Currently Browsing: music
In honor of the USA’s 52nd annual Women’s Equality Day, I’d like to introduce you to Ethel Smyth, an English composer who is currently enjoying a revival of interest here in the UK.
It’s a wonder to me that Ethel’s name isn’t a staple in more households, not just in music, but also in written works, and very importantly, in connection with the Suffragette movement in the early 1900s.… read more.
Being on your own side is already hard enough, but the difficulty of it is often compounded by factors often outside of our control. A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking with Chelsea O’Donnell, the heart of musical project “Stress Dolls,” about her band, her music, and how chronic illness has affected both her personal life and her creative career.… read more.
Janelle Monáe released their fourth studio album entitled The Age of Pleasure this year at the beginning of June. Just in time for summer, the 14-track album embodies what it means to enjoy the fullness of life. The Age of Pleasure seems to mark a new era for Janelle as they embrace what it means to be a self-titled “free-ass motherfucker.”… read more.
Happy Pride! Today, in honor of Pride month, FF2 is celebrating influential singer and queer icon Chavela Vargas! Chavela’s revolutionary musical style, as well as her defiant rejection of heteronormativity, spoke to her listeners and influenced the work of queer artists of future generations.
Born in San Joaquín de Flores, Costa Rica on April 17, 1919, even at a young age Chavela dedicated herself to her dream of singing, bravely leaving her home for Mexico at 17 to give herself a better chance at a professional music career. … read more.
At a dinner party populated mostly by poets, someone asked what I’d been reading. I explained that with my new hobby (knitting) occupying my hands and eyes during my free time, I’d turned to audiobooks.
“Mostly fiction and non-fiction?” my poet friend Jacob asked. “Any poetry?”
“Mostly fantasy novels from my childhood,” I confessed.… read more.
Do you know the feeling of smelling something that immediately transports you back to a specific moment or space from your childhood? The air shifts and suddenly you are five, seven, nine years old again, feeling simultaneously comforted and also discombobulated. This, to me, is akin to the feeling of recognizing a sample in a song, particularly when the sample is a Bulgarian folk melody.… read more.