Why is the night so Beautiful?

Written by Elisha Kiala

Why does the night have to be so beautiful? As I walk through the night, I remember what Mitsutsuka said to me. “Because at night, only half the world remains” I count the lights . All the lights of the nights. The red light at intersection, trembling as if wet, even though it isnt raining. Streetlight after streetlight. Tailights trailing off into the distance. The soft glow from the windows. Phones in the hands of people just arriving home, and people just about to go somewhere. Why is the night so beautiful? Why does it shine the way it does? Why is the night made up entirely of light? - “All the Lovers in the Night” Mieko Kawakami

Photo by Paul Hartnett

So much of Fuyoke Ire’s life began and started in the night. Her world was created to be lived in the midnight hours, not to be seen or heard by everyone but just herself and who she chose to share her love with. The night is so symbolic to freedom within this novel, which is what i loved. The title alone reminds me of how magical the night can be. The stillness, the darkness. It provides a solace from the business of everyday life, which can prevent you from seeking solitude. Over the last couple of years being in University, i realised how much I loved the night. I would stay up and read, watch youtube videos and talk to friends. It was so fun but so many believe the night is useless in this way. That all our enjoyment should be reserved for the daytime, the productive hours of the day. Me, I would sleep all day only beginning it again in the late afternoon. Though this messed up my schedule at times, I had never felt any more free. When I first read this novel I resonated with her, this constant fear of perception that came with the bright eyes within the day. But with her need to escape at night. From her personal problems, from the world just to feel something good. Like me, she found peace in companionship at night time. 

A walk home in Deptford

So much of life is lived within the night. I remember when I went on my first walk at night. I was walking home from an intervention it was an english winter and it had rained the day prior. The leaves were still wet and the air was fresh. This day I walked around woodpecker in Deptford. Those who know you could not walk there alone at night. I was listening to frank ocean ‘Ivy’ over and over, i think I had just gotten my heart broken and it was the song that reminded me of what couldve been with this person. “I thought that I was dreaming when you said you loved me”. These lyrics acted as a revelation. Did I at that time truly believe I could be loved truly romantically.  In that time, though, I had felt peace. I truly surrendered to the night, to the streetlamps, to the cars, to the grass to the damp air. The night became my escape, my time to think. I remember thinking that I really needed this. Growing up in a loud home and being a person who enjoys being around others I had never experienced the beauty of solitude. Being alone and being okay with that. The night gave me this opportunity and perhaps in Uni I constantly chased this. It seems clear that I crave time slowing down. Being a Londoner, I am engulfed in this capitalist hellscape of over-working, constantly moving. Very rarely thinking of a time to slow down. It is a part of my makeup at this point. But like in this novel, we forget what makes us beautiful as humans when all of our time is spent overextending ourselves for financial gain to survive. The night gives us this opportunity to remember our people, our loves, our art. I fall in love again and again at night time, in clubs on walks during sleep. 

A night out in Brixton

Nightlife works in this way, too. It can act as a means of refuge for many and as escapism. Humans have an insistent need to move their bodies and that is the attarction to nightlife. I was in Brixton, it was 2022 I was finally of age and went to a party. First step, get to my friends house finish getting ready and meet the rest of the group in the cab. We make our way from Lewisham down to Brixton. But before, we had to get the wrays with coke as a chaser, like real Londoners. We wait in line for a bit, get I-D’d and now its time to party. One thing that always makes me laugh about this night was how hot it was, we stood in front of the one fan taking turns with everyone else in the dance. But despite the heat we still went so hard this night, sweating out our makeup and wigs. Whining to Vybz Kartel and Spice screaming the lyrics of digits by Young Thug. It was definitely a night to remember. At the time I did not realise how much I needed this, I needed to remember what it would feel like to let the music possess you, feel the love from the friends. Connecting with strangers and letting the night free you from daytime struggles. There is something so special about dancing with a stranger and feeling so connected to them in that moment. It is as if your besties for the night. It reminds me of when we were kids in the park and would make friends for that day. Hoping to see them on our next trip, but usually we never do. I guess this is the adult version, the one where you do not have a curfew. But this escapism every now and again is needed man. But it seems that so much is lost.

What is the role nightlife plays in our lives now- our phones are escapism. 

Night-life has changed so much in recent years. I will not go on and on about it since we all know that one of the causes is because of the economy and Covid. The need to go out on a saturday night has decreased, decompressing looks like doomscrolling on social media on the weekend. This is how we escape, through our parasocial relationships living through others. That seems more freeing these days. Many feel this fear when going out that their being watched. Not only by the eyes in the club but the eyes on the phones. Its obvious at this point that we live in ultra surveillance, especially in nightlife. This has deterred many party goers from dancing and overall having a good time. It seems that the phones now control and monitor the behaviour of people within the party. Once the phone comes out so does our performance, its either we disperse and pretend we are not having fun, or up the antics. Through this though, we are no longer having a good time. Either we are waiting for the good time to happen, or are simply too scared. All in all our phones seem to be controlling us. From the home to the dance. We will soon begin to enjoy partying when we stop being so obsessed with capturing the moment but instead living in it. 

The night reminds me of possibility, it affirms to me the need to slow down and take it easy to think. The quiet and loudness of the night is what is beautiful to me. I need both to survive this world. I need the club nights, and I need the silent walks.