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| What we're doing and why: This year's More Than Music Fest is going to be womyn-centered. This means we are working to highlight and appreciate the achievements of womyn in our communities as well as create an environment that womyn feel is truly theirs. We have chosen bands, workshops, artists, etc. that showcase womyn doing amazing things and exemplify strong feminist/womanist politics. By prioritizing womyn's perspectives, our goal is not to make people feel uncomfortable or alienated, although this may be inevitable for some people who have never experienced a feeling of being marginalized. For people who have spent their entire lives within a patriarchal culture and environment that focuses only on their needs and desires, this is going to be awkward. Such awkwardness is a good place from which to start analyzing privilege which is a starting place for rejecting such unfair positions of power. Female and feminist/womanist perspectives deserve to be valued and supported. And an event planned around what some womyn in the d.i.y. community are interested in, believe in, value, love, and enjoy should appeal to womyn and men. A lot of people have questioned our selection process for bands this year. Having a strong presence of womyn on stage is important in creating a womyn-focused space, so yes, we looked for bands with womyn in them to play the fest. To say that celebrating the work womyn have created is mere tokenism (that's one of the words that's been thrown around a lot) is undermining and belittling of their talent and creations. And of course, we took into consideration much more than a person's sex in our selection process! In general, we like bands that don't just sound good, but also think about stuff (i.e. rights of queers, womyn, immigrants, animals, humans...anti-capitalist and anarchist stances, racism, the prison-industrial complex, womanism, etc.) We take feminist politics seriously (plus so much more), and we expect them to be present on stage and elsewhere in our communities. And we look for them from womyn and men. Also, please don't forget that there's more to d.i.y. than bands; our lives are not JUST music. We get excited about so much more, so we don't want to overemphasize bands at the expense of workshops, discussions, activism or interaction. And let's continue the dialogue!
these workshops are confirmed: |
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