Event

Women are everywhere in music – Sleater-Kinney turned the rock world on its axis with their long-awaited reunion, Adele's new album smashed sales records left and right, and Nicki Minaj changed what it means to be a woman in rap music. But visibility doesn't mean that our work is done. Amanda Silberling (C'18) has brought together five stellar women in the Philadelphia music scene to discuss what challenges women face in the music industry and what action we can take to create a fully inclusive atmosphere for anyone who can shred on a Fender, engineer the best sounds in the business, or wail into a microphone.

CAMAE AYEWA is an interdisciplinary artist based in Philadelphia. A musician performing under the name Moor Mother Goddess, she has toured in Europe and the U.S., and has performed at numerous festivals, colleges and universities sharing the stage with King Britt, Islam Chipsy, and Claudia Rankine. A soundscape artist with work featured at Samek Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art Chicago, and Everson Museum of Art, Camae is also a singer in punk band The Mighty Paradocs. Camae is co-founder and organizer of Rockers! Philly, a 10-year long running event series and festival focused on marginalized artists. As a workshop facilitator she works with youth centered programs, non profits and shelters. As a curator of fundraising events, Camae has worked with and serves on the board of Girls Rock Philly, and is assistant coordinator of The Afrofuturist Affair, Philadelphia's premiere afrofuturism organization. Camae is also a poet and author of the forthcoming poetry book Fetish Bones and is an avid zinemaker and collector. She is a member of Black Quantum Futurism Collective, which released its first book, Black Quantum Futurism theory and practice Vol. 1. and has been featured at the Schomburg Center, as well as presented installations at the Rebuild Foundation and Temple Contemporary at Tyler School of Art.

FRAN BLANCHE is the owner and founder of Contour Corsets (2008-present), and Frantone Electronics (1994-present), and in addition to being a completely self-taught electronic engineer, Fran is also one of the wold's most well known and respected bespoke anatomical corset designers and pattern makers. Frantone was one of the world's very first boutique guitar effects companies, and in creating, coding, and maintaining all of her own websites, Fran launched www.frantone.com in 1995, making it one of the oldest web domains in the music gear industry. In addition to designing the 20+ year old Frantone line of effects, Fran was also the designer of the Electro-Harmonix NYC Big Muff in 2000. In March, 2011 the NYC Big Muff was included along with the Frantone Peachfuzz in MusicRadar's list of the 42 best fuzz pedals of all time. Fran is also a published photographer, graphic artist, musician, space technology researcher and historian, and mechanical engineer. She has worked on the restoration of the one of a kind Maillardet Automaton at the Franklin Institute, and worked on vintage Apollo flight hardware at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Fran's work on reverse engineering the Apollo Saturn V LVDC computer got her an article in Popular Science Magazine in 2014, and her work with supermodel Stella Tennant was included in a cover article for Vogue Italia in 2011. Fran's photographic portraits of musicians have been published in numerous magazines, and her photos of the attacks on 9/11/2001 were published in the Book Here Is New York, and enshrined in the Library of Congress official archive. The Frantone Vibutron was put on the cover of Dave Hunter's 2004 book; Guitar Effect Pedals: the Practical Handbook and Franone pedals have been reviewed in dozens of guitar magazines going back to 1996. Fran maintains a popular YouTube channel that showcases her many interests and projects, and is also an occasional FM radio DJ.

DIANE FOGLIZZO is the Program Director at Girls Rock Philly and has been active in the international Girls Rock movement for over 7 years. She is currently the President/Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Girls Rock Camp Alliance, an alliance of over 40 girls rock camps from all over the world. After graduating from high school outside of Philadelphia, Diane lived in Washington, DC for 9 years, where she was involved in different projects including helping to found Girls Rock! DC in 2007. She also worked as a union organizer and spent two years as a political analyst/lobbyist for the Prometheus Radio Project, working to successfully pass federal legislation expanding access to community radio. Diane is currently on break from being a student at CCP, working towards a degree in ASL/English Interpreting. She plays in a band called Trophy Wife and organizes with the statewide organization, Decarcerate PA.

MARIA RAHA is the author of Cinderella's Big Score: Women of the Punk and Indie Underground and Hellions: Pop Culture's Rebel Women, both published by Seal Press. She has contributed to numerous nonfiction anthologies, including The W Effect: Bush's War on Women, Madonna and Me: Women Writers on the Queen of Pop, and Punk Rock Warlord: The Life and Work of Joe Strummer. In 2008, Hellions received the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Emily Toth Award for the "best single work in women's studies." Raha is also an editor at Temple University.

CYNTHIA SCHEMMER is a writer, editor, book devourer, and musician. She currently lives in Philadelphia, PA where she freelances and works remotely as the managing editor of She Shreds Magazine. She has been published in Philadelphia City Paper, Impose, Underwater New York, The Media, Broken Pencil, Toska Magazine, Connotation Press, RE/VISIONIST, and Elevate Difference, among others. She has also co-authored a chapter in Don't Leave Your Friends Behind, a collection of tips and narratives on ways non-parents can support parents and children. She writes Secret Bully, a creative nonfiction zine of personal essays, as well as Habits of Being, an oral history zine that was also released in audio format. She has a BA in Journalism from SUNY Purchase and an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She currently plays guitar in Radiator Hospital and once sang and wrote songs for Heavy Bangs. Her debut solo 12" “Swanning” is due out on Salinas Records late this year. She is a true bull Taurus and her cat, Frankie, is her creative mews.

AMANDA SILBERLING (C'18) is an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania studying English, Creative Writing, and Fine Arts. Her music writing, journalism, and photography have appeared in Rock On Philly, She Shreds Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The Rumpus, BandsInTown, The 405, and more, and she books DIY music gigs to benefit charitable organizations around Philadelphia. She photographs and writes about various concerts and events around the Philadelphia and NYC areas, including major festivals like the CMJ Music Marathon, XPoNential Music Fesitval, and Made in America. She has spoken about college campus feminism for HuffPost Live, and she organized this panel because of her interest in the relationship between feminism and music. You can learn more about Amanda here.