Liminal Flares

Maika

Gather round and welcome to Liminal Flares, an otherworldly podcast of gender-inclusive revisions of eldritch literature, read to you by Maika, your queer, trans, nonbinary narrator. Needlessly gendered, heteronormative language is everywhere. If you exist somewhere outside the gender binary - non-binary, genderqueer, gender-nonconforming, genderfluid, agender - whatever umbrella term best encompasses your own unique gender identity - there are countless ways the world behaves as though you don't exist. That won't happen to you here. Gender-neutral language creates room for everyone, which means that you are included and welcome here no matter what your gender. May these haunted and haunting stories and poems help you and/or people you love feel more valid and seen. Learn more about the show at liminalflares.com and follow us on social media @liminalflares. Music by The Parlour Trick (theparlourtrick.bandcamp.com) Audio Engineering by Meredith Yayanos (patreon.com/TheParlourTrick) Cover art by Daniel Kern (danielkernart.com) read less
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Society & CultureSociety & Culture
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Episodes

One need not be a Chamber to be Haunted by Emily Dickinson
Jan 6 2023
One need not be a Chamber to be Haunted by Emily Dickinson
You know how a song or fragment of a song can get stuck in your head? It plays on repeat, whether you like it or not, a personal soundtrack that no one else can hear. I tend to have a number of things haunting my mind at any given time - music, poetry, lines from a book, echoes of previously thought or spoken words or phrases, other thoughts circling in a holding pattern, waiting to be written down.They coalesce into a dynamic mental kaleidoscope of language and sound. Emily Dickinson's evocative poetry is often part of it. A flickering rhythmic phantom, sometimes a select stanza or two, sometimes an entire poem, always a harmonious element of the protean inner pattern.In this special mini episode we offer up a few shadowy wisps of my mental atmosphere for your listening pleasure: one of Emily Dickinson's bewitching poems, amended to be gender-inclusive, along with a New Year's announcement about Liminal Flares.As always, we recommend using your headphones to get the most out of Mer's audio witchery.New here and wondering what this podcast is all about? Listen to our first episode, "A Prelude at the Threshold."Please support Liminal Flares by leaving your rating and (where possible) a review on your preferred podcast streaming service!Writing/Editing & Narration by MaikaMusic by The Parlour TrickAudio Engineering by Meredith YayanosCover photo by MaikaTo learn more about Liminal Flares visit our website liminalflares.comFollow us on Instagram, Tumblr, TikTok, or Facebook @liminaflaresAnd on Mastodon @LiminalFlares@mastodon.lolWe're pausing our release schedule for a few weeks. Regular episodes resume in February!
Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker (part 1)
Dec 15 2022
Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker (part 1)
Time to lose ourselves in the wintry wilds of Gothic horror courtesy of the one and only Bram Stoker. Nothing says cozy winter listening (or cool summer listening, for our friends in the Southern Hemisphere) like gender-inclusive Gothic fiction.If you like your hygge haunted, haunting, and NOT heteronormative, then you're already home.Use your headphones if you've got 'em. This week's show is swathed in heady, unearthly theremin. Mer used isolated theremin tracks from achingly beautiful track "Mare Desiderii" (from A Blessed Unrest by The Parlour Trick) as a sort of sonic collage that culminates in sharing part of the song itself near the end of the episode. Piano composition in "Mare Desiderii" by Dan Cantrell, theremin and violin arrangement by Mer)There's more of this phantasmal auditory goodness to come when we conclude "Dracula's Guest" next week! In the meantime, after you listen to this week's show, check out A Blessed Unrest in its preternatural entirety. You can also read my rhapsodizing about it on the Liminal Flares blog. Please support Liminal Flares by rating and (where possible) reviewing the show on your preferred podcast streaming service. New here and wondering what this podcast is all about? Check out our first episode, "A Prelude at the Threshold."Writing/Editing & Narration by MaikaMusic by The Parlour TrickAudio Engineering by Meredith YayanosCover photo by MaikaTo learn more about Liminal Flares visit our website liminalflares.comFollow us on Instagram, Tumblr, TikTok, or Facebook @liminaflaresOr Mastodon @LiminalFlares@mastodon.lolNew episodes every Thursday!
The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers (part 1)
Nov 10 2022
The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers (part 1)
Time to immerse ourselves in some early cosmic horror courtesy of American author Robert W. Chambers. It's all the fun of concentrated cosmic dread and none of the dreadful heteronormative exclusion! Along the shore the cloud waves break,The twin suns sink behind the lake,The shadows lengthenIn Carcosa.Strange is the night where black stars rise,And strange moons circle through the skies,But stranger still isLost Carcosa.Songs that the Hyades shall sing,Where flap the tatters of the King,Must die unheard inDim Carcosa.Song of my soul, my voice is dead,Die thou, unsung, as tears unshedShall dry and die inLost Carcosa.By the way, just case you aren’t already doing so, I strongly recommend listening to our episodes with headphones or earbuds in order to get the full enveloping eldritch experience of Mer’s audio engineering sorcery. Writing/Editing & Narration by MaikaMusic by The Parlour TrickAudio Engineering by Meredith YayanosCover art by Daniel KernTo learn more about Liminal Flares visit our website at liminalflares.comFollow us on Instagram, Tumblr, TikTok, or Facebook @liminaflaresIf you enjoy what we’re doing, support the show by rating and reviewing it wherever you listen to podcasts. And please share Liminal Flares with your friends.New episodes every Thursday. Want to request something for a future episode? We welcome requests provided the work is in the public domain - short stories, poetry, a passage or chapter from a book. Submit your requests via the website or on social media.
A Prelude at the Threshold
Nov 3 2022
A Prelude at the Threshold
And now for something completely different. A personal story before eldritch story time officially begins: an introduction of myself, your narrator, and an illustration of why I created this show in the first place.I created Liminal Flares because I know how much it would’ve meant to me to find this while growing up as a queer, trans, nonbinary person struggling comprehend themselves amid a relentlessly heteronormative world.I created Liminal Flares to be found by anyone who needs these haunted and haunting, gender-inclusive tales - be that because we help you feel more seen, valid, and included, or simply because you enjoy otherworldly storytelling that doesn’t exclude anyone based on their gender.I created Liminal Flares because present day me also needs things like this to exist in this fraught yet wondrous world. Herein lies the context that makes Liminal Flares so much more than another podcast of spooky stories. (Not that there's any such thing as too many eerie, atmospheric podcasts!)Weekly story time commences from here on out. We have such unearthly enchantments in store for you. New episodes every Thursday.⁣ Please share Liminal Flares with your friends.A few links to things mentioned in this episode:The Trevor Project study about Gender-Affirming Care for YouthYour Lessons Now Trans Voice Lessons (follow them @yourlessonsnow)Recently read books:Gender Queer by Maia KobabeDear Senthuran by Akwaeke EmeziBetween You and Me: Transitional Comics by KC CouncilorWriting & Narration by MaikaMusic by The Parlour TrickAudio Engineering by Meredith YayanosCover art by Daniel KernMore info at liminalflares.comFollow us on social media @liminalflares