Hi all,
I’m writing to you from my Delta flight to the west coast, feeling lucky i have the row all to myself and watching Jia Zhang Ke’s a touch of sin on my iPad. Tonight I’m DJing the opening night party for San Francisco’s Asian American film festival CAAMFest— this is the first time I’ve been flown somewhere for a gig and that feels…nice?
While I’m there, I’ll be playing two shows in cali this weekend— tomorrow (friday) in downtown LA and saturday in Oakland! Apologies to my cali ppl for the late notice, I’ve been barely able to think past the next day with everything going on in the world. I hope you can make it. If you come to the LA show u are required to wear a cvnty outfit though because it’s being hosted by QNA ;)
If you’re interested in coming to a live show, I’ve listed out shows for the next month below, and am also doing a recap of some film related news after:
CALIFORNIA DATES
May 9 - Los Angeles, CA at Resident DTLA for QNA
May 10 - Oakland, CA at Beauty Supply Arts (no ticket link just pull up)
NYC DATES
May 17 - Brooklyn, NY at Trans-Pecos for Heavy Hearts
May 23 - Chinatown, NY at Yu n Me Books for Year of the Tiger Listening Session
May 27 - Brooklyn, NY at Littlefield for James Tom & Friends
NORTHEAST DATES
June 3 - Kingston, NY at Tubby’s
June 6 - Providence, RI at Dirt Palace (no ticket link just pull up)
FILM NEWS
Last year I scored a beautiful film for my friend Shatara Ford called Dreams In Nightmares. They told me they wanted to make a contemporay queer black version of Paris, Texas, and that’s what we did. I love working with Shatara and was able to write one of my most fun and experimental scores which incorporates free jazz, drum and bass, house music, and ambient. After a premiere at Blackstar Film Festival and a stop at Berlinale, it’s now coming to NYC for Newfest on May 31! Tickets here: https://newfest.org/events/dreamsinnightmares/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAadWiKGURYzlxybFcGhb1261Nlzz0rtY2g_OqXtxWTDhb_w1LYCIiVYLNa0AOQ_aem_7FbZJMT4ZKR3vdMio-URvg
I also scored a film called Sorry Baby for Eva Victor that premiered at Sundance this year and was acquired by A24 for distribution. It’s coming to select theaters this summer June 27th and they just released the trailer: https://youtu.be/Rc0jgWoZo9w?si=D_He2HXvRsCFpkpJ It’s a film that as soon as I received a rough cut of it I knew it was special and I can’t wait for it to be out in the world.
ETC
I hope you are all doing okay. I’m currently reading the book Palo Alto, a massive leftist compendium of the history of Palo Alto. I’m only a quarter of the way through but it’s already covered how the city was founded by a corrupt exploitative railroad tycoon born into wealth who fled San Francisco to be farther away from the lower class and the people he was exploiting (including the Chinese he brought to work on the railroads and immediately after the transcontinental railroad was finished used his political power to help bring about the Chinese Exclusion Act). Also the first president of Stanford University was a eugenicist and Silicon Valley’s intense bend towards world optimization has origins in human optimization and white supremacy.
The world, especially America, is and has always been deeply corrupt. I feel like when my life feels like things are going good I tend to forget just how rotten it is. But I think no matter where we are in life that we remember there are always forces of corruption that want us to buy in and forget.
Amidst the doom and death I’ve also had moments of joy. I’ve been dancing with my friends in dark rooms a lot. I’ve been spending a lot of time with my parakeet and teaching him to be less afraid of things like hands, book bags, and hats. I’ve been feeding the chickens at my local community garden. I spent a day driving my friend to see their mom and we sang in the car on the jersey turnpike. I’ve been trans lesbianing all around town!
I don’t know where this is going. Im not a writer, I don’t know how to write that something awful is happening and then spin it into a beautiful life affirming call to action. It’s bad out there and I hope you take care. As always, fuck ICE, fuck Trump and Netanyahu, fuck Israel, fuck America, fuck India and all the fascist regimes in the world. All the love to Palestine, Kashmir, and all the oppressed people of the world.
Love,
Lia