SPELLLING, the professional identity of musician Tia Cabral, was born of Cabral’s desire to create safe and transportive spaces for Black and queer people. As SPELLLING, Cabral works with her band to blend string and brass instruments with sci-fi concepts and spiritual considerations. She also provides the vocals; her voice is capable of real range and transformational power, not unlike Whitney Houston’s or Mya’s. With these elements, the Oakland, California–based artist conjures something that transcends the venue she’s performing in. Seeing SPELLLING live is a transporting experience. In a way not dissimilar to Sly and the Family Stone or Sun Ra, Cabral bends time and space around herself to bring those assembled into her own pocket universe of Afrofuturistic magic.