Karen Ponzio Photos
Lys Guillorn.
Wednesday night gave beloved New Haven-based singer-songwriter Lys Guillorn a chance to perform live from Holberton School for District Arts and Education’s biweekly series, one that Guillorn herself mentioned that she has been watching since the livestream series began last year.
“It’s an extremely cool place,” Guillorn said after a short soundcheck, complete with a bit of freestyle, and an introduction by Executive Director A.M. Bhatt, who also caught up viewers with the latest offerings from DAE before the music began.
In addition to free programs for high-school students, DAE is offering its first free adult program, Bhatt said. Scheduled for May 29, the eight-hour “intensive” will focus on coding. “Be prepared to work,” he said, also noting that, by the end of the program — free to adult residents of New Haven — participants are “literally going to be able to create a website.”
Bhatt then revealed that the next livestreamed show — two weeks from tonight and featuring Siul Hughes — would be the first to allow a limited number of live audience members. Twenty-five people will be able to attend the show, including food trucks and beer vendors on site. Bhatt noted that even though the space was rated for a capacity of 125, “we are going to be very conservative.” As time and vaccinations progressed, they would be letting in more people.
Bhatt also took a moment to recognize that although the situation at DAE is not what it was when the series began over a year ago, the Covid-19 pandemic is still not over.
“Everyone is hurting. Everything is still in a high state of recovery,” he said. “Where I’m originally from, the level of nightmare that is going on right now is unspeakable,” and people are dying “by the hundreds by the hour.” While he encouraged donations, he also encouraged “any spare energy you have, any spare moment you have, just scream in the face of any seat of power that allows systems to keep perpetuating, that allows that … to go on in the context of the world.”
Guillorn thanked Bhatt for the introduction and “the powerful words we should consider” before beginning her set with one of her older songs, “Nothing to It.” She proceeded to offer a set of 12 songs both old and new with personal and poignant lyrics that, even at a distance, seem to extend a gentle hand on the shoulder and an encouraging sense of being understood.
The second song, “Sassafras,” referenced Hamlet and Yoric’s skull; Guillorn said it was inspired by “high-school English class” as well as “disastrous love affairs.” thought she added that she “hadn’t had one in a long time so I had to use other people’s, and I thank them.”
Many of the songs performed on Wednesday were written during the past year, including “Dolores and I,” written while Guillorn was staring out her back window with her cat Dolores on her lap. “Maybe one day I’ll have a house show and people can meet her,” she added. Guillorn is so adept at conveying the equal parts isolation of those moments and immersion in its presence that one almost feels like they too were sitting at the window with Dolores warming their soul.
Guillorn mentioned that it was “really good to play online shows,” which enabled people “in multiple states” and those “who can’t leave the house due to illness” to be able to see her perform. She planned to continue doing them even as more live shows were added “to reach out to folks.” Her song “Hand to Heart,” written this past February as a valentine to her friends, conveyed Guillorn’s appreciation and love, singing, “hand to heart, you are the best of me.”
Guillorn reached inward with “Wisdom Teeth,” written “during an intense time in October” and “based on a dream.” She also mentioned that it was influenced by a period of listening to Elton John, as well as a realization to “accept all these parts of me.” This slower, more contemplative piece asked the questions “do I know who I am? Do I need to change? There are so many questions keeping me awake.” It was hard not to agree.
Contemplation was revisited in “Objects in the Mirror,” with Guillorn talking about “hiding under a blanket” and being “so tired.” Each verse settled in like a singular piece of poetry highlighted by the sparest amount of guitar so as not to break the stream of consciousness, as Guillorn sang “I think of empty stages, I think of empty trains,” and eventually accepted her own presence, repeating “I’m somewhere. I’m somewhere.”
After playing the songs “Silver” and “How To Make a Mountain,” she then offered a “palate cleanser” with the jaunty “Go On and Kiss Me,” which she wrote based on a found photograph from the 1940s of a couple kissing in a field, and then “Pin Oak,” written after a hike in 2019 that Guillorn noted “for all intent and purpose was last year.”
Though it cannot be said that Guillorn was trying to forget 2020. Rather, she has created somewhat of a soundtrack for it, one that acknowledges the loneliness and the loss, but also celebrates the small joys and large realizations as we all try to maneuver our way into something not old or new, but more purposeful and persistent.
As she sang at the end of “Hand to Heart,” “Gotta keep laughing. Gotta keep dancing. Gotta keep hugging. Gotta keep singing. Gotta keep breathing.”
More information about the biweekly livestreamed shows and educational programs can be found on the DAE Facebook page and website. All live shows are also recorded and available on the DAE Facebook page immediately following the livestream
