International Women's Day: Who inspires you?

It's International Women's Day! Today I'd like to celebrate the activists, artists, and musicians who have inspired me from past to present (click on the photos to learn more about them). There isn't enough space in this tiny sliver of a newsletter to cover everyone...I could go on and on.

I teach about the lives of these women in my classrooms at Mannes and Purchase College. What I've learned is...

I cannot speak about Abbey Lincoln without paying respect to the courage of Daisy Bates during the Civil Rights Movement.

I cannot speak about gender in music without honoring the first out trans woman in electronic music, Wendy Carlos.

I cannot speak about music and culture at the turn of the 20th c. without acknowledging Suffragist Mary Winsor.

I cannot speak about early American contemporary music without paying homage to one of the first Ultra-Modernists, Johanna Beyer.

I cannot speak about electronic music and arts activism without sharing my admiration for Miya Masaoka.

I cannot complete my musical duties without performing for and honoring global activists like Elsa Marie D'Silva.

I cannot share powerful stories of feminine empowerment without all the composers who have written the most beautiful, visceral music for Forward Music Project.

Here's to celebrating the feminine. Here's to celebrating women, trans people, and nonbinary folk. Here's to celebrating the moms, grandmothers, aunts, and sisters in my life who lift me up and push me to be better.

Who inspires you?