Happy Full Moon!
Firstly, THANK YOU for signing up for this newsletter. The immense effort I’ve put into even thinking about releasing this into the World Wild Web™ has been quite a journey - I’m grateful to share this space with you, and can only hope that it sparks something bright.
A lil introduction, as there are some of you who I haven’t met yet. My name is Alexia and I’m an independent writer, cultural worker and emerging musician - born and raised between Buenos Aires and Tkarón:to. *If you’re not familiar with this spelling of Toronto, this is a beautiful discussion on Indigenous people’s relationships to land and water on Turtle Island by Anishinaabe artist (and former professor of mine!) Bonnie Devine.
I’m a daughter, a sister, a friend, a lover, a dreamer and a moody bitch. Welcome 🙂
I was first introduced to the concept of emergence circa 2010 in Buenos Aires, when my friend Mica and I attended Ciudad Emergente - a free, open-air festival dedicated to showcasing new generation art, music, technology and culture that just celebrated their 15th anniversary this autumn. I was a self-proclaimed 17-year old hipster running on Phoenix and fumes, doing community theatre in the basement of la Biblioteca Nacional, enamored by the city’s pulsing nightlife and cafés and chaotic colectivos that spun through the streets in such a tangled web of transportation that you needed to carry around a dog-eared pocket guide to not lose your way (pre-GPS days). *See below :)
I moved back to Toronto in 2013, and suddenly I was immersed in The Art School Experience™.
*Cue Gossip Girl voice* SPOTTED: queer, angsty, BRILLIANT artistes with $10 fur coats from Black Market Vintage, chain-smoking and debating the ethics of beauty outside of 100 McCaul St. You know who you are, and I love you. May the saint of Papas Fritas burn all of your student debt and tuition contracts like they did at Universidad del Mar in Chile, 2009.
We were ~ emerging ~ . We were just beginning to connect with our muses and learning to transmute our love, our rage, our anxiety into paintings, films, sculpture, essays. We were having a thousand coffees a day, walking through museum exhibits on mushrooms, dancing to experimental noise performances on rickety fire escapes and sketching cartoons on the flimsy plastic table coverings at Betty’s in Chinatown. This raw honesty - embodied and chewed up and spit out. This profound curiosity, this courage to forge deep friendships, to not only imagine different worlds, but stay up all night to truly manifest them into reality - this is my definition of emergence. It is timeless. It is ageless. It is my true nourishment.
We are always emerging. As artists, as humans.. we ebb and flow with the moon and her tides, spiralling inwards and shedding past selves and growing into the light. The moon in all her fullness is the original REVEAL - shaking the veil to let the spiders out, so we may befriend them or sweep them out of the house and into the world.
Sometime last year, I found The Fool, the trickster of the Tarot cards, pinned to a community corkboard at arts & culture hub 401 Richmond with the world at his feet. I resonate with this energy and crave that fresh-faced eagerness and naïveté because, I, too, have infinite ideas and dreams and burning questions in an unwavering search of WHAT COULD BE. I ran into a friend this weekend who, after listening to me rant about challenges at work and an upcoming move, said: But Alexia, this isn’t new. You’ve been like this since we’ve known each other. You’re always in limbo. I was humbled, and a bit embarrassed - but what an excellent reminder that in-betweenness is universal and the unknown is here to stay.
I think a lot about “Instructions for Running a DIY Art Space”, written by Danielle Gustafson-Sundell, Carrie Gundersdorf, Adam Scott and Andy Moore for the former Deluxe Projects in Chicago, April 2009. There are twelve points in this guide, and I would like to offer you the first as an invitation, especially as we navigate the intensities of this eclipse season.
Fall in love with art.
Fall in love! Immerse yourself! Get out of your head! Dust your windows! Extend a hand! Call a friend! Make dinner together! Bask in the sun or in the bright light of an old film at your neighborhood cinema! (Revue Cinema is a gem - for those in Toronto)
Because life is full of synchronicities, I dreamt of a falling woman last night. Think Alice in Wonderland, but dressed in a pinstripe suit and hat à la Polly Gray from Peaky Blinders, which I’m currently watching with my boyfriend. A recurring nightmare of mine is witnessing women being pushed from a skyscraper rooftop, but this dream was different. She was in limbo, simultaneously ecstatic and at peace - fully present within herself, and reveling in the thrill of being drawn by a force larger than her.
I named this newsletter MANZANA, which is Spanish for apple - and also a word that is used to describe a city block or the distance from one street to another. (If you don’t already know this about me, you'll very soon realize my ultimate love of etymology and double meanings - Gemini Sun + Moon, baby!) MANZANA… the forbidden fruit, the path between spaces, a moveable paradise, the real Eden. I hope the significance of this name will continue to unfold with each piece of writing.
I’m moving this Sunday, so I leave you with some offerings until I’m settled. Every newsletter, I will share some of the things that are currently inspiring me and keeping me going. Take what resonates, and scroll down for a lil bonus exercise-game if you’re in need of a little creative stimulation.
🍎 TO LISTEN 🍎
This song has been on continuous loop for over a month. La Valenti is a 25-year old multidisciplinary artist from Cordoba, raised in Neuquén, Argentina. These lyrics tug at my heart:
Rebalsa y de tanta labia
Como una araña me resbalo por mi telaraña
Y no hay más fuerte para mi mente
Que abrazar lo que aparece y darle todo lo que se merece
🍎 TO WATCH 🍎
I always return to this recording of Princess Nokia in conversation with Sofia Robleda Rower at Brown University’s Women’s History Series in 2017. She shares her thoughts on spirituality, feminism and race in her artistic process and performances with a soft, steady certainty that has been a guide to me in more moments that one.
🍎 TO READ 🍎
“Sky Woman Falling” by Robin Wall Kimmerer in her book “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants”, originally published in 2013. My heart. Just read it <3
AND LASTLY…
🍎 TO WORK THRU STAGNANT ENERGY 🍎
Write a list of the top three places you would like to visit in the world
Open Google Maps
Type in the first location
Zoom in, as far as you can.
Select Street View
Follow the arrows and may they lead you where they may.
Much love to all of you. Thank you for joining me, and if you feel called to respond, it will make my day <3
Subscribed! Love your writing and expression ❤️ Don’t stop 😘
I love your writing, best of luck with your move <3