The Winner of our Daisy Rock Guitar Raffle was Sarah Pray!!! Congratulation Sarah!

Thank you Daisy Rock!!!

To visit the Daisy rock site and see their AWESOME 2008 collection Click here:

http://www.daisyrock.com/

Click here to visit our Sonic Bids submissions page:

www.sonicbids.com/DecibelleFestival

Click here to visit the Decibelle submissions details:

http://decibelle.org/2007/submissions.html

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE OURCHART SLIDESHOW WITH PHOTOS BY MISTY WINTER

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE DECIBELLE PHOTO PAGES WITH PHOTOS BY CHELSEA ROSS, KIMISHA PIERCE AND ANTONY MORES::: 

“The name may have changed but Chicago’s female-powered music and arts festival, now in it’s 6th year, is still going strong.” –NPR’s 848 in Chicago

“Femme-tastic.” “Plushgun’s infectious pop melodies burrow in a bed of lush synths and bouncy backbeats, ensuring that boys and girls alike will forget the barriers between the sexes and shake it as one humankind” - Paste Magazine

“[Decibelle] showcases some of the most notorious and emerging women in music, art, and film.” –Alarm Magazine

“[Decibelle] remains an exciting celebration of avant/underground music, literature and art, heavy on the grrrl power…” –Jim Derogotis/The Chicago Sun Times

“[Decibelle] can provide some brotherly love to male musicians who would surely benefit from such sisterly generosity.” –Gregg Shapiro/Chicago Free Press

“To quickly describe my feelings regarding Decibelle allow me to offer this scenario. Imagine a child describing FAO Schwartz, moments after she’s visited the toy store for the first time: “There’s so much to do! There’s so much to see! I danced and laughed and cried! I met great people! It was the most fun I’ve had all summer!” –Jacquie Piasta/Feminist Review

“After viewing [The Gits Movie], learning from Decibelle’s music workshops, and listening to so many female musicians, I feel that my creativity has been revived. An artistic version of CPR, if you will. I now feel more confident to pursue my own artistic endeavors. I think that is what Decibelle is really all about: not only can women do anything they set their mind to, but we can also do it with both style and purpose.” –Jacquie Piasta/Feminist Review

“[Decibelle] continues to not only challenge gender stereotypes within the music industry, but they’re raising issues of and questioning what it means to be a woman, a feminist, an artist, and an activist.” –Chelsey Clammer/Dykediva.com

“The Decibelle Music & Culture Festival has become one of the hottest festivals in Chicago, and through all of its success it has still continued to fight for the issues that our community knows are important.” –Chelsey Clammer/Dykediva.com

A big thanks to our incredible line up of Decibelle 08 artists who put on amazing shows, inspired us all and rocked the house…Miss Kitten, Reaganomix, Kid Color, Brilliant Pebbles, Jasper James, literary super-stars Michelle Tea and Cristy Roads, The Ice Cream Socialites, our first male fronted band Plushgun, FM Supreme, Mz. Jonz, Mama Cutsworth & Mizz Brown, MC Filfy, Sarah Potenza and The Tall Boys, Julia Weldon, Sarah Pray, Kelcy Mae, Martha Berner, Rebecca Rego, Kelsey Montanez, Emma Lee, Lezbobo. Also included are visual artists such as the late Tami Miyahara, a long-time Estrojam organizer, as well as Darcy Totten and Sarah Kaiser, The GITS MOVIE Premiere, with a special Q&A with director Kerri O’Kane and Producer Jessica Bender. A very special thanks for an INCREDIBLE performance by The Lady Tigra highlighting her new song, “First Black, First Lady” where she brought audience members onstage to join her. This was one of the all time highlights from 6 years of the festival. We love you Tigra!

Thanks also to the workshop presenters, hosts, organizers, volunteers, sponsors, donors, reporters, writers and all the attendees–we love you all!!! We couldn’t continue without your support!

We’d also like to send a shout out to this year’s festival partners, Fair Fund and Chicago’s own Young Women’s Empowerment Project. Thanks for coming out to the fest and creating further awareness. The Chicago Tribune says, we are a “party with a purpose,” and you help us to create that purpose!

6 years ago, we started Decibelle with the goal of creating a community of like-minded individuals for equality and a permanent space for women who’s voices we weren’t seeing enough of —women and female friendly artists who’s work crossed genres, generations and borders and inspirer new ways of thinking. We also wanted to sustain the fun and excitement that art, music and the festival environment can bring to feminism and the connection that such a community experience can have towards making people feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves– a part of changing their world.

Over the years we have had the great honor to work with 1000’s of amazing women all the way from –Wanda Jackson who toured with Elvis in the 50’s and 60’s–to Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls who has worked with the Zapatista’s in Chiapas Mexico – all women who believe in building such communities and the power that these communities can have in creating social justice through the arts– locally and globally.

Martin Luther King once wrote that, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality—tied in a single garment of destiny—whatever effects one directly, effects ALL indirectly.”

And we truly believe that having compassion for all human experience is the only way we can evolve the human legacy forward.

We hope that Decibelle’s efforts for years to come can make a great impact for our culture to see how artistic expression mixed with social responsibility can transcend gender, sexuality, race and culture throughout the world.

2008 was a blast, glad we could share it with you. See you in 2009!

www.wgntv.com/live_performances

Type “Plushgun” in search box.

http://decibelle.org/2007/mp3s/audioplayer.html

http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=29088