On the summer solstice, esperanza spalding came by KMHD to talk about Prismid Sanctuary, her new fundraising initiative and her approach to her work co-running a non-profit, “a place in Portland, OR, for Indigenous, Black & all POC artists and cultural workers to convene, rest, and heal.”
00:00 – esperanza spalding introduces the commission initiative for Prismid Sanctuary
01:25 – On the importance of the number 7 and its connection to manifestation
03:05 – On spalding’s artist-inspired approach to co-directing a non-profit organization
05:45 – On being inspired in the collaborative process with Prismid and their relationship with the land
08:45 – On spalding’s collaborative work with a non-profit organization is akin to the collaborative process to making music in a band, how both kinds of groups build to a mutually-felt vision
10:45 – ADH’s making the connection from 2021’s Songwrights’ Apothecary Lab and the nature of that work being a product of the respective places the album was constructed to the work of Prismid being a concrete place for collaboration
13:00 - spalding explains in detail the album commission process
14:45 - spalding, Neva, and ADH collaborate on ideas for spalding to craft a small suite of song segments
18:55 - spalding’s crafts a song about the hat that keeps coming by Neva’s house
19:40 - spalding ponders song a song of increasingly shorter, quicker phrases around the summer solstice truism– Every Day After This Gets Shorter
21:20 – spalding works out the connective tissue to the next idea
23:10 – spalding makes one last song connecting flowers and birds
25:10 – spalding introduces and performs a solo version of her song “Art’s Here”, composed to receive a grant for Prismid Sanctuary