Ten minute tea with Afternoon Tea. Spend ten minutes with Afternoon Tea. In the time it takes to boil one kettle, and let one cup of tea steep, we will have your daily art + music fix covered. Take your afternoon tea break with our Afternoon Tea curators.
Today’s tea + soundtrack + visuals are curated by Marivon. Created by Jill McKenna, Marivon is a truly eclectic group of international recording musicians who have joined forces to make an album of music, surpassing geography and genres.
Originally from Hamilton, Ontario, McKenna is a New York City-trained jazz upright bassist. Now living in Nelson, British Columbia, McKenna appears on eight different instruments on her debut album, None of this is Mine, and is a self-proclaimed coffee-obsessed, wannabe farmer.
None of this is Mine is an album challenging the way music is structured, both literally and figuratively. Inspired by a cup of coffee in the mountains with the late Jerry Granelli, it is a conversation on connection.
Co-written with Geoff Hudson, “while anchorless we drift” is an expression of love for your friends. It’s a reminder that it’s okay to get a little lost sometimes, and it will very quickly become the newest addition to your road-trip playlist.
Music of choice:
Today we’re listening to Avril Lavigne’s Love Sux. Perhaps a lot for your morning cup of tea, but I can promise you will walk away from this song feeling ready to take on the day. From the punk rock princess who redefined femininity, Avril Lavigne does not disappoint with this 2022 release of a bangers-only album. Somehow simultaneously playful, angsty, sad and nostalgic, Avril has kept true to her roots but now showing up as the master of her craft and it FIRES. ME. UP.
Poetry of choice:
“Connection is collaborative. For words to have meaning, they have to be read.”
– Kae Tempest (from the book “On Connection”)
Incredible spoken word artist, poet, and author Kae Tempest published a book in 2020 entitled, On Connection. I read this book and had never before resonated with something so strongly – it was everything I was thinking about, but written with so much more eloquence and clarity. This quote is an example of this eloquence, and needs no further description from me – it’s up to you.
Tea of choice: Cascara (Coffee Cherry Tea)
I hold a deep love for all things coffee. Today, for Afternoon Tea, I sip on some delicious cascara tea – tea made from the peel/husk of a coffee cherry (usually discarded when harvesting the coffee seed). I genuinely love this tea and think it’s a great pairing. Not only does the bright pink colour remind me of the punk rock princess herself, but the complexity of this infusion with its bright attack, earthy, moss-like body and long, sweet decay, reminds me of the joy of connecting seemingly-unrelated things; I find its relationship to coffee so intricate and oddly political, and I always picture an ADSR graph when sipping (music nerd reference… my apologies).
Tea + Me 