Resistance: A Songwriter's Story of Hope, Change, and Courage

I must become my own owner, my own authority. I must be a home to myself, and I must find a way to live what I believe.

Certain relationships can just wear you down. So you mirror or reflect back- kind of like a pet, reflecting back what its master wants. This can seem easier in the moment: Whatever it takes to back this person's vibe down. The master does not have to be male. Sometimes he is, but not always. Whoever the master is, they know this, that people can be trained. Either with praise, shame, the fear of failure, or the fear of being gaslighted, the technique is a relationship of rewards and punishments. There is no unconditional love here. No, this kind of relationship is all about the master's conditions. Not joint respectful mutual conditions, but their conditions.

But over the years you can cultivate hate for the art you love.

Once she said to me, "One day, young lady, you will give your body and obedience to your husband your soul to God." And I whipped around and said, "And what, pray tell, Grandma, are you saying is left for me?

Containment of your opinion is a must if you are going to nurture an artist's development

What I wished another songwriter would have told me years and years ago is that your circumstances make up your story, and no one has exactly your story. It is your very own. You need never envy someone else’s life story. Not as a songwriter.

THERE IS ANOTHER WAY through and past the delusion of “barren.” People who are addicted to power can live on the same street or attend the same school as us or even play on the world stage. They can weaponize the thought of being creatively barren in order to debilitate the artist. They target artists specifically because they know that artists have the ability to reach the public in ways no one else can. They know this. And what they do not want is to be called out or held to account or revealed to be the manipulator they are and that they are a person aroused by the possibility of absolute power. That is a naked truth. And they do not want it exposed in pictures or songs or poems or articles or books or film or through dance. So when the propaganda spreads about “writer’s block” or “an artistically barren portion of time,” especially when it comes to women, this poisonous propaganda gets magnified. And then it can drown out reason and become a probable eventuality. Although it is merely a projection, unfortunately it can become an imposed self-fulfilling prophecy.

I don’t believe anyone’s story is boring. Every story has value because it belongs only to you. It is the one true thing that does belong to you and that you can mine for emotional gold. Someone might try to belittle your story or make a joke about it or make you think that your history is worthless because there is a rating system applied to “So what’s your story?” But—and I truly mean this—that particular power play can work only if you allow yourself to believe in that nonsense. It’s an attack move. I