WLRN’s Danielle Whitaker recently interviewed RAINBOW STAR (all caps—listen and learn why!), a feminist performer and songwriter from Kentucky.
RAINBOW STAR’s first album is available at rainbowstarmusic.com, and her new album, Music from the Rainbow Sparkle Palace: Volume II, is coming soon, with part of the proceeds benefiting a domestic violence shelter in Richmond, Kentucky. One of the album’s tracks entitled “Patriarchy Song” was recently banned from Facebook due to lyrics that were considered “offensive.”
In this interview, RAINBOW talks about the impact of this ban, the challenges of living as a feminist in rural Kentucky, and her journey as a feminist musician.
Artist’s Statement:
As a woman in the music industry, or freaking anywhere, being seen and heard itself is an act of feminist activism. But because I hate being told what to do, and because society has done that for long enough, I don’t stop there. The music video for “Patriarchy Song” sheds light on the taboo topics of domestic violence, sexual assault, false feminism, and when it’s not being overtly activist in subject, is still a raw and powerful confession of a woman no longer hiding behind societally-induced shame.
Women from around the world were invited to alchemize #metoo moments into nourishing fuel for the music video. #MeToo moments were burned and used on a wood stove to heat a meal, giving sustenance to my body. The ashes were then used to fertilize an oak sapling, completing a magic ritual that utilized pain to generate growth.
This album project went to great lengths to employ women at every step, which was at times difficult in a grossly male-dominated music industry. 10% of album profits for its lifetime benefit a local domestic violence shelter; a woman-run nonprofit doing the work that police neglect: to protect women from dangerous men.
Women give birth to all the earth, cultivate the seeds of their wombs, and are the healers of this species. Empirical evidence shows that when women are uplifted, everyone wins. I can only hope to help uplift my sisters with this work.
Gratefully,
RAINBOW STAR