viscera

1y

What’s this?

viscera

1y

What’s this?

viscera

1y

What’s this?

viscera

2y

· edited

what are the odds of us getting a well-shot recording of her blue note performance?

viscera

2y

Shaadi: There was a moment of sonic healing for me watching your most recent Tiny Desk performance in February. For me, it looked like a celestial symphony that was dropped down from a star system into a tiny room on Earth.

Kelela: I’m screaming.

Shaadi: Normally in the media you have queer women, queer Black women, trans women presented in a very specific way, often in defense of their bodies. Here they were just able to create this sound. You have this huge harp taking up all this space within the room. It’s beautiful. You have these women with these otherworldly voices and sounds. Yourself and your own otherworldly voice. For me this moment felt like watching divine regeneration. That was a big moment—to see queer Black women in motion instead of defense. Able to go further than the limits of other people’s imaginations but also able to create lucrative livelihoods for themselves. To create music. Are these collaborations and pairings intentional for you?

Kelela: Everything is intentional. What I love is that if you see my friends who might not be musicians, who are artists in other disciplines, there’s a rigor to how they’re thinking about themselves—their place in the world and their own healing. I’m looking for a tenderness. A ‘comfort-with.’ I’m looking for bandmates and creative partners in general who are in touch with that part of themselves and are leading with vulnerability in many aspects of their lives and with whom that ethic would resonate. As many spots that my personal economy creates, I’m wanting to fill it with those people. I do prioritize Black people. I do prioritize queer Black femmes, to be really honest, over everybody. That’s why you are doing this interview. That’s why Ahya Simone is on harp. That’s why Alayna Rodgers and Sis are on vocals. That’s a big part of what I’m doing and I want it to serve us, because there are so few contexts that do.

I cried a little bit when I first saw the Tiny Desk because there’s so much emotionality that is coming out of Ahya. There’s this one part where the camera zooms in on her and she’s just so inside the harp and she looks so emotional as she’s swaying. I don’t know, it just makes me want to cry, even now. There’s this other moment where Alayna does this thing with her hands where she’s got her arms out, her elbows are out in front of her, and her fingers are spread a little bit. And she keeps making this sort of waving motion with her hands, closing her eyes, and just looking like she loves this so much. The emotions just oozing and spilling out.

source

viscera

1y

Ahya just dropped her debut ep and its gorg; the 🧜🏽‍♀️🌊🔱 theme persists 🖤💙

This project is a testament to all things that are amorphous, elusive, and parts of life that are betwixt and between that remains uncertain and hard to contain.
Thank you all for hearing my siren’s call!

viscera

2y

what are the odds of us getting a well-shot recording of her blue note performance?

viscera

2y

🖤

"The year is 2003. A 19-year-old Kelela Mizanekristos sits alone at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York’s West Village, a MiniDisc recorder concealed under her table. An electric solo set by Groove Theory co-founder Amel Larrieux makes the arduous four-hour drive from DC worth it. She has a 7 am class the next morning, but Larrieux’s music—and music, period— is all that matters to her at this moment. “She taught me so much about performance and just going for it and not trying to be perfect. She would just give her all in this way that didn’t feel safe,” Kelela gushed about Larrieux two decades later. “I think that was what drew me to her. I saw so much of myself in that. More than anything, I would like to give that back to someone else.”

Kelela Walked Away From Music for Years. At an Intimate New York Show, She Came Back to Find Her Fans Waiting

fancy lacriminal

1y

How come I didn't know about this blue note show

provider

1y

Raven, February 10, 2023
RAVE_N, February 9, 2024
In the Blue Light, February 11, 2025