Embracing Roots
- Monday, December 5 3:30 AM
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Embracing Roots
Music
Embracing Roots recognizes all those who search for a home within bluegrass. It celebrates Bluegrass Pride and their mission to make bluegrass a space for everyone. Six diverse members of Bluegrass Pride shared their experiences and hopes for the bluegrass community. The common emotional themes in their stories inspired the music.
Roots music cannot be detangled from community and culture. Roots music to me is so important, vital, and entrancing because its directly tied to the human experience.
Misterioso - Allegro Brusco
The first movement draws on a common theme across the conversations: the joy of discovering bluegrass and how its traditions can both conflict and connect with one's identity.
There are times when being a part of a community that's so oriented towards tradition means it is not willing to make space for people who aren't considered traditional. I definitely value history and the way that things have been done. I understand the importance of keeping those ways intact. At the same time, there's not an acknowledgement that for a lot of people, tradition has been weaponized against us.
Andante con Movimento
The second movement portrays the loneliness of exclusion and the feeling that "you will never be one of us."
A lot of people refuse to see this as a problem because it's like anti-matter; we will never be able to see the exclusion that exists in bluegrass because the evidence of its existence is its absence, and the fingerprints of its absence.
It feels like that very sly, very slight, very underhanded, 'hmm yeah, but you won't ever be one of us.
Specifically bluegrass, country, and Americana are centered on the negative space left by the exclusion of all but white straight men. How could I not feel excluded by that? How could I not feel like bluegrass is something I had to fight to be a part of, that I had to fight to carve out my little homestead, my little plot in this culture to live on, and to subsist on. And when most people in bluegrass think that it's just a meritocracy and think that the only barrier to entry is someone wanting to enter, it's nonsense.
Allegro energico
What does it feel like to carve out your own space within a community? The third movement expresses the courage to embrace one's individuality and the joy of expressing their authentic voice within a community.
I'm a better musician because I know myself better. I am more sure of who I am. I am happy to be who I am. That has led me to liking different things and different artists and different aspects of traditional music, and allows me to express myself within traditional music a lot more genuinely and a lot more effectively.
Musicians
Alisa Rose
Grammy-nominated rebel expressionist Alisa Rose wears many hats, blurring the lines between violinist, fiddler, composer, and improviser. With roots in both classical and American roots music, she attracts attention for her expressive lyrical voice and her stylistic fluidity.
She co-founded Scroggins & Rose whose two critically acclaimed albums defined their rule-breaking contemporary roots music stylings where detailed virtuosic precision meets the freedom of improvisation.
Town Quartet
The Town Quartet was born in Oakland in 2011 as a fusion of four musicians and their love of chamber music. The current roster includes violinists Mia Bella D'Augelli and Corey Mike, violist Jacob Hansen-Joseph, and cellist Lewis Patzner.
Bay Area Rainbow Symphony
Launched in 2008, Bay Area Rainbow Symphony™ (BARS) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer identified (LGBTQ) musicians and composers toward the goal of broad crossover appeal and excellence in the performing arts. BARS is synonymous with excellence and distinction in the performing arts and community building.
Community
Many thanks to Kara Kundert, executive director of Bluegrass Pride for conducting interviews and Justin Hiltner, Franco Martino, and four anonymous contributors for sharing their stories.
This work was created with the support of the San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant.
