapid disinterest in social media and wanting to make my own cozy corner on the Internet where the people who want to be in community can find me.
Lately, I’ve been making sound art, which may be surprising to some people. Also, another thing many people don’t know about me, I sang and played the guitar growing up. I wanted to play the saxophone, but Mom wasn’t having it. 😎 In any case, at the beginning of this year, I took a sound production seminar and started learning how to mix, compose, and be much more vocal (literally) while reading sound studies theory. I wasn’t expecting this, but the work I did for the class was selected to be a part of the line-up for the 2021 Rewire (in the Netherlands). I highly encourage you to check out the entire festival. It goes through this weekend and my piece will play tomorrow (May 7). I’m very excited and nervous because I’ve never been a part of a sound art and music festival before and I have no idea who will be listening. Then again, I just have to let go and see what happens. 🤞
If you feel inclined, I would love to hear from you. You can share what you’ve been working on, thinking about, how you’ve been evolving and changing, or if you want to write what has been been making you sad, frustrated, and/or confused. I’m here for all of it.
♥️,
Dorothy