Get to Know LOTUS MOON
Where are you from? I am from Harlem, by way of Barbados and Guyana.
When did you start djing and why?
I am grateful to reflect on this question— it feels very grounding to write about the “why”
I would say that 2014 is when I was drawn to DJing (shoutouts to the Staying Underground fam)— drawn to deepening my understanding of this beautiful art and space. During my childhood I witnessed the ways in which music entered the soul...the body and spirit, whether my mom was blasting WBLS on Saturday and floating around our living room to house music, my grandmother cooking on Sunday morning and humming gospel tunes or spending a summer day with my dad and feeling the bass of a reggae tune from the car speakers — I am blessed to have grown with music...I am continuing to grow with music and continuing to understand and witness the ways in which music heals.
There is a beauty in transcending space and time and making space for healing through this — music does this. I DJ because of the possibilities of healing, feeling and creating love, journeying...I think that perhaps I was called to DJ in this lifetime...called to heal, because music has certainly found a way of healing me as well as the the histories (my ancestors) that live within me.
Who are your favorite music artists?
I don't think that I can just list music artists- because I think that often the intersections of music and other art mediums inform my art making and what sounds I select. For me, writing and sound feel intertwined, visuals and sound feel intertwined…
So here it goes...a list. I could certainly write pages and pages of favorites:
Donny Hathaway, Alice Coltrane, Chassol, Angela Davis, Roberta Flack, Nick Hakim, Patra, KAYTRANADA, Sonámbulo Psicotropical (a group from Costa Rica), Jill Scott, Sonya Spence, Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def), The Bee Gees (they truly have bops), Gregory Isaacs, Belkis Ayón, Sonya Spence, Gloria Anzaldúa, Audre Lorde, numerous Calypsonians and Soca artists, Beres Hammond, Sun Ra, Sade, Frank Ocean, Erykah Badu, Teju Cole, Nina Simone, Gloria Rolando, Jai Paul, Angelique Kidjo, Angela Davis, Sara Goméz, Jon Bap, Naná Vasconcelos, Anita Baker, Solange, among many many more…
What inspires you and drives you to create?
Being of Afro-Caribbean descent, my art making is deeply interested in engaging with the multi-dimensional threads, narratives and histories, that run through African Diasporic experiences— we are so cosmic, resilient, radiant, and layered. I am infinitely inspired by these layers and the possibilities of healing.
I think to exist in my body, as a Black queer womxn, I feel deeply inspired to in some way exalt and share my narrative, while providing a space for other womxn, femmes, qtpoc, globally, to heal, be held, and loved. I hope to cultivate and foster a space of resistance and transcendence that centers these bodies-- a space for us to fully be.
What do you think is lacking in nowadays music industry, and what positive progress have been made lately?
A few weeks ago, while doing some research, I was reflecting on the notion of looking inward and to the self as a site of imagining liberation and healing. How do we (as bodies of color) call to voice our own experiences and existences? What are the ways in which we are centering and prioritizing our existences against systems that seek to render our histories and existences invisible and non valuable?
I would say that there is so much positive progress and space that exists in the music industry today that is within the ways in which our bodies (bodies of color) are building their own tables and seats, sitting down and enjoying all of the lushness that is our existence.
I have been so humbled and blessed to be part of and held down by so many spaces in which the experiences and voices of womxn, femmes, and qtpoc are centered and prioritized — and that progress is continuing, moving, and being re imagined and built each day — i have infinite love for Staying Underground, 8ball Radio, SISTASPIN and Black Girl Magik, all spaces in which my identity and artistry as a DJ have been embraced and held and all spaces that are continually supportive of the multitude of stories and layers of this existence - existence as a Black queer womxn. There are countless other spaces doing the same in New York and beyond that I feel humbled to witness blossom as time moves forward.
Listen to Lotus Moon Mix here