“Women Made Music: An Evening with Industry Insiders” will be presented by Nashville Public Library (NPL) Special Collections on Wednesday, March 5 at the Main Library, Conference Center First Floor, from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm. The event may be attended in person or virtually, FREE. The speakers are Ann Powers, Alice Randall, Adia Victoria, Jewly Hight, and Marissa Moss.
Welcome to a night of critical conversation, shattering stereotypes, and inspiration from women in the music industry. The evening begins at 5:30pm, when the doors open for a lightly catered reception. The program begins at 6:30pm and ends at 8:30pm. Reserve your tickets at the NPL website.
One of the nation’s most notable music critics, Ann Powers is National Public Radio (NPR) Music’s critic and correspondent, writing for NPR Music since 2011. Her most recent book, “Women Made Music,” draws from NPR Music’s acclaimed, groundbreaking series “Turning the Tables,” and is the definitive book on the vital role of Women in Music—from Beyoncé to Odetta, Taylor Swift to Joan Baez, Joan Jett to Dolly Parton—featuring archival interviews, essays, photographs, and illustrations.
Alice Randall is a New York Times bestselling novelist, award-winning songwriter, and the Andrew Mellon Professor of Humanities and African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University. She lives in Nashville where she writes country songs. Her memoir, “My Black Country,” is Randall’s say about what it was like to be a Black woman working on and around Music Row for forty-one years.
Nashville-based singer/songwriter Adia Victoria’s body of work defies easy categorization. With a voice that is as breathy as it is assured, she weaves captivating tales of the South. Celebrated for her music that elevates the voices and history of Black Americans, Adia Victoria challenges and defies Nashville stereotypes of what it means to be a Southern artist.
Music critic and journalist Jewly Hight is the senior music writer for Nashville Public Radio, where she created the organizations first limited podcast series focused on music, “Making Noise.” Her work has appeared on NPR and in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine/Vulture, The Guardian, Billboard, The Oxford American, Slate and numerous other outlets, and she’s lent her expertise to a number of podcasts and documentaries.
Marissa R. Moss is a freelance journalist currently residing in East Nashville, Tennessee. She contributes frequently to Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, Billboard, NPR and the Nashville Scene. Her breakthrough story on the culture of sexual harassment in the world of country radio, “Inside Country Radio’s Dark, Secret History of Sexual Harassment and Misconduct,” is widely regarded as a touchstone in Nashville’s #TimesUp reckoning. She recently published her first book, “HER COUNTRY: How the Women of Country Music Become the Success Story They Were Never Supposed to Be.”
Learn more about the topic by reading “My Black Country” by Alice Randall, and “How women made music: a revolutionary history from NPR Music,” both available now at your Nashville Public Library.
