Travelling Song

Program Notes

I’ve been blessed with the chance to work with several poets with simple, beautiful texts—drawing on complex, challenging emotions—and Jasmine Walsh is certainly no exception. Here, they present what we’ve affectionately referred to as a queer, time-travelling road trip, where the speaker envisions revisiting past hardships in their life, now equipped with the support system they’ve accumulated along the way. To me, this celebrates how far we’ve come as queer adults, while holding space for the queer child inside us, who may never have imagined reaching this point.

This project feels especially special because of the relationships that have gone into the work. Chelsi and Jasmine share such a special connection, and I’m honoured that my notes and rhythms can help them come together in this homage to queer love. It’s also coincidental that I finished this piece within a week of my first anniversary with my own spouse; I know that, if I were packing my DeLorean with lovers and healers and friends, my partner would be riding shotgun for sure.