\n<\/p>\n
6<\/p>\n
In the late \u201980s and early \u201990s, I started reading Audre Lorde and Alice Walker<\/a> and Judy Grahn and bell hooks<\/a> and Adrienne Rich and Lucille Clifton<\/a>. These poets and philosophers and writers seismically unlocked me to myself. I grew up in a man\u2019s world, and I was taught everything through a man\u2019s eyes in a man\u2019s words. It wasn\u2019t until I read these women that I realized, \u201cOh<\/em>, there\u2019s more.\u201d<\/p>\n 7<\/p>\n When I started getting legit gigs at folk and roots music festivals, they would throw you onstage with other performers. There might be a singer from Guam, some Tuvan throat singers, some African dudes with guitars and an Eastern European choir. We didn\u2019t share a verbal language, but we could talk to each other through music and become friends in this way.<\/p>\n 8<\/p>\n The first time I played Jazz Fest, I thought, \u201cWhoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.\u201d Every time I was not on tour, I would go to New Orleans, because I wanted to go where I felt inspired. Then I started renting an apartment, then I fell in love with a local, and he was my reason to stay and make a home. I\u2019ve been there about 20 years, and the shine has not worn off one bit.<\/p>\n 9<\/p>\n I\u2019ve smoked a lot of pot in my day, and I know it to be a really instrumental element of my awakening. I haven\u2019t engaged in mushrooms as much, but I feel like it is also fundamental to human evolution. Whole genres of music and artistic movements have evolved and moved forward hand in hand with these gifts of nature.<\/p>\n 10<\/p>\n When I moved to New York, I was at the New School studying, and I found myself reading books and talking about them. It\u2019s like, Oh my God, this is really important stuff. The format of a book, it\u2019s a road deeply into another person\u2019s mind and life, to a whole other way of being, to whole other worlds, that I don\u2019t find paralleled in any other genre of art.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nWorld Music<\/span><\/h3>\n
New Orleans<\/span><\/h3>\n
Marijuana and Psilocybin<\/span><\/h3>\n
Reading<\/span><\/h3>\n