Recently in Music Category
On her website, Bjork (one of my favorite musicians) tries to figure out why men keep getting the credit for production work that was actually done by women:
it could be that this is some degree of sexism . m.i.a. had to deal with this with the respected website pitchfork.com where they assumed that diplo had produced all of her kala album without reading any credit list or nothing , it just had to be , it couldn´t have been m.i.a. herself ! it feel like still today after all these years people cannot imagine that woman can write , arrange or produce electronic music . i have had this experience many many times that the work i do on the computer gets credited to whatever male was in 10 meter radius during the job . people seem to accept that women can sing and play whatever instrument they are seen playing .but they cannot program , arrange , produce , edit or write electronic music .
(Emphasis mine.) Bjork points to some specific incidents where dudes got the credit, and then pleads with music reviewers to read the fine print. After all, she herself is more than just an awesome voice. On Vespertine, for example, Bjork is credited with: Programming, Producer, String Arrangements, Vocal Editing, Main Performer, Harp Arrangement, Music Box.
After distancing herself from feminism in an interview in Bust some years ago, Bjork has gone on to express some awesomely feminist sentiments, describing her album Volta this way:
"It's sort of trying to put out some good vibes for the little princesses out there. There are actually other things than losing a glass slipper. I mean, part of it was having a little daughter and realizing, what are we telling girls? All these books out there about finding your prince. All these little girls, all they want to do is be pretty and find their prince, and I'm like, what happened to feminism here?"
Any readers out there with experience in music production who can relate to the phenomenon Bjork describes above?
Thanks to fellow Bjork fan Leslie Fay for the link.
Since the theme of this afternoon's posting seems to be gender (soon to come, a post about the olympic's and gender verification) I thought I'd post this music video from Athens Boys Choir. He's pretty fantastic and I think the video speaks for itself. I promise it will be stuck in your head.
Warning: Not appropriate for work, unless sexual words are okay...
Happy Monday, folks.
We posted on this song before, but now there's a lovely video to go along with it! This is now officially my favorite song titled "Mother of Pearl." (Sorry, Roxy Music, #2 slot for you.)
via Lauredhel (and lots of other feminist bloggers, too). Lyrics after the jump...
I love NYC in the summer. There's always a ton of amazing feminist events going on, and it seems to have begun. This weekend kicks off with Rock for Young Women, an event to support the New York Metro Chapter of the Young Women's Task Force.
Then Monday, the amazing Girls for Gender Equity will be partnering with HollaBack NYC for a post-show talk back about subway harassment after a special showing of the play Standing Clear, described as "an ensemble piece that digs deep into the personalities we commute with each day."
Support and enjoy three awesome organizations in one week. If you're in the NYC area, be sure to check em out.
Check out Jay Smooth's take on the historical problem of homophobia in hip hop culture and what we often call the politics of outing or "spotting the gay." You won't regret it. I swear.
No, but I can always love her more. Mary J. Blige has started a women's group to help women develop confidence and increase success in their careers.
Mary J. Blige and Steve Stoute, who founded a youth-oriented brand-consulting firm, say they're setting up the Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now.The foundation will concentrate first on the Yonkers, N.Y., area where the 37-year-old Blige grew up. The charity will fund scholarships, grants and programs that help women gain confidence and skills to succeed in their careers.
Bad-ass.
Mary's songs always gave me more confidence.
via Our Bodies, Our Blog, I belatedly found Kate Harding's ode to Liz Phair's "Exile in Guyville," which Kate calls, "the album that made me a feminist."
A few years ago, I wrote my own mash note to "Exile" -- which is being rereleased this year for its 15th anniversary.
Kate and I had remarkably similar experiences with this album -- and I imagine we're not alone. I wrote, "I certainly didn't think of "Exile" as a feminist statement. It was just good music. But the album was sort of my musical bridge from Pavement to riot grrrl -- which was, I think, my bridge to feminism." Kate wrote, "'Guyville' was not only my favorite album of 1993 but an early foundation of my feminism."
(As a side note, I also love that Kate cites "6'1"" as a song that made her, a 5'2" woman, feel incredibly strong and empowered -- the lyrics go, "I kept standing 6'1" /instead of 5'2"/ and I loved my life/ and I hated you." The funny thing for me in reading Kate's post was that it's eminently clear to me now that the song is about a super bad-ass 5'2" woman, but I had always heard it as an anthem for over-6' women who is proud of her unconventional height. Hahaha. It's so awesome that both Kate and I identified with the song.)
Recently, Courtney and I were talking about "click" moments -- you know, the point at which it all came together for you and you started identifying as a feminist. (Courtney's story is great -- she should really post about it.) I told her I couldn't think of my "moment" -- that it was an evolution for me, and no single experience stands out as a turning point. And while I'm not quite willing to say that listening to "Exile in Guyville" was when it all clicked, this album is certainly one of a series of things that led me to feminism.
So what about you? What was your "click" moment?
Not only because he is fucking right on, but also because he throws in a small mention one of my favorite songs ever. See if you can catch it. First person to email me the name of the song gets a Feministing shirt...
Congrats to Melissa, who correctly guessed A Tribe Called Quest's Check the Rhime.
Check out one of my favorite blogs, 37 Days, for this personal essay on playing an instrument previously considered just for dudes. As if.
"I let my uterus do the listening!"
Lesley Douglas, head of popular music at the BBC, has said that men "tend to be more interested in the intellectual side of music," while women are more "emotional."
Addressing the issue of making 6 Music more accessible to women in an interview with Radio 4's Feedback programme, Douglas said: "It's partly how you talk about music. For women, there tends to be more emotional reaction to music. Men tend to be more interested in the intellectual side of the music, the tracks, where albums have been made, that sort of thing."
Seriously, we might as well hold our iPods up to our vaginas.
I saw Leslie and the Ly's live tonight. It was amazing. Their rendition of "Midwest Diva" nearly reduced me to tears of joy. Leslie Hall does all Midwest ladies proud. (Especially those of us from Iowa.)
I also nearly passed out upon discovering that Leslie is a fan of Feministing. Swoon!
Leslie and I strike our fiercest "I'm from Iowa, bitch" pose. (Photo by fellow Midwest diva Kay Steiger)
Can I just say that I can't fucking wait for this movie to come out?
I spent many a college night dancing my ass of to Anything Can Happen, so it pains me to report that Wyclef Jean is, well, an asshole.
Thanks to Ashlee for the link.
UPDATE: Reader Rachel Fallon writes,
I saw Wyclef perform at the House of Blues in San Diego on Monday (the day after the Super Bowl) he dedicated about half an hour refuting the fact that he dislikes fat girls...he only allowed "bigger" girls onstage for 3 or 4 songs and danced with every single one. he seemed extremely pissed that anyone would accuse him of disrespected full bodied women.
There's an interesting article in the latest New Yorker about all the British pop stars who have become so popular as of late (Kate Nash, Lilly Allen, Adele, Remi Nicole, Amy Macdonald). Sasha Frere-Jones makes the argument that MySpace has essentially "made" some of these stars too early--that Nash, in particular--needed more time to mature as an artist before she hit the big time.
I find that thesis less interesting (and a little patronizing) than the idea that MySpace has created a new way for these young women to "make" themselves. Power in the music industry has been consolidated in so few hands for so long and all of that is changing thanks to both MySpace and so many other technological innovations. The days of male music execs shaping teenage girls into pop hit machines and pushing them to market their voices only as an extension of their bodies may be coming to an end (at least in Britain). Even if you look at Allen or Nash's style ("granny dresses", vintage, healthy figures) it seems testament to the fact that objectification in the music industry is shifting. These girls may still objectify themselves to varying degrees, but at least they're the ones with their fingers on the button. Thoughts?
Aretha and Annie are here. This has got to be within the top three feminist music videos of all time.
Thanks to Michael.
Go listen to Nellie McKay's Mother of Pearl. It will put you in a good mood, I promise.
I have just been alerted to the fact that Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein has a blog on NPR.com.
After graduating high school, Michelle Walker left NYC for the UK to spend years singing in renowned clubs like The Limelight and Ronnie Scott's. After moving to the D.C. area to study voice, she spent graduate school at American University, and continued her jazz studies privately with Madeline Eastman, Jay Clayton, Nancy Marano, Pam Bricker, Dena DeRose, Rhiannon and jazz vocalist Mark Murphy. Michelle also studied at the Amsterdam Music Conservatory in Holland and the Stanford Jazz Summer Workshop in Palo Alto, CA.
Some highlights of her work include opening on tour for jazz vocalists Mark Murphy, Rene Marie, Chris Botti, George Benson, Spyro Gyra, Terrell Stafford and opening for Wynton Marsalis. Michelle currently teaches privately and conducts workshops on musical performance and career management when she's not on stage. Here's Michelle...
Left, Judy Nails in a previous version of the game. Right, in the latest version.
When I picture guitar heroines, they're usually sporting jeans and a tank top. Or menswear. Not the case in the Guitar Hero video game, apparently, where all of the ladies wear midriffs or bikini tops. Cara laments the sexing-up of her favorite Guitar Hero character, Judy Nails, in the latest version of the game:
Basically, I’m not sure why they bothered to put a shirt on her. There are copious amounts of cleavage, her entire stomach, and at least half of her bra hanging out. The shirt is really more of an accessory than an actual article of clothing. Even on stage with all of those bright lights, she still might get a little cold. And every outfit change I could give her doesn’t make it any better.Even worse, I don’t have any other female options. There’s Cassie, who has always worn a bikini top in lieu of a shirt (which I was originally fine with, because there were other options and there is a male character with no shirt). And there’s a new Asian female character who, though she is covered, is dressed like she works for Gwen Stefani. And since I see it as pretty racist, I can’t go with her, either.
So. Apparently Guitar Hero now thinks that it either A. does not have any female fans or B. their female fans will, for some reason, not mind being objectified and forced to play with a character who is half naked, if they want to play with a woman.
Add to that Axe sponsorship (including the eau de asshole promotional jingle actually placed within the game), a guitar shaped like a woman's disembodied leg in a fishnet stocking, and a guitar called "Lady Shapes" with an airbrushed blonde in a bikini on it. More from Cara:
Okay, is anyone else totally icked out by the new 50 Cent/Justin Timberlake song? "She Wants It" (don't they all?) seems like an ode to stalking in the video above, and the lyrics aren't much better. A couple of snippets:
She she, she want it, I want to give it to her / She know that, it's right here for her / I want to, see her break it down...Look at the way she shakin' shakin' / Make you want to touch it, make you want to taste it / Have you l / lustin' for her, go crazy face it / Now don't stop, get it, get it / The way she shakin' make you want to hit it
Think she double jointed from the way she splitted / Got you're head f**ked up from the way she did it...She always ready, when you want it she want it / Like a nympho, the info, I show you where to meet her
Along with the video, these lyrics seem doubly as creepy. It's like someone took a bunch of traditional excuses to rape women (look at how she's dressing/dancing/acting, she totally wants it) and put them to a beat. What do other folks think?
A Reuters article titled, "Sexy rap videos suspected to be damaging to young girls" says:
Watching rap music videos that are overly sexy and violent can lead to alcohol abuse and promiscuity among young black girls, according to a study into sexual stereotypes in rap music footage.
Firstly, putting "sexy" and "violent" within the same category is a bit disconcerting. (Not to mention "promiscuity" and "alcohol abuse.") The actual study was even more so:
The research was based on a survey of 522 African-American girls aged 14 to 18 who were asked how often they watched rap videos, questioned about their sex lives and asked to provide a urine sample for a marijuana screening.
While obviously the media and pop culture (which does include the misogyny that exists in many rap videos) has a huge impact on girls' lives, why not focus more on their self esteem and confidence rather than their sexual activity and pot smoking? (The research method itself is pretty problematic to me as well, but that's a whole other discussion.)
Thoughts?
Kira Cochrane at The Guardian has a great article on feminist folk singer and all around kick-ass gal Ani DiFranco. I love me some Ani.
Just a taste: "I think what we need to do is to understand feminism as a prerequisite to saving the environment, to ending war, to ending racism. We need to understand that feminism is not for women, it's for humanity. Patriarchy does not work for men - they go and get killed in wars. Patriarchy hurts all of us. You know...the older I grow, the more I understand peace and stability as a product of balance, and human society is fundamentally imbalanced. Patriarchy is like the elephant in the room that we don't talk about, but how could it not affect the planet radically when it's the superstructure of human society?"
Swoon.
Gawker does the math on the pretentious-record-review gap over at Pitchfork. Women had 6 to 8 percent of all bylines.
To find out what women think about new music, please please go check out Venus Zine.
Also see Amanda's list of Myths that Run Women Out of Insufferable Music Snobbery.
Elizabeth Dahmen front; Photo by Liz Liguori
Elizabeth Dahmen is a comedian, actor and singer who's performed in countless productions in NYC over the last 10 years. She's been featured in The L Magazine, and in GO Magazine’s “100 Women We Love.� She also hosted karaoke at Meow Mix for three years before it closed down and starred in the hit lesbian short "Bar Talk " directed by Cheryl Furjanic. She starred in "Ex-Antwone" a controversial play directed by Juan Souki that had an English language world premiere at PS 122 last fall, and just recently shot a scene in Madeleine Olnek's upcoming film.
She's also Terry Tone of The Lesbian Overtones. Here's Elizabeth...
I didn't watch the MTV Video Music Awards, so I didn't see the entirety of Britney Spears' performance. I did, however, see sections of it replayed (over and over again) on several cable news networks. Now, there's not doubt that it was a bad performance. She seemed to just be going through the motions and I felt kinda bad for her.
But if I hear one more person comment on how "fat" she was, I'm gonna lose it. Whether it's a news story saying she has a "paunch" or a cable news dude calling her chunky and fat--it's fucking gross and wrong. When was the last frigging time a male musician's beer belly made news? Assholes.
You know, i think Carey Roberts is maybe my favorite anti-feminist. He's at least in the top five. Because he's nothing if not original. First it was that feminists have a mental disorder (which he called "FIPH – feminist-induced phobic hysteria."). Then it was that feminists ruined Amnesty International.
Roberts' latest gripe? American Idol winner Carrie Underwood:
Dial up your local Country and Western station and you may soon find your fingers tapping out the beat of Carrie Underwood’s latest hit, Before He Cheats. Underwood suspects her boyfriend is probably cheating on her (in matters of infidelity, I guess “probably� is proof enough).This how she extracts her revenge:
“I dug my key into the side
of his pretty little souped-up four-wheel drive,
Carved my name into his leather seats…
I took a Louisville slugger to both headlights,
slashed a hole in all four tires…�Trashing your boyfriend’s car has little to do with sugar and spice and everything nice. But it’s the title — Before He Cheats – that turns this song into a bitter gender tirade. Just imagine a male star reaching platinum for crooning, Before She Aborts.
I'm unsure how Roberts makes the leap to abortion here, but I'm impressed. (Equally as impressive is how he goes from Carrie Underwood to The Color Purple to women feminizing the church all in the same article--kudos, Carey!)
But you have to love that anti-feminists hold on to things like this (and Lifetime and Oprah to prove that women have power!) for dear life in order to prove how the world is out to get men. I mean, Carrie Underwood is the best they can do. Yeah.
This interview in Pitchfork with the fabulous, Sri Lankan via GB, M.I.A. bangs out just what she thinks is wrong with the way that she is portrayed in the US media. That perhaps the US media focuses on the "who" is behind the production and lyrical genius of M. I. A., as opposed to recognizing that she is responsible for her own creativity.
M.I.A.: Yesterday I read like five magazines in the airplane-- it was a nine hour flight-- and three out of five magazines said "Diplo: the mastermind behind M.I.A.'s politics!" And I was wondering, does that stem from [Pitchfork]? Because I find it really bonkers.Pitchfork: Well, it's hard to say where it originated. We certainly have made reference to Diplo playing a part on your records, but it seems like everyone plays that up.
M.I.A.: If you read the credits, he sent me a loop for "Bucky Done Gun", and I made a song in London, and it became "Bucky Done Gun". But that was the only song he was actually involved in on Arular. So the whole time I've had immigration problems and not been able to get in the country, what I am or what I do has got a life of its own, and is becoming less and less to do with me. And I just find it a bit upsetting and kind of insulting that I can't have any ideas on my own because I'm a female or that people from undeveloped countries can't have ideas of their own unless it's backed up by someone who's blond-haired and blue-eyed. After the first time it's cool, the second time it's cool, but after like the third, fourth, fifth time, maybe it's an issue that we need to talk about, maybe that's something important, you know.
She is awesome. However, in response to Diplo not helping her mix the album, well I heard maybe that is not true, but who knows.
Singer and songwriter Nicole Nelson recently returned to New York City after a long run in Boston, MA where I first saw her perform. Her voice and music are often compared to the artistry of Eva Cassidy, Donny Hathaway, Gladys Knight and Erykah Badu; and her style and poise are often compared to those of female greats well beyond her years.
I thankfully caught up with Nicole over email amidst her hectic schedule. Here's Nicole...
This one totally passed me right by, but today is a "Day of Silence" to save internet radio. Why should we care about the corporate takeover of web radio? Because people that can't get radio stations on the airwaves anymore and folks (community run women and people of color stations) that have been put out of business by companies like Clear Channel, have gone to internet radio. But now internet radio is at risk as well.
Barring Congressional intervention or the success of one of the many appeals of the Copyright Royalty Board's decision, Internet radio will die on July 15th, when payments under the new scheme are due, though SoundExchange recently back-pedaled a bit by exempting small webcasters until 2010. (It's worth noting that SoundExchange collects royalties for all artists and labels, so webcasters can't even stay online by refusing to webcast music from RIAA bands.)However, no music doesn't mean that all webcasters will go offline completely. For instance, KCRW plans to air a loop of an hour-long discussion of the copyright royalty situation called "D-Day for Webcaster (there was talk of me appearing near the beginning of the show to introduce the situation, but the timing didn't work out -- bummer).
Also according to the Media Action Center at YMC:
The new rates mean fewer outlets to get the music and diversity we don't hear on broadcast radio. Putting webcasters out of business will only hurt artists more. They depend on Internet radio to get their music out to fans and build new audiences. When the webcasters go off the air, so do artists.This is particularly alarming for youth, women and communities of color that have been pushed out of any meaningful participation in broadcast radio. A recent study by Free Press found that despite compromising 51% of the U.S. population, women only control 6% of commercial radio stations. Racial or ethnic minorities make up 33% of the population but own just 7% of radio stations. For our communities, saving Internet radio is a matter of maintaining power in a media system wherein we have so little already. It means making sure we have choices and control over who and what we hear. It means radio belongs to everyone, not just who can afford it.
You can take action here.
On the monkey bars.
Sorry, it's Wednesday and I needed a break. Not that I dance around my apartment to this song wearing a fifteen-year old Cross Colors shirt. No, that couldn't be it.
(Lovingly dedicated to my junior high school peeps.)
OK yeah so maybe I know some of these people, but I had to give a quick hit to my friend Olivia's new website, Wiretap Music, about local San Francisco music. It is innovative, interesting and employs multimedia (documentaries of featured bands!), so if in the Bay or just a music nerd, please check it out.
That said, first band to be showcased, the very locally popular, slightly feminist, ladies delight, Boyskout.
It's taken me forever to get around to posting this, but Beth Ditto's bare-it-all cover of British music mag NME has got everyone talking.
My initial reaction? YES! She looks fabulous. It's so incredible to see a mainstream music magazine put a sexy, anti-sizist, feminist artist on the cover, who stands apart from your typically emaciated covergirl and presents an entirely different beauty standard. Size-positivity! Armpit hair! It's as if NME declared May "Love Your Body Month." Ditto has long been an ambassador for all the girls who don't fit the media construct of "perfect female form" -- she's also posed nude for the Sunday Times of London and is fond of stripping down during her live shows.
But I've got a few reservations, too. I'm not generally in favor of serious female musicians having to get naked in order to make it onto the cover of a mainstream magazine. It's worth noting that NME is not Maxim. It's not even comparable to Rolling Stone in terms of fleshy photos. It does not regularly publish cover shots of any naked woman. (I wonder if they considered shooting Ditto with her clothes on?) This post speculates that NME would have come in for more criticism if it had published a naked cover photo of a thinner woman, possibly facing accusations that it was turning into a lad mag when it supposedly focuses on music. But because Ditto does not have the body of a conventional, skeletal cover model, NME was shielded from this argument. (Thoughts?)
Ditto has had some interesting interactions with super-skinny stars who we typically see on magazine covers. Back in February, Ditto complained that she was up against Kate Moss for the "Sexiest Woman" title at the NME Awards, saying "I don't even know why she's here. Just because she's sleeping with a singer and sings a few backing vocals she thinks she's it." But after a serious heart-to-heart, now Ditto and Moss are apparently best pals. Ditto said recently:
"Kate is amazing. I spent one night talking to her and she just said the most amazing things about bodies," explained Ditto. At first I didn't think I was going to like her, but she just turned up to one of our shows and said, 'Do you know what I hate Beth? I hate it when people tell my big girlfriends, 'You have a beautiful face...' I mean, that's a really radical concept."
Ditto was also praised by Keira Knightly in a recent issue of In Touch, where Knightly said, "Oh my god, that woman is so sexy. She has the most amazing body." Check out the photo juxtaposition that accompanies the quote. It's that image that convinces me to quit fretting and celebrate the nekkid NME cover. Her cover photo is transgressive. It's groundbreaking. And putting on the newsstands an alternate version of what is normally presented as SEXY is incredibly important. So kudos to NME. And Ditto rocks.
(Thanks to Becky for the link, long ago.)
From the Girls Rock Movie. Sweet.
Apparently Clarkson has spoken out about her experiences with sexist music executives and their blatant disapproval of her writing her own music because she's a young woman:
"Everybody doesn't like me writing all the time, no matter how many No. 1's you write. It's clearly like yelling at a brick wall....It's because I'm a woman — because I'm a young woman. I literally heard someone say it [during a conference call]. They didn't know I was on the phone. Like, really? We're living in what century? I hung up. I was like, I can't even address that. 'Cause that was the most ignorant thing I've ever heard."
In the meantime, she just won a Song of the Year award for, yes, a song she wrote herself. Take that.
You gotta love how the media just loves to throw the word feminist around just because someone said something that is slightly pro-woman. In the post-Imus fall-out Snoop Dogg did manage to emerge as a spokeperson for women in hip-hop videos (which is both frightening and endearing). I mean Doggystyle is one of my favorite positions albums, but I don't exactly look to Snoop for political commentary, what with his own connection to GGW and a clearly misogynistic attitude throughout his music and public personality.
So I was surprised to read that he has been defending "video ho's," a term that has gained fluency, but is nonetheless degrading and inappropriate.
The rapper is insisting the semi-naked girls in his videos are simply 'following their dreams'.Snoop waxed philosophical as he told MTV.com: "Who's to say that these women in videos are hos? They are classy women. Not every girl in the videos has sex with the rappers. A lot of these women do this as a means of modelling or being appreciated for their looks."
"The women allow themselves to be in these videos. We don't force them to be in these videos. They want to be seen, and they have calendars, portfolios, headshots, cards."
I do agree with him on one level. I don't like the way "video vixens" are talked about, as opposed to talked too. And I think it is good to counter the belief that these women will do anything to get to the top, sleep with the rappers, appear naked for free, etc. It feeds into inaccurate stereotypes about women of color's sexuality and self-esteem. I do bet that a lot of these women are savvy and recognize what they are doing and why.
But I don't think this gets to the heart of the issue. The misogyny for me in "video ho" culture is not that the women are choosing to do this, but the question of a) what other choices do they have for careers and b) ultimately where does dancing take them? It is not some utopia where you will dance in one video and then you will make it in a career in modeling, acting or dancing. It is really competitive and when you are already seen as a "video ho" I am thinking it is much harder to break out.
Everyone wants to make dancing in videos a morality issue. Should these women be "allowed" to dance this way, should our children be "allowed" to consume these images? Ultimately, for me it is a labor issue. Are they getting paid what they should, especially in comparison to the rappers that make the videos and are they getting any kind of longterm benefits?
I feel like I could write a much longer post on this, but some initial thoughts?
And Snoop is NOT a feminist.
Check out this review of Tori Amos’ new album, “American Doll Posse,� which is said to be a critique of the Pussycat Dolls’ ridiculousness.
Has anyone heard the album? Thoughts?
This video, "A Little Too Late," features Toby Keith singing to this tied-to-a-chair-in-the-basement-girlfriend. He threatens her with a shovel, then it looks like he's going to drown her, or maybe bury her alive. It's fucking sick and scary.
It was nominated for Best Video at the Country Music Television Awards. Nice, huh?
The super amazing Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls is holding an online auction until May 7--and damn do they have some great stuff!
The “So You Wanna Be A Rockstar� Online Auction is an opportunity for you and yours to get the hottest rock star hook ups – all for a good cause! Awesome items are on the block, including a guitar signed by the Beastie Boys, a bag by Marc Jacobs, weekend getaways, recording studio time, and much much more. The auction runs April 23 thru May 7. 100% of every winning bid will go straight to scholarship fund.
There's an item on there I'm dying to get (though I won't tell you which one, in case you fuckers decide to bid against me!)...I must have it.
Martha Diaz is the president of The Hip-Hop Association, and producer of the H2O International Film Festival and Hip-Hop Education Summit, amongst many other projects. An educator, organizer and filmmaker, her impact in hip hop can be traced to her early days as a young and aspiring production assistant for the late Ted Demme, the groundbreaking producer and director behind "Yo! MTV Raps. "
The H2O International Film Festival is taking place May 31-June 15, 2007 in New York City and its theme is "The World Is Yours?" It “highlights the Hip-Hop community of the early/mid 90’s; a time when youth in the community began demanding money, power, and respect.�
I caught up with Martha over email. Here's Martha...