This is Anthony Tao and Liane Halton’s COVID-19 lockdown story. Working as “Poetry X Music, this Beijing-based duo used collaboration to help get them through lockdown. Hear what they have to say to their future selves.
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Here is a transcript of Anthony and Liane’s CoronaVideo.
Special notes: below, A = Anthony, L = Liane
This is Anthony Tao and Liane Halton’s COVID-19 lockdown story. The combination of their artistic expressions has enabled a lockdown-inspired project.
A –
I’m Anthony Tao, ah, born in Beijing, ah, grew up in Kansas.
L –
I’m Liane Halton, and I was born, and grew up, in South Africa.
A –
And we are both living in Beijing, coming from you … AT you from Beijing right now. Um, we are Poetry X Music.
A –
Our thing is, we combine my original poetry with original compositions on the classical guitar from Liane.
A –
I’m really glad that, you know, we sort of had the chance to work through the process together, during some of the worst parts of this. This was a … this project was a … was a driving force to keep things going, moving forward. You know, it gave me purpose anyway.
L –
I feel completely the same. I think a big thing that I was feeling a lot is, like, hopelessness, desperation. And just the need to find … a need to find a way to move forward.
A –
Yeah, I just I feel very lucky to have had creative writing. I’ve had it, you know, my entire life as an outlet, but it doesn’t have to be … it doesn’t have to be poetry, doesn’t have to be music, right? It just … for everyone … everyone out there who’s, you know, still quarantined, or locked out and just find … find something.
L –
I’ve been thinking a bit about, as a foreigner in China, how, like, I haven’t really felt connected, in some ways, to China, to living in China, to you know, but this I know, during … during this time, I would walk on the street and look at somebody and be like ‘Wow, you are going through a very similar thing to what I’m going through’.
Their COVID-inspired album is titled “Here To Stay”
Visit their bandcamp page here
CoronaVideo 