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Two well-traveled storytellers meet at a dusty crossroad. Or perhaps they’re at a fancy gallery this time. A deserted bus station. A space palace. The venue is constantly morphing, but the storytellers are forever enchanted with — even renewed by — one another.
Music is the universal, ancient language. It wears feathers, windchimes, and an invisibility cloak. It’s obvious that music leaked out of a magical world and somehow ended up here. It is 100% dream stuff, yet strong enough to change the rhythm of our heartbeats.
Literature is the canyon carved by water, the forest grown from a single seed, the dripping cave stalactite, and the mirrored pool beneath. Literature echoes its creators, is always expecting company, and has just given birth to a new universe.
Yep. I adore stories, storytellers, and storytelling. I am absolutely a “read the book before watching the movie” person, and love when musicians translate great literature into great songs.
Or when a song/album directly reincarnates as an…entire book?
I first discovered this (rare) creative trajectory during the pandemic, when, in short succession, two different versions of the same story found me in an empty, bleach-scented library. The first was “The Deep,” a heavy-hitting single by experimental hip-hop geniuses, clipping., which reimagines early slave trade and modern climate issues with an afrofuturist sensibility.
I listened to this amazing song on repeat throughout the worst of the pandemic (and find myself doing it again now). The second was The Deep, a slender sci-fi novel written by Rivers Solomon…in collaboration with all the members of clipping., and based on their song!
The book is very much its own creation, but expands on clipping.'s rich musical mythology: pregnant African captives, violently thrown from transatlantic ships, give birth to babies that have gills, thrive underwater, and are completely autonomous.
The new generations rescue other captives, form a technologically-advanced, empathy-driven aquatic civilization, and many years later, fight against deep sea mining and other destructive gambits introduced by “two legs” — land dwellers who aim to subjugate, pollute, and capture…everything. It is deep. It’s layered. It feels like there are many, many more stories swimming around inside this world, and I can’t wait to see and hear more.
It’s clear that clipping. set an extremely high bar for other musicians, and possibly launched the next trend in music. While it’s hard to find other artists (yet) who have directly translated their music into films, books, and fashion…Janelle Monaé has just accomplished it all, impeccably.
In recent back issues of this newsletter, we’ve mentioned Monaé’s Dirty Computer (her album), Dirty Computer (her “emotion picture” companion to the album), and now let’s talk about The Memory Librarian: and Other Stories of Dirty Computer (her book)! Co-written with a handful of very talented authors, Monaé’s literary symphony springs forth from the same vibrant soul as its original musical blueprint, but rises up with such powerful literary architecture, it is one of the best sci-fi collections I've ever read, and easily my favorite read of 2023.
Every story sings of rebellion, identity, liberation, and of creating a purposeful future, but I was particularly fond of the the penultimate story in this collection, Monaé and Yohanca Delgado’s “Save Changes.” In it, there’s a particularly odd scene of a smiling, picture-perfect housewife (a clean computer) who lovingly prepares row after row of…canned twinkies? The twinkies are carefully packed into jars of sparkling, bright blue...Windex. Trust me, it will make sense, and it's very good. Bon appétit!
If you’ve got a universe living inside of you, now is the time to get it out of your head (and into as many mediums and platforms as possible.) 970West Studio has all the tools you need; book a session or sign up for a class today!
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