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UPRISING: SONGS OF CHANGE


AND SOLIDARITY by lisa lipsey


JANIS IAN


The San Diego Women’s Chorus is humming


in solidarity as they prepare for their next concert UPRISING: Songs of Change. Their performance will honor the influence and importance of music in social movements from around the world. They have a very special guest gracing their stage, the legendary Janis Ian. Discovered when she was just 14 years old, Ian is now in her fifth decade of writing songs and performing. Ian received her most recent Grammy nomination this year, bringing her current total to 10 nominations in eight categories! UPRISING: Songs of Change is a fundraiser benefiting the San Diego Women’s Chorus and the Lesbian Health Initiative at the San Diego Human Dignity Foundation. Ian is pleased to be part of the cause, “I have been aware of the San Diego Women’s Chorus and their outreach programs for a while now. This year, I had determined to only do one live show, I had booked a show for Lincoln Center in New York. When the chorus called, it only took about two minutes to say, ‘Yes.’ I knew the Indigo Girls had a great experience working with them and there was a special incentive...It is not every day that you get to work with a full chorus.” Ian was just returning from a two-week vacation


and the celebration of her birthday, “I just turned 65 and I have decided to revamp the way I look at my life and career. Six to eight months on the road


12 RAGE monthly | MAY 2016


put my partner through law school and got us a nice house, now I am ready to settle in and fund my own records and do what I want to do. That’s special and wonderful.” In her early career, Ian didn’t see herself as a


social activist. “I think it was an outcome then, most songwriters feel that way. Artists influence the heart and that influences the vote. It is hard to influence the heart through legislation. Then one night, Mike from Act-Up was backstage at a New York club, pinning on pink triangle pins and I thought, ‘This is real political activism; the melding of performance and political statements.’ The following year, I hap- pened to be in New York for the first AIDS benefit there, then when they continued on to Nashville and San Francisco, I said, ‘Yes.’” When asked for her advice to aspiring artists, Ian


says, “Keep your day job. Don’t trust anything but your instincts. Everybody has words of advice and everyone experiences failure. That means nothing. Step outside your box and do things that you will be awful at; I am going to take banjo classes. Courage and stubbornness are indistinguishable. Often I was just in the right place and made a smart or bold move.” Ian shared the story of her last Grammy Award, presented at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony, for Best Spoken Word Album for her


audio book Society’s Child. She was up against President Bill Clinton, First Lady Michelle Obama, Rachel Maddow and Ellen DeGeneres. When she won, she expressed her surprise and went on to say, “There must be a joke in here somewhere... An ex-president, a First Lady and three lesbians go into a bar…” Her speech continued on a more serious note, “We artists are the last alchemists, pulling your dreams, your hopes, your deepest desires out of thin air, and turning them into something you can hear, play and sing. We don’t sell music. We sell dreams.” Ian encourages each of you to attend the UPRIS-


ING: Songs of Change concert. “Particularly now with all the weird legislation surrounding LGBTQI, in North Carolina and Tennessee. Put your money where your mouth is and let your voices be heard. I hope this show sells out and we hear about it in the media and online, as visible proof that people care and they will stand up and be counted.”


UPRISING: Songs of Change takes place one night only, Sunday, May 22, at the Balboa Theatre. For tickets and more information, call 619.570.1100 go to sdwc.org.


For VIP tickets, premium seating and complimentary admis- sion to the “invite-only “after party at the Hard Rock Café, call 619.291.3383 or go to sdhdf.org.


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