In her riveting memoir No Walls and the Recurring Dream, Ani DiFranco shared the ways that music brought her “deeper and deeper into the world.” For the singer and songwriter, music and poetry created a space that received her and sheltered her from the brokenness of the world around her. Even in her memoir, there’s a spiritual component in which DiFranco acknowledges her attunement to consciousness and to the natural rhythms that shape the ebb and flow of life.
Now, in an illuminating series of conversations with artist and author Lauren Coyle Rosen, The Spirit of Ani: Reflections on Spirituality, Feminism, Music, and Freedom (Akashic, March 3)—recorded between the winter and the spring of 2023—DiFranco explores several themes related to her artistry and her philosophy. As Rosen writes in her introduction, DiFranco describes her revealing herself to an audience as a series of dropping the veils. According to Rosen, “these veils are what separate her from others and from aspects of her authentic self. They are like curtains that she seeks to part when she plays, so she can connect with her spirit through her music to all who wish to receive it. In many ways, this whole book is a beautiful dropping of the veils.”
