ABOUT ESTROJAM
The Estrojam Music and Culture Festival is an annual 501C3 not-for-profit, community-based event that features internationally acclaimed and emerging musicians and artists, educators, activists, and community leaders in dozens of events, including concerts, workshops, panels, and a film festival presented at Chicago's best venues.
Estrojam is organized by women and open to all. Our mission is to help build and foster a supportive arts community that inspires, educates, breaks down stereotypes, and encourages bold creative expression.
The Estrojam organizers realize that people may not view themselves as "artists" or "media makers" because these labels are often connected with class, privilege, and educational opportunities. Estrojam's goal is to empower young and adult women to claim their voices, and celebrate their own unique forms of self-expression — be it in writing, art, music, film, and/or activism. The Estrojam organizers see the arts as a tool for social change by encouraging participants to use the arts as a way of telling their own stories, especially those not represented in the mainstream.
Estrojam has a strong educational component through its popular workshops. We encourage women to share their experiences and skills in all areas of their lives. Past workshops have included: Home Recording, Music Production and Basic Pro-Tools, Guerrilla Filmmaking, DJ Skilz 101, DIY Political Awareness, Distribution, Women in the Music Industry, Women in Radio, Releasing Your Own Record and Booking a Tour, and clinics on everything from women's health, image and body issues to home repair.
Estrojam is strongly committed to local youth, and is working with the Chicago Park District and After School Matters to develop an educational, mentoring program with teenaged girls who are interested in music, art, and production. Through this mentoring program, these young women helped produce, and manage the Wicker Park outdoor stage at Estrojam 2004.
Estrojam strives to give back to the womenís community. Each year, a portion of Estrojam profits are donated to powerful women and women's non-profit organizations for the arts, education, social change, human rights, non-violence and women's health.
Estrojam's goal is also to inspire others to put their words and bodies on the line in the struggle for greater sanity and justice in the world while widening the space for future activism work. There is something really powerful about communities of activists and artist being brought together to help stop suffering and show how truly interconnected the larger world community really is.
Why Estrojam? Women are vastly under-represented in the creative fields and technical aspects of music, art and filmmaking. A very low percentage of women make the music, direct the films, master the sound and lights, produce the recordings, build the sets, and wire the electricity. Estrojam seeks to create spaces where women can cultivate their talents in all creative areas, try out new ideas, develop new skills, share knowledge, and simply put, thrive in a supportive community of women and men who share the vision. Estrojam hopes to inspire women to pick up a guitar, a paintbrush, a power tool, a mic, some drum sticks, a video camera, and an attitude that anything is possible.
