Chasing Magic: Ayodele Casel, filmed by Kurt Csolak and directed by Torya Beard, New York City, opens by briefly focusing on a Twyla Tharp quote painted on the brick exterior of the Joyce Theater: Art is the only way to run away without leaving home, a quote that has new resonance in these times of isolation and lockdown amid the ever-evolving COVID-19 pandemic.

I’m a lot closer to the middle-aged soprano I’ve always wanted to be, but working on this project has made me take a backwards look at a very long shadow.

Reading these poems, I am struck by Choi’s relentless and acute attention to how the everyday becomes shot through with material effluents when living in a postwar national economy driven by industrial manufacturing.

This book made my life, my breaking, my joy something other than a spectacle for the white gaze.

So instead of writing an entire dissertation on the art I’m obsessed with, allow me to present to you my Holy Trinities (get it?) of music, art and literature in quick snippets.

I’ve seen what she’s seen, confirmed a shared value system, a kindred sensibility of what makes a standout dancer.

There is something about the way they will rearrange the table you’re sitting at that is full of tenderness and care.