At the school level, the goal is to work toward progression instead of regression. It starts with teachers and staff taking opportunities to stand up for LGBTQ youth and educate other students. Schools should provide resources for queer-identifying students — resources that they can relate to and find comfort in. As Iyer says, “If I had to say one more thing it would be a call-to-action for teachers, counselors, people who are working at the student level in schools to reach out to us and be the people in school who spread the resources.

“From Ari, with love.” Rozario chose this phrase because, she says, “We all just need a little bit of love out there.” She wanted to do something different, to spread love through something more personal. “Whenever I sell a piece, that’s how I feel about it. This piece is from me to you — with love. It’s like a personal little note. It’s like … my little doodle as a child.”

Santa Cruz expresses that living in Memphis as someone who is queer is like “living in a time capsule.” As for myself, I would describe my experience as living in a box. Constricting myself into walls that eventually cave in, suffocating my authentic self out of me and exhaling frustrations out onto this keyboard. That is the experience of a queer individual living in a society she is not sure is fully accepting of her.

“Why do we have genres?” asks Farrow. “People often like to define music by genre and categorization,” he continues. “We just come together, collaborate, and create music while trying out new things in the process,” adds Danjo. Though each member comes from a different background, for example, Philadelphian R-son who started rhyming in the first grade, and Danjo, who grew up in D.C. and always had a love for bluegrass or newgrass music (thanks to his Midwestern parents), Gangstagrass turns their idiosyncrasies into synchronicities.

I watched as fewer people left the comforts of their homes to step outside to jog or walk their dogs. I found myself feeling lethargic at work and home. I was there to see a close friend of mine experience sudden feelings of deep sadness and anger, and another who dreaded the holiday season to come because of past trauma.

Bethany hopes that audiences will feel the rawness of his personality and expression through his performance. “I want it to be a nerve-calming experience. I want my audience to feel enchanted when they hear my music,” says Bethany. “I want them to feel my vulnerability.”

Ask any experienced or veteran teacher for advice and one thing you will always hear is “never take work home with you.” But what nobody really says is that avoiding “taking work home with you” also means trying not to carry the weight of secondary trauma, PTSD, anxiety, insomnia, and constantly changing policies, all of which are proven to affect teachers at high rates. Sure, teachers can stay at school after hours to finish grading papers or complete lesson plans for the week, but part of being a teacher, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, also means taking extra time and effort to show ourselves grace, focus on our mental health, and practice self-care.