Group 15

As soon as you open the main doors to MOHAI, the sound of blues echoes throughout the atrium, filling the wide open space with the ringing of music. Annette Taborn, Reese Tanimura, and other musicians stand upon a stage and alternate between jamming out and describing their life experiences and involvement with music during their life. Their music enlivens and excites the atmosphere, as people in the crowd get into the groove, dancing, clapping, and rocking out in the beat of the bass line, Annette’s harmonica riffs and signature voice, and the rhythm of the percussion. Annette Tabor is described as someone who has been involved with music her whole life, and is a musical archivist with a personal connection with blues and jazz music. Not only does this performance energize the conference as a whole, it reminds us that beyond the archives and the history, we are all here to celebrate the involvement of women in music and to create a center of appreciation and respect for those who are often excluded from the platform.

Annette Taborn, Reese Tanimura, and friends are currently performing blues jam in the MOHAI Atrium. The band’s presence at this conference represents their support for womxn through claiming the space and performing their music. The members introduce themselves after performing their first song, sharing with the audience that their bass player is a former member of the first all women of color rock band in Seattle. The band passionately plays their music, as the lead singer notes that “blues is the folk music of the people.” The lead singer uses not only her voice to create sound and claim space, but she also uses a variety of other instruments, such as a harmonica and a shaker-type instrument.

The band also goes on to invite individuals from the crowd to go on stage and perform with them; this is representative of inviting others to fight for just causes (e.g. justice for women). One individual joins the band and is heard through their playing of the tambourine.

The main entrance of MOHAI housed a collection of powerful images and quotes from women in the women who rock community and powerful women leaders in history and current pop culture. Of these women included Celia Cruz, Laverne Cox, Ida b Wells, Ma Rainey, and Tarana Burke. This served not only as an example of powerful women making a difference, but also as a social activism platform. Specifically, this addressed gentrification in the Seattle area, bringing attention to the issue of low income communities being pushed out of their homes and an increasingly homogenized Seattle.

It’s after lunch time now, and the early afternoon lull has hit. Conference goers wander back into the building to the blues-y sound of Annette Taborn’s harmonica. The lackadaisical tone of this part of the conference is welcoming, as this gives conference goers the opportunity to really appreciate what we came here to learn about: women’s music and women’s role in music.

As we listen to this all-woman blues band, we have the opportunity to examine the Altar that is in the Atrium. The Altar has photos of important women who have stood up and spoken loud about their identity and their values. Also spread throughout the Altar are quotes which cite the importance of the struggle women have experienced. There’s a photo of Tarana Burke with a quote that says “These women are able not just to share their shame but to put the shame where it belongs: on the perpetrator.”

Reading messages like this, while also listening to the music that is created by strong women who have struggled, really codifies the importance of what we are doing here today.

The Womxn Who Rock (un)conference Idea Incubator Forum is a Brave Space attempting to create Safe Spaces for Everyone. Veteran community organizers, women of color expressing their experiences with oppression, and privileged white men working together to practice vulnerability, humility, and create safe spaces. Come down and learn how you can help!

The Altar:

The Altar is a very interesting aspect to the women who rock conference. It is meant to honor the women who have stood up for their rights and have endured pain along the way. This pain isn’t limited to physical pain and is a tribute to the women who have been arrested, injured, or has endured any pain fighting for what they deserve. The Altar has images of women who have made a difference and have spoken out in front of large groups, along with women who can be seen protesting for their rights. This is a very powerful booth because it speaks out for women who recognized they needed to speak out and were treated improperly along the way. The Altar is a meaningful way to represent those women.

Claiming space in the Changing City:

At the conference, we had 4 guest panelists (powerful women in Seattle area). Some of the interesting things that were talked about were the ways to claim space in this busy city.  One of the panelists mentioned setting up neighborhood centers to pool money together and make spaces that can be opened up to locals who don’t necessarily have the money to make changes themselves and bring through icons that are typically bought out by rich investors (which takes away from how things were done in the past for the people who were raised with these given icons).  They also touched on the idea that it is important to be aware of how people [minority groups] are mistreated and speak out and go talk to city policy makers to change these issues. They also talked about things in the community that people are doing to take space and make themselves known. Black Mama mentioned that the singers and artists of her country use their power to make differences, but no matter what, profits and proceeds are always shuffled through government hands. This is problematic because these officials don’t have the same interests in the community as the artists do and so the profits aren’t used ‘properly’.

Creation, Activation and Preservation of cultural space. Of the arts and different ethnicities. Does not cover housing insecurities. This report is what the city of Seattle is doing to  perserve space. The banks dont trust artists. So when developers create a building they don’t include a space that supports for cultural and artistic experience.

Why is the public realm associated with buying. When people hang out and go out it to engange in capitalism. So then its important to have spaces where people can just be and exist in an infastructure where they dont just have to buy things.

Artist work live space. In solidarity with creators that cant live with the material they work with. Built environments are not accomodative.

The city needs to support artists!!!!!

The Claiming Space Breakout Sessions have begun and a screening of Sara Salcedo and Cecile Hansen’s Promise Land is being held in the Prologue Theater. The film documents the roots of the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest and the link of Seattle’s history to the indigenous peoples of the area. By documenting the Duwamish and Chinook history, Hansen and Salcedo’s film gives a voice to the history of the indigenous people in and around Seattle that have been written out of the history books. It exposes the amount of loss that the Chinook and Duwamish peoples experienced as the Pacific Northwest developed.Treaties were broken, lands were striped away, food sources were lost, and the indigenous people were displaced. Lands that had been inhabited by the Duwamish for generations were erased by the development of the city of Seattle.

After the first chapter of the film a discussion was held, where Julie C. said if you want to support the Duwamish and events such as today, you should support 4 Culture and call the state and advocate for the state not to take over 4 Culture.

Chloe Yeo, Group 11

POST 1
It’s March 10th, two days after international (working) women’s day, and we’re here at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) to celebrate the achievements and histories of womxn in Rock. It’s just past lunch time, and people are weaving in and out of spaces, absorbing exhibition spaces and jittering about past meetings.

It’s especially fitting for this inclusive event to sit at the edge of South Lake Union. Seattle itself has become a microcosm for modern day colonialism. In pursuit of innovating the technological frontier, wealth and “tech bro” culture (namely Amazon’s influx of employees) continue to push out marginalized groups and erase their histories, leaving no solace of affordable housing or community centers, only luxury condos and automated grocery stores in their wake. But here, in this celebration and gathering of musicians and creatives of color, I am hopeful for this vibrant, optimistic, angry, expressive future. So far, everyone has been extremely welcoming and participatory and inclusive. Claiming space in this museum is empowering and I’m looking forward to the ideas that come forward from this (un)conference.

[UPDATE] POST 2: ReCAPping community discussions and blues jamming

While gentrification and creating affordable housing are hot topics, I had never considered the intersection of gentrification and creating creative spaces. During the CAP (Creation, Activation, Preservation) Report session, I enjoyed hearing recommendations and Seattle’s attempts to define creative space and preserve cultural landmarks. It’s incredibly nuanced and faces significant historical barriers because of systemic racism through redlining, financial institutions, and misconceptions about artists. I never understood the need for studio space for visual or performing arts in terms of city planning, or how these cultural districts can help inform housing and retail space decisions. The CAP report discussion illuminated the potential for arts and housing equity to work hand in hand, which I found inspiring and grateful that these talks are happening at a city level.

Following this table talk, the atrium was opened up to a lovely blues jam session. As a person who strongly values representation, I loved seeing women of color collaborating and creating sounds together in a space that isn’t directly celebrating diversity. In the context of MOHAI, the activities of this (un)conference almost seemed at odds with the space. My initial reaction of MOHAI was that it was built to “sell” people on the idea of Seattle, and dismissed any impact of race, class, or gender caused by rising industries. Therefore, it is important and necessary to put MOHAI and this conference in conversation with each other, and continue to do so in various spaces throughout our changing city.

The discussion room was a safe, open space to have engaging conversation. Many of the women discussed their original intentions of moving to Seattle as a place of inclusion, as they hoped to find others they could identify with on spiritual and cultural levels. In a city like Seattle, they discussed how being surrounded by people who look like themselves can bring comfort and a sense of pride to something that often seems burdensome. However, some women discussed suffering from a lack of mentors/elders in their communities, leading to an absence of historical cultural knowledge that the history books do not fill. This is where the archive is most helpful; it serves as a platform for teaching the history of peoples through visual and auditory messages. As many cultural histories where buried by  colonization and the terrors of white supremacy, the archive serves as a collection of the oral histories passed down through generations. Therefore, the archive can help fill the void left by an absence of elders/mentors. The same can be said about musicians like Black Mama – she serves as a leader in her community, a role model for women around the globe, and a source of oral history portrayed through her music. Other topics discussed included using the arts to teach students lagging behind in school, working as a community to educate others, rediscovering ancestral stories, pushing for minority leaders to be represented in history books, people having to identify as white in order to navigate political and social systems, people rejecting their cultural history out of a shame engrained by the society they live in, forced assimilation to procure jobs or leadership roles in communities, and the reclamation of space. Ultimately, the discussion regarding reclamation focused  on identifying oneself, recognizing one’s goals, and protesting/fighting for those goals through whatever medium possible.