DAPHNE PRESENTS. Those two words have preceded a whole group of events in Chicago this month, tied around them like a silk ribbon or repeated like a whole block of metal type. “Daphne” refers a series of events at SmartBar this month, timed to coincide with National Women’s History Month and with a couple of workshops thrown in as well.
[quote align=”right” color=”#999999″] In an industry that often matches headliners and openers not upon a criteria of a shared sound but on shared chromosomes, it’s a pretty radical notion to have a “female-driven event” with, uh, men involved.
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This made perfect sense to me, comprehensible in whole or in smaller bite-size pieces, but it may lose its focus when broadcast to a wider audience. In an industry that has perfected the cliche “all female DJ line-up,” or matches headliners and openers not upon a criteria of a shared sound or ethic or aesthetic but on shared chromosomes, it’s a pretty radical notion to have a “female-driven event” with, uh, men involved.
How do you support women by booking men? The same way you support men by booking women. It may sound like a Zen koan but it’s not.
I don’t believe in making people repeat the same words twice for the pleasure of hearing them say it, so I’m going to borrow from SmartBar music director The Black Madonna’s summation of the Daphne project from Electronic Beats:
The DAPHNE series is centered around women, but it’s not exclusively women playing. The only point is to have women in leadership positions. We don’t need to be exclusive; what we need to do is show that women are normal, integral fixtures in this world. There are women leading it, young women participating.
With that said, there are still six remaining Daphne events through this month, and each of them have something worth talking about:
Oktave: March 20th
Rebekah is joined by Annie Hall and DJ Shiva (who we’ve been very happy to have sharing her knowledge of techno and sometimes cats in our review section since the turn of 2015.)
[ link ] [ facebook ] [ tix ]
Hugo Ball: March 21
Hugo Ball is probably SmartBar’s most notorious monthly residency, but this month The Black Madonna comes downstairs to join residents Justin Long and Nathan Drew Larsen.
[ link ] [ facebook ] [ tix ]
Queen: March 22
Two of Chicago’s legendary DJs, Psycho-Bitch and Teri Bristol, are back together again at SmartBar’s Sunday night residency with Derrick Carter, Michael Serafini and Garrett David of Gramaphone Records and hosts Sissy Spastik, Jojo Baby and Jay Jay.
[ link ] [ facebook ] [ tix: $7 at the door ]
House Dance Workshop: March 26
As part of Daphne, SmartBar’s series honoring women artists, 5 Magazine editor and Fivestarboogie Productions artistic director Czarina Mirani along with dance partner Carlos Morris will be running an hour long House Dance workshop on Thursday, March 26th at 9pm. This will be a dance class open to all levels from beginners to seasoned dancers. Some of the basic foundation movements such as footwork will be shown along with a brief history of how what is now called House Dancing evolved. (photo via brilliantlymad.com.)
[ link ] [ facebook ] [ tix: FREE ]
Superjane: March 27
It was 1997, and a depressing rave in Bloomington set the scene for the Superjane DJ collective’s conquest of Chicago, then the Midwest, then the nation, and then the world. That was the point of departure in XLR8R magazine’s fabled cover story on Ms. Heather, Ms. Colette, Ms. Dayhota and Lady D, four friends from Chicago who marked off a tremendous number of “firsts” while inspiring a new generation of DJs to lean in and strike out on their own. On March 27, 2015, Superjane puts the topper on SmartBar’s Daphne event series, a group of events in celebration of Women’s History Month.
[ link ] [ facebook ] [ tix ]
Queen!: March 29
Okay, one more. One of my favorite remixers of the moment, Lauren Flax plays house with the G-phone squad (Michael Serafini and Garrett David) and hosts Lucy Stoole and Mister Wallace.
[ link ] [ facebook ] [ tix: $7 at the door ]
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[…] in and strike out on their own. On March 27, 2015, Superjane puts the topper on SmartBar’s Daphne event series, a group of events in celebration of Women’s History […]