Breaking down barriers
Women in Milwaukee music scene reflect on #MeToo, FemFest
In 2013, Valeri Lucks and Ashley Smith created a camp where girls could learn a song and command a stage, called Girls Rock Milwaukee. In 2015, Olivia Doyle established an event, Riverwest FemFest, to showcase talented female musicians in the city. Both organizations have dramatically changed in the last few years. So has the world. Girls Rock now has a spin-off group, Ladies Rock Milwaukee (returning in July, with registration open now), and there are multiple Girls Rock camps this summer. There are bands that began at Girls Rock, like Negative/Positive, that regularly play gigs around Milwaukee. And from its first two-night, 16-band edition four years ago, FemFest has exploded into an eight-night, multi-venue affair — returning May 27 through June 3 — with stand-up comedy, spoken word, art exhibits, films and performances by more than 60 artists.
Today, Girls Rock Milwaukee and FemFest exist in a world rocked by the #MeToo and #Time’sUp movements — but the music industry, in Milwaukee and beyond, remains male-dominated, and systemic barriers are very much in place.
Ahead of FemFest’s fourth annual edition, eight female leaders from the local music scene gathered for a 90-minute discussion at the Cactus Club, to discuss navigating their way into the music scene, the impact of the #MeToo movement, and actions that have to take place to bring about needed change.
The participants included:
Soulful rocker Abby Jeanne, one of the Journal Sentinel’s Wisconsin Bands to Watch for 2018
Britney Freeman-Farr, who performs as R&B artist B~Free and recently curated a Turner Hall concert inspired by Michael Jackson for the ongoing “Uncovered” series.
Jessica Fenner, a seasoned DJ who performs as Fortune and runs her electronic music concert promotion company, A.Part.
Kelsey Kaufmann, general manager of the Cactus Club, and a member of local party dance band Rio Turbo.
Lindsay DeGroot, singer and guitarist for punk band Fox Face, whose debut LP “Spoil & Destroy” made the Journal Sentinel’s best Milwaukee albums of 2017 list.
Mary Joy Hickey, acting director of Ladies Rock Milwaukee, and bassist for Fox Face, which will perform at FemFest this year.
Olivia Doyle, founder of Riverwest FemFest Shle Berry, a rising star in Milwaukee’s predominantly male hip-hop scene, and a FemFest 2018 performer.
Below is a condensed and edited transcript of the conversation.
Question: Were you ever discouraged from pursuing music because of your gender?
B~FREE: My high school, my teachers, my friends, family, nobody ever gave me any reason to think this was something I couldn’t pursue. I wasn’t aware of any real roadblocks . ... It wasn’t until I introduced a male figure as a part of my team that was seemingly handling this for me that I started to get a little bit more respect and more doors would open for me.
ABBY JEANNE: I feel like I have to work 10 times harder than I would say the average male who is doing music or art or anything really. You’re on trial every single day, and even when you prove to yourself, yes, this is what I did, this is what I’m capable of, the next day there’s something else. It never ends, and it can make you go a little crazy . ... IIf you don’t really have that strong character or you’re more introverted or insecure, the stigma or psychological condition can halt you from progressing. .
JESSICA FENNER: I think in my early years of doing music full time if I had realized the roadblocks were caused by being a woman, I probably wouldn’t have pursued it as hard and it would have been more demoralizing and deflating . ... When I was getting into the whole electronic music scene when I was in my late teens, there were no women DJs . ... I was the only one in Milwaukee, and it was like that for years . ... About 2006 I started producing events with my first allfemale lineups, and there were only two people I could pull from Milwaukee, and all the rest were from Chicago. And six years ago, 2012, I did my first all-female Wisconsin show lineup, and there were eight of us. In November there were 24 of us, and that was not nearly everybody. Now I don’t know all the female DJs, and that’s so great.
SHLE BERRY: Rap is such an interesting place for women to be because mainstream rap is very known for talking poorly about women . ... I have a lot of friends in the industry, mostly male, and they don’t even realize what they’re saying, it’s just become part of the culture . ... There are all these things I have to climb against in terms of the norm in hip-hop. But it’s been so fun, because I have such a different perspective .
LINDSAY DEGROOT: I kind of told myself I couldn’t do it. It’s more like you don’t see women doing it. I didn’t pick up a guitar until I was 25 because I just assumed I couldn’t.
MARY JOY HICKEY: I have recently realized how far I have gone adulting. The slice of pie that is music has become much smaller than I would like, and I am working on widening that again. It was something that I could ever be kept away from. The first music memory I have was being three years old with no clothes on dancing around to the Beach Boys. I grew up with this passion that nobody in my family understood, so I didn’t get any explicit support for it. I have been in school band, orchestra, choir, all of the musical things, but when it came down to playing in a punk band or a rock band, nobody in my family understood it. So I kept doing things based on what I was observing around me. I didn’t have a mentor. I grew up in central Wisconsin where there was this coffee shop that had all these amazing DIY shows that happened there, and looking back I was trying to think of a band I saw there that had a female, and I can’t remember a single band. ... When I moved to Milwaukee I couldn’t get a band off the ground until I asked my boyfriend to join my band and help me with it. Looking back on it that’s so obnoxious . ... I don’t know if that was my own self-limitations, my own small town upbringing, my own self-esteem that I was dealing with. It could have been, or there was possibly something larger going on there, like some subtle power structure.
Q: What impact do you think Riverwest FemFest and Girls Rock Milwaukee have had on the scene?
ABBY JEANNE: When I heard that FemFest was a thing I was like, “Hell yes, I definitely want to be a part of that.” It’s super needed, and it’s great that it’s getting bigger, because not only is it going to help other women get exposure and be part of something, but it’s a celebration for all of us.
MARY JOY HICKEY: We played shows sometimes and you partied with these people, but there wasn’t this place to come together as women . ... FemFest and Ladies Rock became these productive communities that became about so much more than just the music. That currency that’s exchanged, that creativity; you’re just inspiring each other and it’s a catalyst for doing more and more and more, and lifting people up. ...That’s why I think FemFest blew up . ... The people that didn’t think they could do something, or were still looking for permission from somebody, were realizing that, “Hey, I can do this too.” ... At Girls Rock they are having such a good start where these mentors are encouraging them in the healthiest way possible to do what they want to do . ... Our city is finally developing this support structure.
Question: In more recent months, what impact do you feel the discussions and changing perceptions in the wake of the Me Too and Time’s Up movements has had for you and for women in the Milwaukee music scene?
anything it’s had a universal effect. Everyone is witnessing the development where we went from this place of not talking about things we know are going on to actually trying to make peopletake responsibility.
LINDSAY DEGROOT: The #MeToo movement stuff, I have a lot of really strong feelings for what it means locally. I think it’s really easy to justifiably hate on all these celebrities, but I have friends married to people who are predators; they have children now. What am I doing? Have I called them out, said anything, done anything? What does that make me? How am I affecting change because I’m too scared?
ABBY JEANNE: And you fear being told you’re crazy and being pushed against by men and women in those situations because of fear. And there’s this stigma, as soon as you speak up.
MARY JOY HICKEY: There were some things going on when I was younger. The offender was one of the guys, or he was cool, or he had some status or power within the scene. . The men at that time were just brushing it aside because it wasn’t their problem. I would say within the past year one of those men apologized to me for how he handled that situation because one of those men had been called out publicly as a predator and impacted tons of women. But what really blew the case open is that other men were calling him out. It wasn’t just a woman’s problem anymore; it was a human decency problem.
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"I feel like I have to work 10 times harder than I would say the average male who is doing music or art or anything really." — soulful rocker Abby Jeanne MICHAEL SEARS / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL "I kind of told myself I couldn’t do it. It’s more like you don’t see women doing it. I didn’t pick up a guitar until I was 25 because I just assumed I couldn’t." — Lindsay DeGroot, singer and guitarist for Fox Face MICHAEL SEARS / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL "There are people that still can’t really fathom the idea of women doing everything ourselves. People are like, 'Who made that song?' And I say, 'Me.' And they go, 'No, who made the music?' And I say, 'Me.'" — R&B artist B~Free. MICHAEL SEARS / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL "FemFest and Ladies Rock became these productive communities that became about so much more than just the music. That currency that’s exchanged, that creativity; you’re just inspiring each other and it’s a catalyst for doing more and more and more, and lifting people up." — Mary Joy Hickey, acting director of Ladies Rock Milwaukee MICHAEL SEARS / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL "We need to ask how do we support that, how do we encourage that? If I’m not going to be the one that goes and opens up a venue, what am I doing to create that environment that’s supportive for women to do what traditionally men have done?" — DJ Jessica "Fortune" Fenner, owner of electronic music promotion company A.part. MICHAEL SEARS / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL "As a woman, I used to feel this responsibility to emotionally take care of the men around me, but that’s not necessarily my problem, and you need to be more aware how you’re affecting people around you." — Olivia Doyle, founder of Riverwest FemFest MICHAEL SEARS / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL " I don’t think enough people are asking questions of those in power. If you want to be a part of the scene, be a part of the scene. Show up and ask questions. Stay thirsty but believe in yourself." — Kelsey Kaufmann, general manager of the Cactus Club MICHAEL SEARS / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL "There are all these things I have to climb against in terms of the norm in hip-hop. But it’s been so fun, because I have such a different perspective." — rapper Shle Berry MICHAEL SEARS / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL