Music is woven into our everyday lives. It starts our mornings, softens our nights and sustains us through the difficult moments between. A single song can brighten a day. A familiar melody can feel like coming home. It is no surprise, then, that music plays an equally vital role in the stories we tell. Music doesn’t merely sit in the background of our favourite movies and television shows; it shapes how we feel, what we notice, and what we understand about the characters before they even utter a word. Sometimes, music whispers secrets to the audience that even the story itself is too timid to reveal. This rings especially true in queer stories, where music expresses desire and intimacy and evokes emotion that the narrative might otherwise leave unspoken.
“The Skin and Its Girl”: Queer Palestine isn’t a fantasy
Soon after her birth, Elspeth Rummani died. Except she didn’t. She came back to life before anyone could even write the time of her death, her skin cobalt blue and otherwise a healthy infant. On the same day, the Rummani’s blue-soap factory was bombed across the world in Nablus of the West Bank in occupied Palestine. Now, 25 years later, she visits her great-aunt Nuha Rummani’s grave at a crossroads akin to the decision her aunt faced years prior to Elspeth’s birth: whether to choose her beloved or a separate future. Elspeth recalls her childhood of ostracization, family, and mystery, woven together by tales from her great-aunt about her family’s history and their soap factory.
Book Review: Keeping You A Secret by Julie Ann Peters
The first time I ever saw Julie Ann Peters’ Keeping You a Secret was at the foot of my mom’s bed, face up and daunting. The image on the cover might have inspired less wariness if my mother hadn’t already informed me of the contents of the book, because I knew the image was not simply indicative of two female characters. It was indicative of two female characters in love.