Issue IX of Half Mystic Journal is a constellation of contemporary art, lyrics, poetry, and prose celebrating music in all its forms. This issue showcases the theme of synaesthesia: the blue undressing of voice—the song-scent wafting on wind—the tongues of memory and light. Examining what it means to be fully present in the world, Issue IX flirts with the corporeal, sings as it stings.

Issue IX features the voices of Sara Elkamel, KB, Bessie Flores Zaldívar, Darnell “DeeSoul” Carson, Calvin Olsen, Arya Samuelson, Jessica Poli, J.I. Kleinberg, Paola Bennet, Lucy Hannah Ryan, Caroline Grand-Clement, Topaz Winters, Kirsten Shu-ying Chen, Ryan Griffith, Erin Jin Mei O’Malley, Grace Qi Song, Sunny Vuong, Trini Rogando, Evy Shen, Amy Liu, Anne Kwok, and Janelle Cordero.

Synaesthesia is a song tethered to space, shocked in the present tense, undelicious as longing and surreal in fever pitch. This is a story about touch which means hurt, hurt which means salt, salt which means movement, movement which means joy, joy which—of course and always—means music. The synaesthesia issue is here, right here. What else is there, really, to be?

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