Navigating the Spaces of SXSW 2024

For one week in March, every year, South by Southwest transforms Austin into a theme park for music lovers. 

This year, however, dozens of artists canceled their plans. SXSW’s sponsors include the U.S. military and American defense companies. Given the United States government’s support for Israel in the Gaza conflict, these artists couldn’t stomach the association.

And then there’s Austin, Texas itself. True, it’s a city that values its music scene, where the inhabitants pride themselves on their progressiveness, where the motto is “Keep Austin Weird.” But not far from the music clubs on East 6th Street, you’ll find the Texas Capitol, the seat of the state’s extremist, right-wing government, where Greg Abbott governs like a cross between Snidely Whiplash and an internet troll.

How do artists navigate all this? Especially if they’re Texans themselves? Or women? Or LGBTQ? Here are the answers I found. 

 

Kam Franklin is best known as frontwoman for the Houston-based soul band the Suffers. For this year’s South by Southwest, however, she performed as a solo artist. Franklin has called Houston home for most of her life.

Houston’s the most culturally diverse city in the United States, per Forbes. And when you talk about the overall opportunity, the cost of living, the accessibility to resources beyond just the arts, just jobs, Houston trumps Austin, and it has for a very long time. For myself, I love that richness of cultural accessibility, not just with the music and the people, but especially the food.

Houston’s a very strong city in terms of community and helping one another out….But in the wake of George Floyd and what’s been happening in the Middle East and standing in solidarity with a lot of my local Palestinian brothers and sisters that live there and also supporting my Jewish family that also lives there, it has opened my eyes to how beautiful of a town it is.

I don’t need to get into the topics of gerrymandering and all of that, but we live in a really fucked up state…. But Houston is not one for the shits. We have been pushing back greatly, from how our education systems are being taken over at the state level to how those maps are being written down in Galveston, the home of Juneteenth. You can look up how a lot of those voting maps are being rewritten or have been rewritten. We have the ACLU still coming in and trying to support, but that’s only one organization and they can do so much when you live in a state where people are constantly trying to fuck shit up and make it hard for other people.

I think the biggest tool that we have right now is using our voice, showing up at the ballots, making sure that I’m using my platform to let other artists know you don’t have to be silent, Nina Simone said our job, our responsibility as artists is to reflect the times. If we’re not doing that, what are we doing aside from drowning ourselves in vanity and celebrity?

It is the Wild fucking West out here in terms of where our nation is headed and its treatment of women, brown, and black people, and especially the freedoms that women have over their own bodily autonomy. And the fact that you can get in trouble for assisting someone with getting an abortion, driving them, you know? You have stronger penalties right now for getting an abortion than you would if you were the person that raped that person. 

Personally, I’m terrified because I feel like the rest of the nation isn’t really paying attention to what’s happening here, what’s happening in Tennessee, what’s happening in North Carolina, Florida.

I serve on the board for headcount.org, which is a non-partisan, non-profit organization . . . that uses the impact of music to get young people, mostly, but everyone registered to vote. You wanna see change? Voting. You want to see anything change? Voting, organization. Right now as artists, we’re fighting to get paid a penny a stream, which is so funny to say out loud, but we’re fighting to get paid a penny per stream, but none of that’s gonna happen without legislation, lobbying.

I feel like we’re sold the idea that we don’t need to be involved in any of this, especially as artists, as young people, when it’s like: No, this is when you become an adult. You don’t want your parents or your grandparents setting the tone for your life? The next generation? Cool. This is how you show up. You’re not taught this in in elementary school, you’re not taught this in high school, how powerful your vote is. And I try to tell people it wouldn’t be under threat as much as it is if it weren’t so powerful.

Why do you think black people and women weren’t given rights to vote so early? Because we weren’t considered human beings. We weren’t considered equal human beings. And it’s like every movement that has ever occurred has happened as a result of organizing, of people coming together, people educating themselves, of seeing what they lose.

 

Vanessa Briscoe Hay isn’t just a legend of Athens, Georgia’s music scene. She’s also a retired nurse with professional experience vis a vis women’s health. Briscoe Hay continues the musical legacy of her onetime band, Pylon, with the Pylon Reenactment Society. She was here joined by her bandmates: bassist Kay Stanton, guitarist Jason NeSmith and drummer Gregory Sanders. 

On the decision to play South by Southwest amid the controversy:

Kay Stanton: Ultimately, we decided that what we do is, we create music, which we hope is bringing some joy, to the folks who are listening to us. Even though we do feel strongly about human rights, about women’s rights, we’re all very passionate. I know probably others here have certainly things, you know, that they can add to that as well. But it was a hard discussion. It certainly was. 

Jason NeSmith: We’re from Georgia, so it isn’t like women’s rights are fine where we’re from. 

Vanessa Briscoe Hay: With what Kay said, I don’t think that us canceling our shows is going to do anything to bring peace to the Middle East. As much, as nice as that would be, we want that, but we would rather come and play for people and bring a message of hope that way. I wanna bring some positivity here to the state of Texas because if all of the people here [who] are positive, who have the viewpoints we have stay away, what is that gonna do for the people that are left here? 

On abortion rights: 

Vanessa Briscoe Hay: The hospital I worked at, we were not allowed to [provide abortions] in the hospital. We did have ectopics, where the women had chemicals given. We helped dissolve it to save the woman’s life and also their future fertility. You know there would be no way to save that fetus anyway. 

And I saw women whose lives were in peril, because they had a fetus, that had multiple anomalies, or they had huge medical issues, which I won’t go into. But, if they didn’t have one, they would die. I mean, what do you do? So, to me, those things, I think, are between the woman, her partner, if she has one, and her physician. I don’t know where the state, who is mainly white older men, have the right to tell younger women what to do with their bodies.  

Kay Stanton: My mother was a counselor in an abortion clinic in Georgia. So, this is how I grew up. And absolutely there is no question. It is a woman’s right to make that decision for herself, nobody else’s. 

Vanessa Briscoe Hay: There’s no easy answer to this. I know it’s a very emotional issue, and I don’t know personally whether the government has any right to intercede and tell some eight-year-old girl who’s been raped, she has to carry that child to turn, which has happened.

Kay Stanton: Or even a woman who just decides it’s not right for her. 

On Georgia’s political climate: 

Kay Stanton: Athens is very much like Austin. It’s quite blue. There are other places, Atlanta. I’m from Columbus, Georgia, which is a military area, that’s actually a fairly purple place because you have people who have broader perspectives there. 

But there’s still a lot of red. And you can still drive 20 minutes outside of Athens and see Confederate flags and Trump flags. So, it’s an interesting place. I mean, I guess nothing is completely homogeneous. 

Jason NeSmith: Athens is very blue, but it’s so left that there’s not really a consensus. There’s a little bit of a jockeying for who can be more progressive, and that just sort of loses the point of the fact that we’re, I don’t wanna use the phrase “under siege,” but Athens is represented by people who are trying to negate the vote of the people who live in the city by gerrymandering in any way possible. And they’re doing a good job. Our vote, it counts more than it used to, but it’s constantly being taken from us.

Greg Sanders: And the House of Reps are, like, three different districts or something. So they have us between three different red districts. We’re at the intersection of them. 

Jason NeSmith: I think there’s a lot of passion, a lot of people willing to go knock on doors and activate, uh, a dormant base, and we need to do it all over again. I’ve done a little bit of door knocking, but we, more collectively, we need to do it all over again. 

 

beccs is a Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter. Her 2019 video for “Before This Christmas Ends” includes Hallmark-worthy sentiment and a sweet same-sex storyline (beccs herself is queer). She’s also a former member of the activist group GRLCVLT. This was her first visit to SXSW and Texas.  

I think I found out about [the Army and defense sponsorships] on my flight over here. I think the ethics around South by Southwest have been very dubious and disappointing, and I definitely had a lot of conflicted-ness. I think for emerging artists and international artists whose visas, a lot of them depend on this kind of event. There’s a lot of, you know, personal investment around it. So, backing out is kind of a really difficult conundrum to be in, but I support the artists who are choosing to do that.

Austin definitely feels like an anomaly in Texas, maybe a bit more of a progressive, music-friendly, artist-friendly community. I have never been to Texas, so for me from the East Coast, I was excited to see the music scene in Austin. But I think in such a polarized climate in our country right now, I’m more interested in building bridges than burning bridges and shutting communities out. And if there’s anything that can bring people together, I think it’s music and I think it’s an important role that we can play here.

I think [“Before This Christmas Ends”] was the first Christmas song music video to maybe be queer-inclusive. And it was also nerve wracking and exciting for me, because personally I had come out, but not publicly, but I think the song shows someone on the cusp of discovering their queerness in a really meaningful and universal way.

I had people who are not part of the LGBTQ community really connect to that song and family members connect to it. I was really touched by the reception. Also, I met people in the queer community all around the country [who] kind of found, connected to that song, and that was really exciting to feel tethered to more people.

My friend Hudson Mueller is coming out with a record, and I think he has a song called “Love is Love,” and it’s a country tune, and he’s probably gonna tour down here. That kind of work is so powerful, when someone finds a way to speak to people in their language, but say, share a message that maybe they’re not hearing in a way they can hear it. I think that’s the role of artists.

 

Jocelyn Simone is the founder of the California-based music promotion company No Sleep, No Hunger. This year, No Sleep, No Hunger presented a SXSW showcase of 22  bands, “all championing female  and queer inclusivity.” Simone discussed how she navigates spaces as a queer woman as well as her thoughts on Austin’s music community.

I think for me and what I’ve worked on most of my life, being a queer female, is to not be scared. Even in scary environments, sometimes if you’re a leader and you’re not scared to do things, other people follow. So, I think being aware of what’s happening in the political environment and your surroundings is very important.

You know, I wanna protect everyone that’s performing and that wants to be involved. And I think not being scared is really important. And I’m kind of not [laughs], you know. I think that’s really important to host something where all these bands can come together. And also, something that’s important for me, for these communities, is I want them to get to know each other. I want them to maybe call upon each other to go on tour or play shows in Austin. Or if, you know, there’s bands from New York and Seattle everywhere coming together right now. So, if they can help each other when they come to each other’s cities or just forming a bigger alliance and basically so we can help each other out.

Austin is, in my belief, one of the biggest music capitals, and I think it’s a really important city for musicians to break into. And that’s also something that I love to do is: “I’ve never played, can you help us get gigs?” And you know, very booker and venue that I’ve worked with here, Hole in the Wall, Hotel Vegas, they’re really open to new musicians and acts. And that’s why I love Austin so much. I think everyone, I feel like they have their arms open, if that makes sense.

I’ve been coming to Austin every few months for the past two years to network, put on shows, do more female-, queer-heavy bills. And I think what’s really wonderful about it’s, I’m seeing the same people show up and excited that I’m in town and wondering what new bands are playing that they can also discover and get excited about as well. And support, you know, buy merch, follow them on Spotify. I think the community in Austin here, not just with me but with everyone. I think people really want to see artists succeed, and that’s why I love it here so much and why I keep coming back. And I think too, like even after this, it just, the energy just feels really good, you know, I think that everyone that’s playing wants to be here and wants to make friends  and have a good time and put on a good show.

And I think that sometimes, when you come to see one artist, you know, and you stay and you see more, I hope people just aren’t even thinking about that it’s female- or queer-dominant bill. I hope that they just look at it and go, “wow, this is a really good live show and I’m a fan.” And I think part of that ripple effect with people enjoying the bands also too is these bands, like I mentioned before, playing together and getting to know each other and helping each other out for sure.

 

Americana singer/songwriter Jamiee Harris grew up outside Waco, Texas and lived in Austin for a decade. Today, she calls Tennessee home along with her longtime partner, singer Mary Gauthier. Growing up Texan gives her insights into the state and misconceptions about it.  

My mission statement is that I wanna help. I think music can be used to bring people together, and I feel like if I have an opportunity to create an environment that allows people of all different walks of life to come together, then I wanna foster that. And I know a lot of things have changed in the pandemic, but maybe I grew up with that thing where I have a hard time canceling. If I say I am gonna be somewhere, I kind of stick to that.

I felt like I had an obligation to show up here and to the band members that I am paying to play with me. But it took time out of their schedule to play with me. And that also feels important. And I also feel like it’s really, really complicated.

What if every person that gave me $5, $10, $20 at the merch table, what if I said, “What? How did you earn that money?” You know, it’s, it’s tricky. And so I just kind of feel like, as a queer female artist that’s had an opportunity to showcase here and to play folk songs, to talk about how I feel about certain things that are extremely close to my heart, why not have an opportunity to be in the mix here and lift up those songs and create an environment for people to come together?

I just always thought I was gay. And then when I tried to hang out in what I thought were classic gay spaces, I felt like that wasn’t for me. And my joke used to be like, “Where are the lesbians that listen to Guy Clark?” And then I end up with the lesbian that opened for Guy Clark. But I grew up, you know, not just in Texas, I was a member of the Baptist Church, willfully. It was really cool to be a part of the church. It was cool to come to school with t-shirts related to church events. So that was a part of my identity for a really, really, really long time. And I think that like anywhere else, like Texas is complicated and has a whole diverse group of people.

And it’s more than a conservative state. It’s actually a non-voting state. So what people are seeing on the grand scheme of things when it comes to politics is just that it’s not representative of the full population that lives here because it’s difficult for people to vote here. We have really strict ID laws, we have really strict registration laws like Tennessee, where I live as well. And that’s a barrier for people to make their voices heard in Texas. And that’s why I would love for people to come here and see what it’s actually like and have conversations with people here, because it’s not just what you see in the media.

I love the idea of challenging the songwriters in every county to write a song about something that really matters to them, not what they think is gonna change somebody else’s mind. ’cause I don’t think we change people’s minds. What I do think is that we open hearts, and I do believe that that music is like one of the most powerful vehicles to do that. So, I think if someone is really concerned about, let’s say, water rights in their county, like there’s a struggle in Hill Country right now with water rights, if somebody writes a song about that and is passionate, then that might be a place where people come together.

I know in Tennessee you have to register within 30 days of the election now in order to vote. So that’s tricky. But if you’re playing in a town, you know, if you’re on tour, why not have people come? There’s like, you can contact the Democratic Party or just other people that are with non-partisan voting because they help people get registered to vote. You know, there are practical things we can do on the road, but I still believe, like for me, the highest thing I can do is put what I believe in song and just hope it resonates with somebody else.