More Than A Magazine, A Movement
“On the Record”—which premieres on HBO Max on Wednesday, May 27—gives voice to women survivors, suggesting a pattern of predatory behavior from Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons, who has been accused of assault by 20 different women.
“I would love to see our stories believed with the same passion and fervor that black women support and believe men when they say they have been victims of police brutality and violence.”
“Unfortunately, we are in a world that takes so much offense to being feminine, that we try not to be. … We are constantly aspiring to masculine standards, instead of being brave enough to see what it is that femininity brings to the table.”
By 2019, Gandhi had released two EPs as Madame Gandhi, opened for Ani Difranco, toured with Thievery Corporation, played Bonnaroo and numerous other festivals, and been named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in music for 2019.
Singer-songwriter Amy Speace, 52, has been in the music business for twenty years. Her latest record, which she recorded in the final term of pregnancy with her son, includes characters singing in solidarity with Standing Rock, women’s rights and in pursuit of daily rituals.
Fiona Apple’s “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” is full of personal movement and pain and growth and healing and loss. This is what makes it so feminist, and so useful. The album is a purging of feeling that is aware that healing, and nothing, is linear.
Music producers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland have been keeping quarantine “lit” with their Verzuz battles, featuring hip-hop and R&B entertainers live on Instagram battling it out. This weekend’s showdown between neo-soul divas Erykah Badu and Jill Scott was the first women’s battle. But what truly set this “battle” apart were the words of wisdom and the confessions shared between the songs. These women, mothers and mutual friends were ultimately way more interested in connecting than battling.
Beyonce gallops into the rap scene alongside the stunning Stallion! Stallion’s collaboration with Beyonce has created an empowering bop whose proceeds go to helping others during this trying time.
Altísimo, a livestream Latin music and pop culture festival, can bring the Latin spirit to your laptop. All proceeds from the event will go towards the Farmworkers’ COVID-19 Pandemic Relief Fund, which helps over two million U.S. farmers whose work continues to keep food on U.S. tables.
Badu’s online concert is the latest contemporary example of women exploring new territory and breaking boundaries.
A group of feminist musicians, trailblazers for equality and representation of marginalized groups, have teamed up to blow listeners away with heavily-saturated femme power.
“I think people who dismiss her as somehow being a lightweight or a pretty girl with some lucky breaks—as if you can create at that level without thinking critically!—that is actually just another sign of misogyny and how women are discounted for what they create. When we make exquisite things, people assume there are fairies in the night who do it with magic dust instead of looking at the work and the research and the effort that goes into it.”
