At the Omega Institute’s 2010 Women and Power Conference last weekend, WMC Vice President Jamia Wilson spoke to Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco about feminism, spirituality and leadership.
Ani DiFranco marched and performed at the April 25, 2004, March for Women's Lives in Washington, D.C.
Feminist icon, political activist, and raconteuse Ani DiFranco won a 2004 Grammy, and two years later the National Organization for Women (NOW) honored her with its Woman of Courage Award. In our short conversation, DiFranco, founder of Righteous Babe Records, displayed the wit, wisdom, self-definition and thoughtfulness that inform her music and political messages.
Jamia Wilson: Music has been your main medium for conveying powerful messages about social change. What are other sources that drive your power?
Ani DiFranco: More and more I realize feminism will save the world. Feminism is for everybody. You can’t start with a fundamental, crazy imbalance like patriarchy. Until we have gender equality we will have crazy social ills. Feminism is a tool for men as well to escape violence and inequality.
I was blessed with a feminist mom and her empowered friends who started a food co-op and were part of “Women for Downtown Buffalo.” We would always go door to door for progressive women candidates. I learned very early what it means to connect with other women, and I realized that these are the women whose respect means so much to me. I wanted the respect of the people I respect.
Wilson: As you may have already determined, this is a friendly feminist interview. How did you handle criticism from the opposition early on in your career?
DiFranco: I am getting more of the friendly interviews over time, but in the face of criticism I was secure that there was another world, an even better place to live on. That’s where my focus was. I never took criticism from the conservative media and patriarchal apparatus.
Wilson: You received NOW’s Woman of Courage Award at the Young Feminist Summit. What fuels your courage? What words of advice do you have for young feminists?
DiFranco: I turned 40 two days ago. I think that 15 years ago, I was not as clear. After struggling to get back to myself, I saw that the more you care for other people and put them next to you and provide an atmosphere where everyone is fulfilled, the more that atmosphere is created for yourself. Being benevolent and kind for someone else is doing it for yourself.
Wilson: Happy Birthday Ani! I’m honored that you’re spending it with us. I am turning 30 in a few weeks. We’re both Libras! [With her hands, DiFranco simulates the balancing scales that represent the zodiac sign.]
I have heard great things about the way you work with your band and staff. Do you have suggestions for how we can invoke more compassionate leadership within the movement? What does it look like?
DiFranco: It looks like mothers look. We need to look no further than the literal experience of your body that is my body, your blood that is my blood that puts us as women. Autonomy is a masculine family. We are one organism, different hearts, arms of one. Women have a heightened appreciation for this. You don’t have to give birth to know the spirit of this. It’s not about what’s right for me. It’s about what’s right for us. We don’t think for one, we think for at least two—hopefully we think for all. It’s the motivation for our deciding.
Conversely, there’s an important growing period for young women to know what we want and be able to act on our own behalf. Self-sacrificing is very female. Martyr can translate to anger. I inherited that anger and had to get a lot of that out of me to get the ultimate beauty and power of thinking like a woman. You’re not a martyr. You are one step ahead in something patriarchal society would do well to learn. You can’t think for one to have a successful world.
Wilson: I am emerging from that period in my life where I came to a similar realization about that level of personal awareness you spoke of. Spirituality centers me and allows me to listen more to my inner voice and needs. What does spirituality mean for you?
DiFranco: For me, God is a metaphor. All of the contexts in which God can be found are all based on a metaphor. Those that can think in terms of metaphor understand the consciousness that empowers us all. The more we recognize it, the stronger and happier we are. Spirituality is prioritizing, and focusing on serving that oneness.
Wilson: What role, if any, does spirituality have in the feminist movement? Is there synergy between activism and spirituality?
DiFranco: Spirituality has a different definition for each of us. Like love, it is inextricable—all of the great activists I know are spiritual, joyful, and loving people. They have discerned that working for your community and society is a way of being a more happy and fulfilled person, in a sense of being in touch with God.
Marches are all about driving fun, coming together in a positive space, and you meet people who make you feel less alone. That is where spirituality, activism and art become one.
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author alone and do not represent WMC. WMC is a 501(c)(3) organization and does not endorse candidates.
This article is a cross-post of a piece from Women's Media Center.
