Lapsang Souchong Imperial

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 break with our Afternoon Tea curators. Need an extra lump of sugar? One more sip? If you have five minutes more (or ten), we have one more hit.

Today’s tea + soundtrack + visuals curated by Kate Schutt.

Award-winning singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Kate Schutt shares “Drumfire of the Hurricane,” a moving new single inspired by the extraordinary true story of Austrian painter and writer Christiane Ritter’s 1934 memoir A Woman in the Polar Night. Blending folk-rooted storytelling with sweeping adult contemporary arrangements, the song captures a moment of profound uncertainty: a woman alone in an Arctic hut, facing a violent winter storm and the terrifying realization that her survival depends entirely on herself.

The song’s title comes directly from Ritter’s description of the storm as “the furious drumfire of the hurricane,” a phrase that immediately stayed with Kate after first reading the memoir. “Ritter’s phrase is pitch perfect,” Kate explains. “Her writing is so visceral, capturing the overwhelm and terror of being inside a major winter storm. It’s my hope that my song adds another dimension to Ritter’s incredible, indelible story.”

“Drumfire of the Hurricane” explores a moment suspended between fear and action. Ritter knows the danger she is facing, but she has not yet found the courage to act. The song exists in that liminal space between the person she was before the storm and the person she becomes after surviving it.

Stream + share “Drumfire of the Hurricane” now:

The track’s emotional intensity is rooted in Kate’s commitment to storytelling. Guided by the songwriting advice that “songs are like little movies,” she approached the song with a cinematic mindset, carefully considering every lyric, sound, and moment. “I knew in a song I’d only have about 150 words, so every word (and every sound we recorded) had to count,” she says.

“Drumfire of the Hurricane” was written during Kate’s second journey to Svalbard in 2024 as part of the Arctic Circle artist residency program, a trip inspired by her decade-long fascination with Ritter’s memoir. While aboard the MV Ortelius, surrounded by the same Arctic landscape that shaped Ritter’s experience, Kate began piecing together the song during one of the expedition’s roughest days at sea.

“I holed up in my cabin and started piecing together bits of lyric ideas and melodies,” Kate recalls. “My cabinmate had to listen to me play it over and over for hours and hours as we tossed and rolled on the rough seas.” Days later, she performed an early version of the song for the artists-in-residence, Arctic guides, and ship’s crew, joined by Danish saxophonist and author Benjamin Koppel on alto saxophone. Writing and sharing the song within Ritter’s landscape became a deeply meaningful full-circle moment.

Initially imagining the track as a simple voice and guitar performance, Kate’s vision expanded during pre-production with co-producer, engineer, and mix engineer Jay Newland. “My mind was changed when Jay suggested that a full band could help create the atmosphere of the cold and ice and storm,” Kate explains. “He was totally right.”

My life has been made better by reading Ama Codjoe’s poetry. I was introduced to her work through another poetry collection, one edited by my partner Leah Ollman called “Ensnaring the Moment: On the intersection of poetry and photography.” Ama’s most recent book, Bluest Nude (Milkweed Editions), is not to be missed. I got it and read it in one gulp and then read it again. This poem, “Come One, Come All! Step Right Up! Welcome to the World of Wonders!,” is not from that collection, but I love its dead-serious playfulness. At one time or another, I have been all of these women. And I will, thank goodness, continue to be all of them.

Alison Rossiter makes photographs that are, simply put, wonders. She creates these photographs without a camera. Instead, she develops old photographic papers, letting the materials, their degradation, and the passing of time reveal an incredible range of ravishment. I am in awe of the subtle cataclysms that happen in each of her pieces.