Coping With Quarantine: Performance artist Ezra Kelly

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Coping With Quarantine is a recurring feature that examines how people across Greater Lansing are being affected by the coronavirus. City Pulse aims to interview a diverse cast of residents as they adjust to a new lifestyle under the measures taken in Michigan to curb the pandemic. If you are interested in being featured, please contact ashleycitypulse@gmail.com

WEDNESDAY, April 1 — Ezra Kelly, 23, is a frequent volunteer at The Fledge, a musician and performance artist. Kelly, who uses they/them pronouns, jokes that self-isolation isn’t a new experience to them and they’re witnessing the rest of Michigan learning to cope with it.

“It’s sort of weird, this feels like something I’ve already put myself through five times,” Kelly said.

Before the pandemic, Kelly was immersed in the creation of their latest album, “The Ill Stated Man,” which they released as part of their full-time solo project Mirror Boy. The financial worry faced by many was already a persistent issue in Kelly’s life. When the pandemic began to worsen, Kelly wasn’t exactly struck with money-related paranoia.

“I was playing a lot of piano before this. I wasn’t really worried about being broke because even when I do have enough money to do things, I still feel broke,” Kelly said. “I was practicing my crafts a lot, not really worrying.”

Even though the isolation is no longer by choice, Kelly’s current lifestyle is consistent with how it was before the coronavirus swept across Michigan. Kelly spends much of their time hanging out with roommate and friend Bilal Baeza. The two frequently collaborate on new music, walk the Lansing River Trail together and shoot footage for future music videos.

“It’s been odd philosophically. It feels like a hazy timeout period. Everywhere is vacant; everything feels hypnotic — like time is moving really slow,” Kelly said. “But it feels good. The last four or five years have flown past me and, while it sucks that all of this is happening, it’s sort of a slow breath of fresh air.”

The media Kelly consumes to combat the doldrums of life includes documentaries such as “Everybody’s Everything,” about the life and untimely death of rapper Lil Peep, and horror-themed animes like “Blood Lad.”

Kelly relates their experience thus far quarantining in Michigan back to their time composing “The Ill Stated Man” last year in Brooklyn, New York. The album’s lyrics and themes are heavily inspired by the isolation Kelly underwent while living far away from home.

“My girlfriend’s brother died. We were essentially quarantined in her apartment for two months after he died, because everything was so messed up with her life. She was angry and lost in grief. She wanted me to live with her, but not to talk to her,” Kelly said. “The apartment was one big room, and I just put headphones on and wrote ‘The Ill Stated Man.’ I was going crazy. I had more anxiety there than I do right now. ”

Kelly said they’ve been following two polarized sides of the Internet debate about the coronavirus: People using it as an opportunity to make memes, and those taking it very seriously and are highly annoyed by any humor surrounding the crisis.

“I can see why it’s upsetting to people, but meme culture has always been about people not being able to cope with things and laugh at it instead. It’s like the only way to avoid fear is to laugh. I just want people to do whatever keeps them sane,” Kelly said. “But it’s important to balance them out. Stay inside; don’t get people sick.”

But Kelly’s primary concern is with their sibling, Marshall Kelly, who lives in Los Angeles. Before moving, Marshall and Ezra Kelly were inseparable and the two still remain in close and constant contact, with Ezra flying out to California in February before the wide scale preventative measures took full effect.

“We always go through any big life event together, so this has been scary. I almost flew back to Los Angeles, because that way if something happens to one of us there’s no way we can’t be together. Like, ‘If you get sick, I get sick.’ But I know we can’t be that irrational,” Kelly said.

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