
Que sabes tu – Olga GuillotWhether writing on perfumed stationary or laptop, modeling the inquietude that is the form and content of Guillots work is familiar to many. Hers is an all-out voice that moves the pen or keyboard stroke in approximate mimicry with those fluid arm gestures for which she is so dearly known. The voice is a testimony and an instruction: one can learn how to creatively interpret hard feelings while fully taking a stage with confident grace.
And another, lady Dolly Partons “Just Because Im a Woman”:
I found Dolly, or I should say, Dolly found me during my Bay Area moment. Since then shes always signaled the kinds of impulses behind going west to figure a few things out. The hardened girlishness of this song reminds that going west is something that just has to happen sometimes. Parton has done her fair share of intellectual rearing. Here she subtly encourages some trip (and risk) taking to alternative locations–in work, space, heart.
Just Because Im a Woman – Dolly Parton
And finally, I’d like to top this playlist off with the gutbuster live version of “La Ultima Carta” (The Last Letter) by Raul Rodríguez. Theres no way to talk about summer of writing in New York without a Bachata substance. The lilt of Bachata, the sound of Dominican home-and-lovesickness, carries a productive stasis. The insides of this music feel like conditions for living, not things to get over or move past. Maybe that’s how writing is supposed to feel too?