Mission Statement
The Women of the Blues organization empowers women across all generations and backgrounds by celebrating and recognizing the women of the Blues’ unique contributions to the music genre. The documentation of their past and present roles is a testament to the importance they have played on the blues highway while preserving the heritage and creating a blues cultural landscape for the future.
We achieve this through:
- exhibits & documentation through multi-media platforms,
- live performances,
- advocacy,
- building strategic alliances.
“Women Of The Blues: A Coast-To-Coast Collection’ is a labor of love. In 2012 I had an idea to produce a concert called, ‘Chicago Blues Mamas for Obama’. It was inspired by the Women’s Suffrage Movement —what an important time that was for women. Social justice and Civil Rights activism is my platform. I began to formulate the idea of how the voice of blues women is strategic to the social landscape of our lives. As I collected artists’ interviews and photos around the country I realized how unique each artist was to their culture, their community, their hometown. When we got together at an awards show or a festival it was a great sisterhood. I also met so many photographers in the photo pits of festivals, at clubs, at award shows who graciously shared space with me as I captured the image of the artist through my lens. They told their story of the artist as interpreted through their lens.
This show is exactly what the title says: a collection of blues women featuring 60 female blues artists of all ages and ethnic backgrounds representing all styles from southern soul blues to Chicago blues & rock blues.
The contributions of women to the art of blues music, has resonated not only with the interviewees, but with a growing audience of fans around the world who welcome a more thoughtful and inclusive attitude toward women musicians in what is still widely perceived as a male-dominated art form.
This show is to empower and generate new fans of blues women and their music.
I want to thank Fran Allen-Leake of LJet Productions who is my sister in creating a platform for blues and jazz women throughout the country. Abbe Silverberg Sparks my creative music media partner whose guidance and input has playd an essential role in all aspects of the project. I’m grateful to Marcey, Rebekka and Stan for helping to make my vision a reality from the inception of our opening gallery show.
And of course, thank you to the photographers and blues women featured in this show…”
— Lynn Orman Weiss, Curator
