During her first year at Colorado College, junior Eboni Statham got involved with the Sounds of Colorado College (SOCC), CC’s student-run radio station. By her sophomore year, she helped expand the SOCC into more than just a radio show and took on several more projects, including live concerts. Throughout her work with the student bands and musicians at CC, Statham became much more familiar with CC’s music scene and realized a commonality among the artists: nearly all of them were straight, white, and male.
Though this trend was not surprising to discover at a predominately white institution such as CC, Statham knew of many people who wished to join the music scene, but felt very discouraged and fearful that they would not fit in or know where to begin since they did not fit the mold of CC musicians.
“Look at Battle of the Bands overall and think about how often we [see] people of color or females,” said Statham. “My freshman year I remember Hannah Fleming singing a song with Touchit and that was a big deal to me. Last year, Drunk Uncle I believe had a girl and Male Nurse has a female bassist. Other than that, everyone else for the most part was white or male. I think it’s important to acknowledge the different hegemonic forces that might inhibit people from actively being a part in the music scene and it’s also important to just recognize and give space to those voices who also need and want to be heard.”
Thus, Statham is now working on a new project called the Music Collective. The Music Collective will be a collection of music composed by various types of people who will come together and create beautiful, diverse sounds.
“It will be divided into two parts,” said Amelia Eskenazi, a first-year student. “There will be a music act and an artistic side where we produce scenes. I will be working on the artistic side. It’s basically for anyone who is not a straight, white, cis guy,”
As for now, Statham says she hopes to use her talents to plan events and showcases, and help students record and release songs for the public to hear.
“I’m hoping to help record and release songs for students who want to share their voices all around the world,” said Staham. “I’m not sure what is going to happen once I graduate, but I do hope that by giving exposure to the less-heard that students here now and incoming students will also feel encouraged to embrace their talents, perform, and continue to support each other creating a more inclusive music and arts scene.”
Niyat Ogbazghi
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