Uprooted

Remember when girl groups were a recurring force in the mid to late ‘90s and tantalized our ears with soulful songs? Remember when neo-soul dominated the airwaves around the same time and everyone wanted to don crochet hats and celebrate their natural beauty and “otherness”?

Well, unfortunately those days have substantially come to a halt, but history can have a way of repeating itself. Instead of focusing on selling out concert venues for the sake of mass appeal, the once two-girl group, Jazzyfatnastees (Tracey Moore and Mercedes Martinez) who sang of alternative self-love, decided to forge their talent philanthropically and reclaim female empowerment. The Philly-based Black Lily Film & Music festival, which has continuously blossomed since its inception in 1999, has become the place to be for female artists to deliver and cultivate their dreams to fruition by connecting at a grassroots level – independent of their male counterparts.

“This industry has always been male-dominated,” Moore said. “It’s just a mini version of the hierarchy of the world. Men are in control – they want women to look this way or sound this way. And if you don’t, you’re kind of assed out.”

“We’ve just been really blessed,” she continues. “We were connected to the Pharcyde back when they had their first album and Mercedes’ brother [Keith] was their producer. Keith started a small label called Fathouse through Tommy Boy Records, which we were on. So, we always ended up in camps. Then we met The Roots and we were in their camp – their manager was also our manager. We’ve been lucky that we’ve had men in our career who have helped us try to gain control of our talent. It didn’t sell us millions of albums, but it gave us creative control. Not too many artists can say that.”

“The situation with Fathouse was very interesting because my brother is younger than me and his colleagues were younger than us,” Martinez said. “It was interesting because we had these younger people telling us what to do and how to be artists. We would find ourselves in these arguments and it turned into, ‘You’re going to do it because we’re the label,’ etc. So it was definitely frustrating and that whole thing fell by the wayside because they were young and doing what they thought was the right thing to do.”

In 1995, the two met a little-known hip-hop group called The Roots and were guest vocalists on what became one of their best-selling albums to date, illadelphhalflife. They left L.A., saying goodbye to the now defunct Tommy Boy Records after two years and transplanted to Philadelphia, becoming intrinsically part of the neo-soul movement. In 1999, the Jazzees released their first album, The Once Now and Future on Motive Records, The Roots’ subsidiary of MCA. With more artists like Jill Scott, Floetry and Musiq Soulchild creating a genre reminiscent of ‘70s soul, Philadelphia became a hub of musical genius. Out of a city known for political and economic turmoil, there emerged a beautiful sound that was overlooked in the white-washed world of the music industry. But even with this cultural surge of a “new” Black sound, there was a sexist overtone and as Martinez reflects, the Jazzees, as well as other female artists, were being pushed to the background.

“Part of starting Black Lily was the fact that we were inspired by The Roots camp and they took us on like we were members of the family,” Martinez continues. “We really felt like a part of what they were doing. But at the same time, we felt secondary. We would have these jam sessions together and next thing you know, it’s time to go on stage and we’re relegated to only singing hooks. So we took that example as, ‘We need to start our own thing.’”

Propagation

After several attempts to record and release another album, Moore and Martinez knew their labels wouldn’t allow them enough creative control for the sake of garnering commercial appeal. And now, with the ongoing success of Black Lily over the past 10 years, they have been afforded the opportunity to decide whether to create the series as a music label or to simultaneously continue to pursue their careers as the Jazzyfatnastees.

“We created it to give ourselves, as well as other female artists, a chance to work on stage performance and songwriting,” Moore said. “We had no idea when we started that it was going to develop into this. We were a part of emerging labels and I can’t say it doesn’t cross our minds about starting Black Lily as a label, but we know how the business works. We’ve outlived those labels. And to me, that’s paramount. You have to really be involved and be in it to win it.”

She continues, “I’m always going to be a singer and songwriter, but I’m happy that I can evolve and be someone who can give back to the community.”

“So much time and energy goes into the festival and we always think that it’s going to get so much easier,” Martinez said. “But we’ve actually found that it’s been more challenging. It’s a lot more work and a lot more time because we’ve set a bar for the festival and we’re obligated to meet those expectations.”

“In terms of what we were doing originally with the Jazzees – we found ourselves in the same situation that we found ourselves in many times before,” she adds. “We had a record deal and were working on an album that was going to come out and then the VP of the label left, and we were left with the executives who wanted to decide what they wanted to do with the project and it didn’t coincide with the categories that they thought were commercially viable. So, we were faced with the question, ‘Do we want to go with another label or do this on our own?’ For now, we’re focused on the Black Lily Festival.”

Like any non-profit organization, Black Lily doesn’t come without monetary challenges. For the first year, the music series was funded with the Jazzees’ marketing budget. But the attraction became immense as artists gravitated to an all-inclusive venue where they could let their creative juices flow – even if there was no compensation involved.

“We didn’t have to find people to get up on stage,” Moore laughs. “We let people come in for free so we got an audience. Back then, it was just what was going on and the energy that happened organically.”

“I think the biggest challenge was always money,” Martinez interjects. “In order to do something that isn’t commercial or something where you want to produce your own ideas and image, you have to do it independently because the label won’t get behind that. We always wanted to have a certain amount of freedom and we always did it ourselves. There isn’t a big push to support women artists and independent music.”

Black Lily has heavily influenced and catapulted the careers of artists such as Floetry, Jill Scott – even British pop star Amy Winehouse. It is surprising, however, that most of them (with the exception of Jill Scott and a few others) do not support the festival after reaching the peak of their careers.

“It was definitely a blessing that Jill came last year and supported because we didn’t pay her fee – we couldn’t afford to,” Moore notes. “But she felt like she gained so much from the Black Lily experience and she wanted to give back. I think when you start expecting things from people, that’s when you get disappointed. I’m surprised that there aren’t more artists who performed at Black Lily that don’t want to give back. But it would be nice!”

“I happen to think that out of all the artists that are our peers, we are definitely the ones who are giving back in this particular way,” she continues. “And we’re trying to foster a relationship between the artists that are trying to get up there and the artists that are already there because we were lucky in that way. But, this is a struggle. I have a day job and trying to put on something that is accessible for these artists who might not get an opportunity to be somewhere else is an added challenge.”

Flowering

Last year, Moore and Martinez merged with independent filmmaker Maori Karmael Holmes to increase the festival’s visibility by adding a film series. Holmes approached the two with her idea after releasing Scene Not Heard, a documentary showcasing Philly’s arts and cultural scene, which also highlighted Black Lily’s past events. Holmes was encouraged to be a part of the music series and asked the Jazzees if she could bring her experience to the table to combat the same gender bias that’s also prevalent in the film industry.

“I think women have a place in mainstream Hollywood, but it’s often silent,” Holmes said. “Men are still the major players as directors, producers and executives, although on the executive side it’s changing. No woman has yet to win an Oscar for directing –only three have been nominated — and the last stats I read were that women only accounted for seven percent of all directors. This is a sad number. I think in independent film circles this number is a little bit more balanced, but when it comes to programming work at festivals it seems like work that deals with “women’s issues” often gets ghettoized and overlooked. So in this way, it’s very similar to the music business.”

“The films this year are really great,” she continues. “Especially the experimental and queer shorts blocks, the Roe vs. Wade anniversary block with Melissa Thompson’s masterful Like a Ship in the Night, and Faith Pennick’s powerful Silent Choices. Some of the fiction is really fantastic, particularly Kilka Prostych Slow from Poland and Heidi Saman’s The Maid. I am very excited about the films and am trying to make sure I can see everything.”

“We have two films that we are so lucky to present that are my favorites,” Moore adds. “One is called Trouble The Water, and it’s a documentary that just won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance. It’s going to be our opening night movie. It’s just an amazing film. You’ve never seen the Katrina story told in this fashion. It’s a narrative and follows a woman and her husband before the hurricane and after. The next movie we have is Africa Unite, which is a documentary about Bob Marley. Both of these films – coincidentally – were produced by Danny Glover’s production company.”

As the festival grows each year and people flock from surrounding states for the four-day event, the Jazzees and their board members are pressed with the decision of how to make the previous year better than the next. But as more female artists are awarded for their talent without compromising their core values, the women who support Black Lily and the Jazzees are confident that a major change is on the way and the gender inequity will shift toward other means of working collaboratively within a testosterone-driven industry.

“It was so successful our first year and so amazing that people wanted to support and come out,” Moore said. “We’ve had Janet Jackson in the house and Alicia Keys get on stage, so there are definitely moments that are special in Black Lily history. And having the film and music festival last year was just a culmination of everything we’ve worked so hard for.”

“I think Sunday, May 6, 2007 — the last night of the first festival after Jill Scott and Amy Winehouse performed — I realized here we were almost 20 women strong and we had worked, cried and stressed together for over a year and had very little drama. We’d pulled off this incredible and amazing fest and it felt really encouraging,” Holmes said.

“It’s also the power that a group of women can produce,” Martinez adds. “This is really a testament to what we can accomplish.”

The Black Lily Film & Music Festival takes place May 1 - 4. The 2008 music honorees include Bahamadia, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Jeri Lynne Johnson, Martha Diaz, Meshell N’degeocello, Pearl Bowser, Stephanie Black and Tia Lessin. For more details, visit www.blacklily.com.