Stranded By The Sea, A Serene New Voice Emerges

How Britt Lari’s “uh oh” moment became an “aha” moment

Cecilia Seiter
5 min readSep 7, 2020

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It was spring break 2020, and Britt Lari was watching the waves crash gracefully onto the sand in Punta Hermosa, Peru.

The 24 year-old electronic artist and vocalist had spent the last week in the small coastal town, roughly 34 miles south of Lima, surfing and spending time with her extended family. She was set to graduate from California State University, Northridge that spring, and she was still riding the high of having performed her first-ever live show in February. From the outside looking in, it would have seemed that Lari was living in absolute paradise.

There was just one problem. She had no idea when — or if — she would be allowed to leave.

Enter Corona…and a Different Persona

“I was terrified, not going to lie,” she said, her laughter echoing through our Google Hangouts screen. “I try to look at the bright side in every scenario, and in this case, I think there was none.”

At the end of March 2020, Lari had become one of the many voyagers stranded overseas when, faced with the coronavirus pandemic gripping the world, countries began to shut their borders down across the globe. Though the native Peruvian now lives in Los Angeles, Lari would have to stay at her relatives’ beachside apartment, unsure of how and when she could fly home. On top of that, she didn’t have her piano or a microphone to keep working…

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Cecilia Seiter

Hi, I’m Cecilia. I’m a professional freelance writer and occasional poet. https://ceciliaseiter.com/