Winter, Issue 95, Out Now

It’s that time of year when looking back stirs nostalgia. Wherehas the year gone? The passing of time does seem quicker as one ages, and yet those 365 days each year are the same for us all. As editor of NUVO, I have been fortunate to spend a good part of those days connecting and communicating with a diverse set of people. I never know what may spring from a conversation, be it with the retiree in Noto, Sicily, on his midmorning walk, the librarian at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, or the supercar enthusiast in Vancouver.

As journalists, reporters, and even lingo-of-the-day content creators, we have come to expect scripted answers from the countless formal interviews we do. Try as we might (asking the chef what their mother or father cooked for them as a child will usually relax facial muscles and often produce a personal anecdote), conversations are sometimes stiff and awkward. And yet, in a recent one, Klaus Busse, head of design at Maserati, observed that “good design creates emotion”—and that is the intent with our storytelling.

The art of storytelling is millennia old, and people still want great, well-told tales. “Storytelling is in Clark Backo’s blood,” Elia Essen writes for the cover story of this winter edition, Issue 95. Backo, known for her roles in Letterkenny, Supernatural, Outsiders, and Happy Place, amongst others, didn’t dream of an acting career growing up in Toronto. For “Acting the Part: Clack Back on Igniting Passion and Lessons from Letterkenny,” she opens up about igniting her passion and her newest project, The Changeling. The stories of collaborators Spike Lee and Kyle Bell, Carrie Mae Weems and Camila Rodríguez Triana, Phyllida Lloyd and Whitney White, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Agustina San Martín, told over a weekend event in Brooklyn for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, entertained industry and the general public.

In “Rolex Connects Young Artists With Dream Mentors,” the senior artists and young professionals recount their journey of working together over a two-year period and the lessons learned. For “Brown Girls (Still) to the Front,” Ayesha Habib spent time with Lido Pimienta, who, she writes, “has the air of a rebel, something that shines through in the fierce anticolonial messages of her art.”

The photo essay this issue, “Balloon Invasion,” creates otherworldly moments in unexpected locations. The self-taught photographer Charles Pétillon employs white balloons in his art making. “Balloons allow me to materialize ideas or concepts in a rather poetic way,” he says. For one of his installations, Pétillon configured 100,000 balloons in London’s Covent Garden.

We editors are doubling down on delivering more of what you have come to expect from us: compelling stories and arresting images. Some of you will read on paper, others on a tablet or laptop, and others on a mobile phone, but there are plenty of stories to go round, in this issue and daily at NUVOmagazine.com.

As we approach the holiday season, may there be plenty of days and nights with family and friends sharing conversation and exchanging ideas. We all have a story to tell.

Keep an eye on NUVOmagazine.com over the coming weeks for stories from the autumn edition of NUVO, Issue 95. Click here to receive a copy of your own.