It’s been a few weeks since I’ve released an episode of the podcast, and things have been pretty quiet over at Pass The Mic in general, as our home base of Minneapolis is mourning the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police. In Minneapolis, and across the country, there has been an amazing amount of momentum around abolishing the police and creating lasting efforts to dismantle white supremacy. As we’ve seen, activism isn’t just something that we can tap into for an hour or two — we have to practice it every day.
I was talking about some of these themes — activism, using your privilege and community involvement — when I recorded this podcast episode over Zoom in late May with Sarah Levy. Sarah is the vocalist of the Oakland, California-based emo and pop-punk band Pity Party. Pity Party released a new album on May 29 called Concrete, in which Sarah opens up about the sexual assault that she experienced while on tour, and finds the strength to overcome this trauma. Pity Party’s music is full of heavy themes, but their sound is loud, empowering, and fun.
In addition to writing songs, playing guitar and singing in Pity Party, Sarah is also a high school teacher and an activist. We talked about how she comes from a musical family, and how teaching gave her an outlet to bridge music and community involvement. You can use the player above to listening to our conversation. You can also find the Pass The Mic Podcast on Podbean, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
Songs included in this episode: “Empathy” and “Concrete” by Pity Party
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