Singer-Songwriter-Activist Holly Near: I Am Open, and I Am Willing

Holly Near has had a legendary performing career spanning over 50 years, that has taken her from Hollywood to Broadway to marches and rallies and concert halls all over the world. One of the most powerful, consistent, and outspoken singers and songwriters of our time, her music elevates spirits and inspires activism. Some of the topics touched on in this lively and wide-ranging interview are her childhood on a California ranch, her life-changing experience on the Free The Army Tour during the Vietnam War, her songwriting process, her collaborations with artists such as Ronnie Gilbert and Emma’s Revolution, what it means to her to be an elder, and what she’s been up to during the pandemic. The interview is interwoven with snippets of Holly’s music from the seventies to the present.

Music, Songwriting, ActivismTanya ShafferDecember 16, 2021music, musician, women's music, feminism, activism, Singer-Songwriter Comments

Dancer-Choreographer Tonya Marie Amos: Dance for the Revolution

Tonya Amos is the founder of Grown Women Dance Collective, a company made up of internationally renowned dancers in their forties and fifties who have retired from full-time positions in the nation’s finest professional dance ensembles. Tonya combines her exuberant spirit, her passion for arts and community-building, and her expertise in dance, health, and wellness to celebrate Black history; build cross-cultural, cross-racial, and cross-class bridges; and bring arts and wellness services to economically disenfranchised communities all over the San Francisco Bay Area. In this podcast, she talks with host Tanya Shaffer about her extraordinary journey as a dancer, which took her from the racially discriminatory Bay Area dance scene of the 70’s and 80’s to New York and the Alvin Ailey Company. They also discuss Tonya’s work with Grown Women Dance Collective; how she became a choreographer by default; her passion for breaking down barriers between people of all classes, races, and generations; and her plans to train a new generation of health and wellness experts to bring Pilates, dance, and physical therapy into communities that have previously had little to no access.

Dance, Health and Wellness, ActivismTanya ShafferJuly 28, 2020dance, choreography, choreographer, Black history, African-American, arts, visual arts, performing arts, Black arts, health and wellness, activism, creativityComment

Off-Leash Writing