COSI’s who have competency in this outcome were able to demonstrate that they could develop educational programs and support other MICA sponsored initiatives that are designed to foster student participation across the following levels of community: culturally specific; university community; alumni; and with off campus affiliates (i.e., community based organizations)

SPRING 2021:

This semester, I launched MICA Radio Hour. It is a weekly radio show that I host on behalf of the office, where I work with the rest of the office to curate playlists and discussions around topics that fit in with our monthly heritage months. We play music by artists of marginalized identities, and draw attention to the historical and cultural contexts and experiences of those artists. 

For Black History Month, we featured entirely black artists, and discussed the profound impact of black artists on music history, and the ways in which the historical appropriation and mistreatment of black musicians continues today. 

March was Multiracial Heritage Month and Women's History Month. To honor this, we had a few playlists exploring the intersections of multiracial femmes in music. The theme for Multiracial Heritage Month this year was "Coloring Outside the Lines", and our wonderful COSI Thea curated a playlist that fit her vision for the theme. These playlists can be found on the MICA Spotify account ( @umdmica). 

For April, which is both AAPI Heritage Month and LGBTQ+ Pride month, we will be exploring each of these identities in music and their intersections as well!

Currently, I am in the process of working with the Terrapin Record Label to create a recording studio orientation/crash course event/series to encourage inclusion in the audio engineering/music production field. The field (and music in general) is incredibly dominated by a particular group: over 90% of the industry is cis men, and most of them are white. So,  our focus would be on trying to facilitate a welcoming environment for people who would normally not have the opportunity to explore music in this way, and make space for those who might not typically feel as though they have one. 

It is looking like we will have to implement this next semester, but I am very excited to take this on. I hope to eventually be certified in the recording studio so that I can lead the project on my own. Currently, I am one of the only regular studio attendees who is not a cis man, but already we are seeing interest from non cis men and people of other minorities in the field.