In this episode, Elodie sits down with Heather McCalden to discuss her inventive and deeply moving book The Observable Universe, a memoir, mystery, investigation, and work of cultural commentary.

Heather lost both of her parents to AIDS when she was a child. Years later, following the death of her grandmother Nivia, she started researching the history of HIV and discovered that the history of the virus and the internet ran on parallel timelines. That discovery led her down a fascinating rabbit hole, where virality began to take on a multitude of meanings.

We plunge down that rabbit hole with her, a journey that takes us into unexpected territory and offers no definite conclusions. At the book’s center is a heart that thrums with grief, a heart that knows that to be alive is to be transformed on a cellular level.

A conversation on technology and consciousness, writing’s relationship to the body, grief, and the process of making art in the digital age.

08:10 - On memoir and unresolved endings

17:15 - Heather’s process of writing The Observable Universe

24:49 - On writing and embodiment

30:48 - Heather’s practice as a photographer and her creative influences

41:00 - COVID and how collective trauma influences literature and art

Heather McCalden is a multidisciplinary artist working with text, image and movement. She is a graduate of the Royal College of Art (2015) and has exhibited at Tanz Company Gervasi, Roulette Intermedium, Pierogi Gallery, National Sawdust, Zabludowicz Collection, Testbed 1, Flux Dubai and with Seattle Symphony Orchestra. In 2017 she attended the Emerging Writers Intensive at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity and returned in 2018 for their Summer Writers Residency. In January 2021, she participated in the Tin House Winter Workshop. The Observable Universe is her first book.

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What does it mean to create in the face of loss and uncertainty? In this episode, acclaimed author Edwidge Danticat and multidisciplinary artist Manuel Mathieu reflect on their creative journeys, tracing the origins of their respective practices and the formative moments that gave them permission to see themselves as artists.

Danticat and Mathieu discuss how their shared Haitian ancestry shapes their work and the artistic lineages that inform it. At heart is a preoccupation with ephemerality, the tension between making something that lasts while living in a fragile world. For both artists, to create is to become a vessel.

The two consider what it means to align one’s work with a deeper sense of purpose, overcoming fear and self-censorship, and empathy’s relationship to art.

A meditation on the role of the artist and what it means to create dangerously in these times.

06:07 — Edwidge on learning to tell stories

11:06 — On inheritance and artistic lineage

17:34 — On ephemerality

27:20 — On being a vessel

34:29 — On finding one’s calling

51:33 — On rage

01:01:20 — Manuel on channeling the invisible through scent

Edwidge Danticat is the author of numerous books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, Krik? Krak!, and The Farming of Bones. Her work explores migration, memory, and the Haitian diaspora. She is a MacArthur Fellow and teaches at Columbia University.

Manuel Mathieu is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, ceramics, and installation. Born in Haiti and based in Montreal, his practice examines historical violence, memory, and spiritual legacy. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. He will debut new and existing works at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

For more, follow the show on Instagram instagram.com/permanentdaydream

Welcome to Permanent Daydream, a conversation series that explores the inner lives of artists, writers, and cultural visionaries. Hosted by writer and critic Elodie Saint-Louis, it’s a show for anyone wondering what we might discover when we let our minds wander freely.

The first episode, featuring Edwidge Danticat and Manuel Mathieu, premieres April 21.

Follow the show on Instagram: instagram.com/permanentdaydream