DuSable to Obama: Chicago's Black Metropolis

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Next Saturday, January 16, Maggie Brown, singer, educator and oral history participant, will be featured with Ari Brown at Orbert Davis' Chicago Jazz Philharmonic in the show "DuSable to Obama; Chicago's Black Metropolis," at the South Side Cultural Center at 9pm.

It should be an incredible show! You should all check it out!

For more information, check out: http://www.chicagojazzphilharmonic.org/?mc_cid=0d7eb89b09&mc_eid=70e9fedf73

The following Saturday, January 23rd, Shu Shubat, another incredible participant of the project, and other talented musicians will be holding EarthGong Bath: Dream In at the South Chicago Cultural Center at 4pm. "The candlelit evening will begin with the delicate and ethereal “Ringing of the Bells” ceremony to usher in dreams and intentions for the coming year, followed by an extended EarthGong Bath, a Lullaby and a Samulnori drumming performance with our musical guests." I'm really looking forward to it.

For more information, check out the Chicago Parks Foundation website: http://www.chicagoparksfoundation.org/event/earthgong-bath-dream-in/

Bechdel Test for Music

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A coworker recently told me about an article about applying the Bechdel Test to music.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Bechdel Test, it's a basic test about gender bias in a film. A film passes the test if 1) There are at least two women 2) They have a conversation 3) They talk about something other than a man. Sadly, most films fail this test.

Pitchfork came up with an alternative version of the test. Instead of movies, one applies it to a playlist of music. The rules are below:

  1. "Have at least one female-identifying lead performer, performing as themselves or a female-identifying likeness
  2. Involve the female self, another woman, other women or otherwise an implied female audience in the song’s lyrics
  3. Have a central lyrical topic or theme that’s something or someone besides a man."

It's a low threshold but it's quite hard. I've been trying to put together a playlist of ten songs for the past 45 minutes. I've come up with the following list. It's not a perfect list nor the necessarily best songs by the artists. But I think there is something to this test.

Carolina Chocolate Drops - "Leaving Eden"
Ani De Franco - "Jukebox"
Neko Case - "Margaret v. Pauline"
Heart - "Dreamboat Annie"
My Brightest Diamond - "She Does Not Brave the War."
Nellie McKay - "Mama and Me" 
Ditty Bobs - "Sister Kate"
Anna & Elizabeth - "When I was a Young Girl"
Nina Simone - "Four Women"
Erin McKeown - "The Lions"

Try it yourself and see how you do. Here's the original article: http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/699-a-bechdel-test-for-music/