jennyarntzen.music

Last night I performed my new song for the first time at an open mic. It is a very difficult situation to perform in because I didn't know when I would be playing, and there is no time to warm up or get ready before the nerves hit and I am in front of an audience. The people in the room are the best. Warm, supportive, interested, curious. Non-judgemental.  I didn't have the right guitar with me. I left everything too late to get on the road last evening. When I went to find the guitar case for my full size classical guitar it wasn't handy in the hall closet. I had put it away somewhere and could not find it immediately at hand. So I settled for my small steel string guitar. I hadn't played this song on that particular guitar before. Leaving late meant that I got to the venue with the list of performers for the open mic already working on a second column of names. I put my name down, but I didn't know if I would have a chance to play. I did tune my guitar before the ...

  Removing patriarchy from systems of power was never going to be easy. The escape of any abusive relationship is most dangerous when the woman puts her foot out the door and says, “I don’t need this anymore. I don’t need you anymore.” This rejection triggers infantile terror of abandonment. We are in it now. It is going to be women who lead the change we want to see. It is women who are going to lead the change we need to see. It is going to be the men who love us who support us in our work. I have always loved the melody of the song, ‘The Quiet Joys of Brotherhood’, also known as ‘Lagan Love’. However, the lyrics have never spoken to me in a meaningful way. Yesterday I took images from my daily life, including the zeitgeist of patriarchal rage perpetrated on innocent bystanders in the form of genocide, and wrote my own lyrics to the melody.