18/06/2026
032c Issue #49, Summer 2026 Cover 2/6 Kelsey Lu
At the age of 18, the classically trained cellist, composer, and pop artist KELSEY LU fled their Jehovah’s Witness family by jumping out of a window. Eight years after
this escape from rural North Carolina, they released their debut project, Church (2016), an EP whose bare-bones take on folk laid the groundwork for a sound
that evokes the avant-garde expansiveness and symphonic flourishes of Arthur Russell, Bjork, and John Cale.
For this cover story, COLLIER SCHORR photographed Kelsey Lu in their apartment in Brooklyn, while American visual artist ARTHUR JAFA met Lu in their hotel room in Venice. The two artists discussed pop music and the elemental forces of light, shadow, and play behind the musician’s new album, So Help Me God. 📕
Photography: Collier Schorr
Interview: Arthur Jafa
Text: Philipp Pyle
Fashion: Becky Akinyode
Hair: John Novotny
Makeup: Raisa Flowers