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    Music Recs: Pride Month Special

    27 June, 2019

    We don’t talk about music a lot on our blog, but I guess when we do, it’s with a bang! Which is to say, I’m here today with a list of 60 LGBT artists. And yes, I say artists, not just songs – each and every one of them is an out member of our community. (Well, there are a few bands and some of them only have a lead singer who matches that description, but you know!)

    I had to make some decisions regarding the way of presenting all this beauty to you. First of all, I divided those sixty artists into three groups of wlw, mlm & those who are not cis. (I was gonna go with “trans/nonbinary”, but there are also genderfluid, gender nonconforming artists, even a Two-Spirit one, so I figured I need a pretty broad umbrella term here). Obviously, there are some intersections within those groups, but I wanted even numbers… And lastly, I linked them all to my favourite album/single of theirs on Spotify, so I could put covers & make it all look pretty.

    So! Take a quiz and figure out who should you listen to!* Or just scroll through them all.

    Take the quiz!

    *Charlotte made me specify that when I say “dancing alone in your room” in the quiz, what I mean is dancing slowly with your eyes closed, the sound of rain coming through the window & maybe by the end of it you won’t be as tired anymore.

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  • All Recommended,  Music,  Music Recs

    Music Recs: 6 Sapphic Songs as Delicate as Mary Oliver’s Poetry

    18 January, 2019

    I’m sure I’m not the only one who still can’t believe Mary Oliver died. She was such an amazing person, such a calming force in this world. Her poetry was always simple but evoking the most complicated feelings; delicate but hitting straight in the heart with a power of a bulldozer. She was one of a kind. She was making the world a softer place just by sharing her words with us.

    So I was wondering how to celebrate her beautiful legacy on Reads Rainbow, because there was no doubt in my mind we have to talk about a lesbian poet as iconic as her. And I decided that as much as I love her poetry, I want to do something different. I mean, I can let you know what are my favourite collections of hers… But I wanted to translate her tenderness into another medium. Hence the songs.

    What works better with poetry than music, right? (I’m from Poland, we have a whole genre literally called ‘sung poetry’. Remind me to talk about that more some day.)

    I selected six songs by sapphic artists that sounded to me as softly as Mary’s poems. I hope you’ll enjoy. And when you’re already at it, check out what 2018 LGBT music videos I recommended the other day.

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