“It’s the dancer’s leap on the downbeat that gives the illusion of flight.” (Will Cordeiro on Presto)

Bang, the universe began—and ended. A cosmos is reduced to an epigram. Narrative allows us to dash through eternity as quick as a quantum leap.

“It is an alchemical process, making something new from bits and pieces.” (An Interview With Morphic Rooms)

I wanted to create a visual language in my art practice that reflected the way these musical cut-ups and abrasions sounded to me—transmuted, rejoined.

“Hope, no matter how unlikely, is still worth singing for. There has to be magic in that.” (Maggie Warren on Presto)

For me, these realities of nature reveal a sense of presto: an inherent poetry to this life, a chance to find meaning and magic in a world we share with such strange creatures.

Literature, Music, Personal Essay, PoliticsGuestJuly 7, 2024Maggie Warren

From the Editor: The Presto Issue

I’m inclined to think life or thoughts or ideas aren’t a blur of movement so much as a collage of image and voice: layered, constant, revved, and singing.

The Presto Letters

In an older sense of the word, to understand means “to stand among.” When I need to understand anything, I often stand among songs.

"A ringing clarity, followed by smoke. Deliberate naughtiness." ([sarah] Cavar on Presto)

What would my craft be, we and I, if not for the lovers I share us with?

Literature, Music, Personal Essay, PoliticsGuestMay 28, 2024[sarah] Cavar, Leila Chatti, Mary Oliver, Chen Chen, nat raum

From the Editor: Adrienne Novy's Crowd Surfing With God: 5 Year Anniversary Special Edition

May this book teach you, when the ache looms loud & large in your peripheral vision, to invite it inside & ask for its forgiveness.

From the Editor, Music, Announcements, LiteratureTopaz WintersDecember 18, 2023Adrienne Novy

“My poems couldn’t save me from wanting to die.” (An Interview With Adrienne Novy)

I don’t know if I’m reaching backward in the anniversary edition so much as listening to my younger self reach forward.

“There exists a joy and hunger for more in that younger self.” (Adrienne Novy on Crowd Surfing With God: 5 Year Anniversary Special Edition)

That intensity is impossible to replicate as an adult, I think, because it reverts to nostalgia for us.

Music, Literature, Personal EssayGuestDecember 9, 2023Adrienne Novy, Hanif Abdurraqib

Introducing Crowd Surfing With God: 5 Year Anniversary Special Edition

This book is for you, yes—but more importantly, it’s for the things that tried to destroy you & failed. It’s for the past selves that live in you, still breathing, still breathing.

Announcements, Literature, MusicTopaz WintersOctober 18, 2023Adrienne Novy, Hanif Abdurraqib