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THE MESSAGE IS IN THE MUSIC is a 2-day event on Friday March 5th and Saturday March 6th at Sarah Lawrence College in the Monika A. and Charles A. Heimbold, Jr. Visual Arts Center.  This conference is so exciting because it incorporates a mix of many different feminist narratives and viewpoints, touching on race, sexuality, gender, and culture.  For the Birds partially grew out of a response to the sexism we experienced in the NYC Do It Yourself punk scene, so it will be exciting for us to hear about similar narratives from folks on the front lines of feminism and musical culture.  We are also super excited to see our own Kate Wadkins moderate the panel on Riot Grrrl!  We will be tabling on Saturday March 6th, so check out the schedule below if you are interested!  Map and directions can be found here.

The SCHEDULE:

Friday’s Opening Plenary: 6–8 p.m., Keynote Address from Carmen Ashhurst, former president of Def Jam Recordings and Rush Communications, and author of the forthcoming book Selling My Brothers: The Movement, The Media, and Me

Saturday’s Plenary Panel: 10–11:45 a.m.

Intersections: Music and Activism

• Mimi Nguyen [University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Missing Persons]
• Fiona Ngo [University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Punk in the Shadow of War]
• Christa D’Angelica [Assistant Law Clerk, New York Supreme Court, Beyond Bikini Kill: A History of Riot Grrrl, From Grrrls to Ladies]

Breakout Session I: 1–2:30 p.m. featuring several panels:

“Give Me Body”: Reading the Latina and Black Female Body in Popular Music

• Shanna Benjamin [Grinnell College, Hot Sex on a Platter: Lil’ Kim and Reconstructions of the Black Female Body]
• Lakesia D. Johnson [Grinnell College Black Queer Embodiment and Desire in the Music Videos of Me’shell Ndegéocello]
• Michelle Rocío Nasser [Grinnell College Reading Shakira’s Body: Signs of Colombianidad in “Hips Don’t Lie”]

Video Vixens

• Loron Benton [Georgia State University, “Shake What Your Mama Gave You”: The Representation and Performance of the Female Body in Hip Hop Videos]
• Zoe Spencer [Virginia State University, Shake Dat Azz: Deconstructing the Sociopolitical Foundation of the Neo Jezebel]
• Marita Buanes [University of Agder, Norway, Flip It and Reverse It: Gender and Race in Missy Elliott’s Video “Work It”]

Riot Grrrl [MODERATED BY OUR OWN FTB MEMBER AND SARAH LAWRENCE WOMEN'S HISTORY STUDENT KATE WADKINS!]

• Julia Downes [University of Leeds, “Resist Psychic Death”: The Cultural Politics of Riot Grrrl and Queer Feminist Subculture]
• Marisa Meltzer [Freelance Writer, The Girl Power Revolution]
• Jamielynn Varriale [SUNY Albany, Embodying Riot Grrl: Fleshly Representations and Bodily Experiences and Images in the Work and Career of Corin Tucker]

Round-Table Discussion The Cultural Mode of Masculinity in the American Pop Patriarchy: An Interactive Round-Table Discussion [Jared Demick, Kristin Evans, Amber West, Jeffrey Wickersham, University of Connecticut]

Breakout Session II: 2:45–4:15 p.m. with the following panels:
Women Rap

• Emma Carmichael [Vassar College, Female Subjectivity within Hip Hop: Rappers, Lyrics, and Performance]
• Iresha Picot [Temple University, Doorknockers: Black Female Rappers Knockin’ on a New Intellectual Discourse]
• María Santana [University of Central Florida, Her Sexy Stilettos Give a Women’s Point of View to Reggaeton: Ivy Queen and Latin Urban Music]

Performing Gender

• Nafeesa Nichols [University of The Witwatersrand (South Africa), Gendered Identities in Black South African Creative Expression: Are We Running in Circles?]
• Barbara Anna Panuzzo [London South Bank University, Writing Performative Identities: Discursive Traits of Femininity in Hip Hop Journalism]
• Malaena Taylor [University of Connecticut, Gender and Activism in the Punk Subculture]
• Jessica Ronald [University of Louisville, Potential Feminist Performances of Masculinity in Music: The Hip Hop Subculture of Nerdcore]

Divas

• Brian Q. Torff [Fairfield University]
• Hilary Torff [High School Academic Core Teacher, Marymount Academy, Montreal, Canada, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Rosetta Tharpe: Black Women Who Shaped a Musical Future]
• Elisabeth Wronzoff-Dashkoff [Independent Scholar, Who’s That Girl?: Pop Stars as the Apogee of 1980s Feminist Discourse]

Say What: The Message in the Music

• Vankita Brown [Howard University, Me’Shell Ndegeocello and Womanist Music]
• C. Chic Smith [Howard University, African American Women in Hip Hop Music and Videos]

Breakout Session III: 4:30–6 p.m. :
Workshop: Sophie’s Parlor Radio Collective, Facilitated by: Lakeisha R. Harrison, Kimberly C. Gaines & Andrea Thompson

Panel
Love, Sex, and Magic: Hip Hop Feminism as a Tool for the Creative Renegotiation of Black Female Desire

• Emily Unnasch [University of Alabama, “F Love”: Sex, Violence, and Hip Hop’s Turbulent Struggle to Define Love against the Grain]
• Brittney Cooper [University of Alabama, “She’s a Movement by Herself”: Black Sexual Politics and Independent Black Womanhood in the Hip Hop Feminist Era]
• Maigen Sullivan [University of Alabama, “They Dykin”: The Commodification of Lesbian Desire in Mainstream Hip Hop and Underground Attempts at Reclamation]
• Tammy Owens [University of Alabama, “It Must Be Your Ass”: The Commodification of the Female Booty from Slavery to the Present]

Round-Table Discussion
Rhymes of Dissent: Identity Politics within Underground Hip Hop with

• Viviana Bernal [Sankofa Institute for Youth Development Inc.]
• Katie McGhee and Maria Roumiantseva[Montclair State University]

WomynSong

• Amity Bryson [Avila University, Women’s Music Festivals, Politics or Commodity?: The 1970s Experience vs. Lilith Fair]
• Elizabeth K. Keenan [Columbia University, If Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville Made You a Feminist, What Kind of Feminist Are You?: Heterosexuality, Race, and Class in the Third Wave]
• Andrea Fehring [University of Northern Iowa, “Womyn Only Space at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival Is Separatism Based on Biological Sex, in Fact, Feminist?”]