This week Candy chats with Lay the Mystic who is back living with his 10-year old siblings due to the lockdown. Lay has been spending the time playing video games and offering his admin skills to assist grassroots organisations aiding migrant domestic workers effected by the Beirut explosion. Lay is a spoken word poet, musician, performer and practicing mystic of Lebanese Tongan heritage residing in Naarm. His recent works explore and unpack the experience of intimacy through building cubby forts, inviting people in and sharing his feelings with them. Candy and Lay discuss shopping while black, shifting through portals as lockdown madness sets in, collaboration across musical forms and how to use your creative skills in times of crisis.
Discussion Points
Navigating racial profiling.
Collaboration and healing in music.
The privilege of having a safety net.
The channelling of skills in addition to art and lending them to people and organisations that need them.
Decolonising queer spaces.
Representation and the push for more content.
Dating Apps.
Biography
Lay The Mystic is a musician, performer, poet and dedicated cubby-fort maker based in Narrm. Born to a Lebanese father and a Tongan-Fijian mother, Lay’s cultural heritage is reflected in his performances. His current works are centred around intimacy: all things close, being both a lens to understand societal or cultural issues, and, a landscape to enact change. Lay is also strongly influenced by mysticism and is a professional tarot card reader and hobbyist astrologer.
Links
Instagram @LayTheMystic
Facebook Lay Sounds
Poetry
Watch Listen Learn list
