WORKING GROUPS

Go to the WMF page

Womxn Musicians Forum aims to inspire communal dialogue to address the challenges and issues faced by womxn in music culture and its communities. The idea to create this space came from collective conversations amongst friends and colleagues who have toured and worked within music culture for many years, and who are all active in the music communities based in Lenape & Canarsee lands of Brooklyn NY, Tongva lands of Los Angeles CA, and Cheyenne, Arapaho, & Ute lands of Denver CO.

CONTACT: lilelenna@gmail.com

The SMC Mental Health Working Group is dedicated to creating safe spaces and opportunities for musicians to engage in their own healing and the healing of our industry and culture. 

Throughout the pandemic, the SMC Mental Health Working Group has developed and hosted monthly informal peer support group sessions for musicians in our community, and compiled a vetted list of community specific crisis and support resources, which can be found in the Resources tab on the SMC website.

CONTACT: thesoundmindcollective@gmail.com

The SMC Policy Working Group aims to represent the needs and concerns of independent musicians and artists as they pertain to New York City policy by envisioning and championing equitable, artist-centered policy strategy, engaging in dialogue with City government, and organizing actions to create visibility.

The Policy Working Group has mobilized musicians & DJ’s around the issues of exploitation and poor working conditions, which helped to form the Music Workers Alliance in 2019, and has drafted and presented a comprehensive “Fair Play NYC” proposal, which contributed to the Nightlife Advisory Board’s list of recommendations to the Mayor, also in 2019. 

The Policy Working Group has also formed partnerships with the NYC Artist Coalition, MOMENT NYC, Musicians For Musicians, The Black Institute and others in strategic meetings with City representatives and demonstrations to put pressure on City government on a variety of intersectional issues.

The Policy Working Group has not been active during the pandemic due to its members redirecting energy towards maintaining and strengthening community health.

CONTACT: thesoundmindcollective@gmail.com

The SMC Venue Coalition aims to unite independent live music venues with performers in our community to strengthen relations, hold space for healthy open communication, and build practices centered in solidarity and equity so that we may all thrive and support each other in NYC’s live music ecosystem.

CONTACT: thesoundmindcollective@gmail.com

Go to the Love NY page

LOVE, NEW YORK is an online music festival event featuring artists, musicians and dancers from New York. The first festival occurred in March 2021 on the 1 year anniversary of the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order in New York City (watch on YouTube here).

Net proceeds from the 2021 Love, New York festival were allocated among the performers and our independent venue partners, C’mon Everybody and Barbes.

Currently planning the 2022 festival - get in touch to join the effort!

CONTACT: phantomvanity@gmail.com

The very first SMC Zine - which you can view here - aims to highlight and share our members’ diverse creative expressions and inspirations, from poetry to comic strips to - of course - music.

Get in touch to know when the next zine is being planned!

CONTACT: albapdl@gmail.com

Working to keep the website and social media accounts maintained, helpful, and lovely!

CONTACT: thesoundmindcollective@gmail.com

The SMC Songwriters Circle aims to strengthen our communities by developing a common language to discuss musical works openly and thoughtfully, so our community worries less about what various gatekeepers think

CONTACT: thesoundmindcollective@gmail.com

Not currently active, but get in touch to know when the next meetup happens!