Michele Anthony: Where Music Meets Movement

Who are three women who inspire you?

Of course, Gloria always tops my list but in addition I would add:

Malala Yousafzai: The youngest Nobel Prize laureate for her fearless advocacy work, which began at age 11, for girls’ education, even in the face of immense personal danger.

Ella Fitzgerald: Many firsts paving the way for female artists – first woman to win multiple Grammys, first female artist in the Grammy Hall of Fame, Verve Records was founded by her manager to produce her records (over 200 albums), first black female to headline in many venues, including the Copa, etc. 

Michelle Obama: As First Lady and in general, her exceptional impact on culture through her advocacy and inspirational/empowering messaging about leadership, perseverance, self-dignity and hope.

What is one defining moment in your career or life that empowered you to create change, and how has it shaped the path you’re on today?

As a child and then adolescent of the 60s and early 70s, I was deeply impacted by the revolutions of those years. The Civil rights movement, the Vietnam antiwar protests, and the women’s movement led by Gloria, all taught me the immense power of activism to create change, and I am forever grateful. And that one of the most influential and effective tools of political and social change is music. Music has the emotional power to unite people, transcend cultural and geographic barriers, and generate a collective voice. I learned early on that the power of the collective, whether embodied in a movement or a song or an artist’s fans is undeniable. For me, the artists that emerged and the music they created during the ’60s and ’70s were synonymous with, and helped catalyze, the seismic changes that occurred in those decades. This inseparability helped to shape the rest of my life and career, in which activism and music would always go hand in hand and I would be dedicated to both. To this day, the movements I grew up with, inform the work I do, whether it’s with Global Citizen and our music festivals (to help end extreme poverty, advocate for girls’ education, and address climate change) or engaging artists in support of Gloria’s many continued critical activities to further women’s freedoms and rights, or to simply ask artists to help turn out voters. In fact, it was because of an artist I work very closely with, Eddie Vedder, that I first met Gloria in the 90s, at Eddie’s concert to support reproductive choice. Gloria had long been my hero from afar (reading her articles, in Ms. magazine, going to local women’s marches, watching her on TV and in the news). After meeting her with Eddie, I never let her go. Gloria’s activism is breathtaking, sweeping, smart, skillful, and pith. Her generosity of spirit and compassion is boundless. She has helped us, over a lifetime, to articulate and fight for the issues that were and are still crucial to our lives. I am not alone in saying that, more than anyone, Gloria has had the single most impact on my life.