Gaelynn Lea: ‘It Wasn’t Meant to Be Perfect’ Book Release w/ Chloé Cooper Jones and Xian Horn

Gaelynn Lea—folk musician, Broadway composer, and disability advocate—will be at Joe's Pub for a musical performance and a discussion of her new memoir, IT WASN'T MEANT TO BE PERFECT. She will be joined in conversation by the author Chloé Cooper Jones and the disability advocate Xian Horn.

Gaelynn Lea has been touring nationally and internationally since winning NPR Music's Tiny Desk Contest in 2016. In 2022, she composed and recorded the music for Macbeth on Broadway, which was directed by Sam Gold and starred Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga. IT WASN'T MEANT TO BE PERFECT is Gaelynn Lea's first book. It is a love-letter to every body — a warm, funny and deeply-felt exploration of disability, music, and the messy creativity of an artist’s life.

Chloé Cooper Jones is a professor, journalist, and the author of the memoir Easy Beauty, which was named a best book of 2022 by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, TIME Magazine, and was a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Memoir.

Xian Horn is founder of the nonprofit Give Beauty Wings. An advocate, speaker, and freelance journalist, she’s been published in Forbes, Architectural Digest, Allure, and PBS Independent Lens, and featured in Fortune, The New York Times, Fast Company, and others. She is a frequent guest and speaker at the U.N. and on NPR, and works with corporations and cultural institutions on accessibility, inclusion, and innovation, serving as Board Chair of NY Tech Alliance & Civic Hall and on advisory committees for ReelAbilities Film Festival, the UN NGO Committee on Education, Learning and Literacy, and Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

This show will be ASL Interpreted and the venue is wheelchair accessible.

Gaelynn Lea photo by Visit Duluth
Chloé Cooper Jones photo by Matty Davis
Xian Horn photo by Emily Soto