hey loves.

summer is a doozy. i’m always so ready for lammas, for the heat to break, for the long light to soften. ready to rest, to stop moving, to wait for bats in the sky and drink warm tea in the evening. i think a lot about how Resmaa Menakem says white people are very good at “strategy” and very bad at culture-building. we’re often good at motion and intellectualizing and bad at slowing down and somatics. i admire how a lot of people hold motion and presence at the same time; my highly sensitive nervous system often balks at the higher sensory input and executive function demands of change and transition.

but what else is there to do, right? what else is being alive but change? (to paraphrase Octavia Butler)

i want to learn how to change in pace with myself, in pace with my beloved communities, in pace with presence, in pace with the seasons - not just the binary of overfunction and shut down i lived in for so long.

what are you harvesting from this season? what motion are you composting into rest?

and what has the bright full moon and hazy dusk illuminated in you?

sometimes i’m scared of what i see, but i think it’s better to know.

xo Nola

listen live (ish) ~

Friday, September 25th: Slow burn album release listening party; 7:00 PM; 3157 Milwaukee St (this is a home address, so please don’t share beyond friends you’re inviting to the event). We will have tea, friendship bracelet supplies, merch (!!!!!), and hopefully a fire with s’mores.

listen at home ~

brokeopenwide (on patreon - free): on the inevitable intersections of love and grief

All the places: my first Slow burn single is out on Qobuz!!

Revenant: second Slow burn single out on Qobuz 8/28

Retrospect (people from Kansas): third Slow burn single out on Qobuz 9/11

Slow burn: first album out on Qobuz 9/22

Note: do you listen on a streaming platform you consider relatively ethical and want to hear my music there? let me know and I’ll see what I can do!

literalize the music ~

Tightrope postcards: free; send them to friends or ask me to write you one ;)

Tightrope tanks: $25 or sliding scale

Merch order form

life sparks ~

listening to: anything (Adrianne Lenker), After Midnight (Chappell Roan), True Blue (boygenius), Lost Boys (Phoebe Bridgers), Steady Now (Maggie Rogers), When the Morning Comes (Daryl Hall & John Oates), Best Guess (Lucy Dacus), The In Between (LINE), When the Dark Dresses Lightly (AURORA), Big Love (Suki Waterhouse)

reading: Man’s Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl) (thanks Faith!), The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice: Black Lives, Healing, and U.S. Social Transformation (Fania Davis)

watching: Palm Springs, Bend It Like Beckham, KPop Demon Hunters, Be Kind Rewind

practicing: lakes, rivers, conflict, MOVING, cold brew tea

creative themes: microdosing desire, friend solar returns

learn about each other ~

ask me an anonymous (or not) question and I’ll respond in the next email <3