Michelle Zauner is my favorite kind of artist. She’s one of those musicians, writers, vocalists, and cooks who has the ability to meld all her media into perfect concert with one another. To read about her cooking is to be reminded of her albums. To learn about her mother’s life is to flash back to the dazzling visuals in her music videos.
Speaking of her videos, my first exposure to Michelle was seeing her dressed in a Korean hanbok, shredding guitar while sitting on an 18-wheeler. I immediately knew I would be obsessed with this person. Her recent output has been just as thrilling and affecting. Crying in H Mart is a memoir I will never forget, and the Japanese Breakfast record Jubilee captures joy in its true, ephemeral spirit. Like all her work, they are beautiful conduits for empathy.
This is what makes Michelle so incredible to me and many others. While she intertwines the threads of her art into perfect plaits, she lets us find something in our own lives, a new strand with which to adorn ourselves. It doesn’t get better than that. Everybody wants to love her.
Yang is an Emmy-nominated actor and writer
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