#SaveMills

When I was a Mills student, my circle of friends included somebody who had been unhoused before moving into the dorms and somebody who's dad actually was on the cover of Forbes.

When I posted about this to birdsite, somebody replied saying she went to Mills straight out of foster care and ended up socialising with the daughters of oil barons.

I thought this was normal in higher education, but it turns out that it's really really not. Most classrooms are fairly or mostly monocultural - one age, one class.

Mills's strong emphasis on community and it's diversity make it a place focussed on social justice. It's long been a bastion of LGBT achievement. It was the first Historically Women's College to stop asking trans women for paperwork.

Mills is special. Please spare a moment for Mills and make a #SaveMills tweet, write the governor of California or otherwise express solidarity for the women, enbies and trans people who study there now and will study there in future.

https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/

I was just trying to tweet the hastag #SaveMills and twitter helpfully offer to autocomplete it to SayNoToMuslims.

Those awful fuckwite shitstains.

There's research that shows that people respond more receptively to social media accounts with more followers. I'm involved in the #SaveMills campaign both #onHere and on twitter.

twitter: @save_mills
fedi: @save_mills

It would be materially helpful to the campaign if you could please follow those accounts, even if you don't really use your account or even if you mute us.

Thank you to everyone! Boosts allowed.

I posted an abbreviated version of the above to birdsite and got a message from a musicologist of porn music(!!) who reminded me that former Mills professor Pauline Oliveros collaborated with Annie Sprinkle on an adult film.

The only place to view it on the internet is https://pinklabel.tv/on-demand/film/sluts-and-goddesses/

When I expressed doubts about giving my credit card number ot this web page, they chimed in to say, "Hi! We're reputable, we swear! Black queer female owned, and Bay Area based, and one of our teamsters is even a Mills alumni. 🙌"

#SaveMills

BBC Radio 3 covered the Mills Music Department this morning on Music Matters and will re-run the show Monday at 10:00 PM. In the mean time, you could also read the Band camp article, the Pitchfork Article, the New York Times article and more.

The college's board of trustees has not even deigned to speak to anyone involved in the department about its future.

If you support the idea of experimental music education with a unique offering to women, trans people and enbies at a majority PoC university, or you value experimentation in music, you think the workers should have rights, I would like to ask you to please sign the petition.

https://www.change.org/p/president-hillman-the-mills-college-music-department-and-center-for-contemporary-music-must-be-protected

#SaveMills

Y'all, this petition to protect the music department at Mills College is extremely important for American Experimental Music.

Please at least give it a read. If you do sign, please make sure your name and any affiliations you have are visible and included.

https://www.change.org/p/president-hillman-the-mills-college-music-department-and-center-for-contemporary-music-must-be-protected

Half of the people in the film Sisters With Transistors were connected to Mills!

#SaveMills #SaveCCM

Please boost!

Somebody told me today that ~half~ of the people featured in the new film Sisters With Transistors either studied or taught at Mills College.

#SaveMills #SaveCCM

I'm doing this #SaveMills campaign around a small California university and I wonder if it's worth also having a mastodon account, maybe on scholar.social?

If you want to feel hate-motivated by clickbait, this asshole thinks Mills deserves to close because it educates too many non-white people, too many queers, and too many that are the first in their family to go to college. https://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=13530

(#SaveMills on twitter. Please share a tweet. Or if you find this exceptionally irritating, perhaps you'd like to hate donate to our legal fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-mills-college )

BandCamp today is covering the music department of #MillsCollege, which is threatened with closure: https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/mills-college-list

If you care about experimental music and have an account on birdsite, if you could spare a tweet or two with the hashtag #SaveMills, there's a twitter campaign set for today.

You might say why the music department in particular or the college in general should carry on.

This is a cause that is personally very important to me. I want others to have the opportunities that I had and I also want to be able to keep hearing new music coming out of this milieu.

The graduate programme is all genders, but the undergrad programme is for women and trans people. (Mills was the first HWC to admit trans women without regard to their legal gender status.) There aren't many places that have helped so many musicians find such distinct voices and fewer still that had such a high degree of access for women and enbies.

Now listening: https://othermindsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/first-things-first

Irreverent, fun, weird sound art from former #MillsCollege faculty Anthony Gnazzo

#SaveMills #SaveCCM

Lou Harrison's Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with Javanese Gamelan (1981/1982) was also completed when he was working at #MillsCollege #SaveMills

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5xZLMKsbLw

Now listening: https://othermindsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/gallivants-and-garnishes

Ramón Sender was a co-founder of the San Francisco Tape Music Center, which later became The Center for Contemporary Music at #MillsCollege. Sender was instrumental in the invention of the voltage controlled synthesiser and I think I hear a Buchla on this delightfully weird, multilayered album.

#SaveMills #SaveCCM

Now Listening:
https://millscollegemusic.bandcamp.com/album/mills-spring-2020-compilation

Music from #MillsCollege CCM, spring 2020. This is a selection of what recent students have been doing.

#SaveMills #SaveCCM

Now listening: https://maryclarebrzytwa.bandcamp.com/album/experimental-electronic

Experimental Electronic by #MillsCollege alum Mary Clare Brzytwa

The extremely cool album photo shows a clarinet with a proximity detector on it. Listening so far, it sounds like left coast dreamy electronics.

#SaveMills #SaveCCM

Now listening:

https://djll.bandcamp.com/album/skin-tightener

Noisy free improv. Recorded at #MillsCollege by people involved with the music department in various capacities.

#SaveMills #SaveCCM

Now listening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy3W-3HPMWg

A Rainbow in Curved Air by former #MillsCollege faculty Terry Riley.

His second most influential piece has a droney undercurrent, but is a steady forward momentum. Loopy but linear. Busy but still. The Guardian describes this piece as "feel good".

#SaveMills #SaveCCM

Now Listening:

https://othermindsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/om-live-hommage

Cello and electronics from #MillsCollege teacher Joan Jeanrenaud

Very complicated droney new music vibe.

#SaveCCM #SaveMills

Now Listening:

Lovely Little Records

https://www.ubu.com/sound/lovely.html

A fascinating compilation of the state of experimental electronic music in 1980. Everyone on the record either taught at or studied at #MillsCollege.

John Bischoff was a founding member of The Hub and taught at Mills for ages.

Paul Demarinis is a Mills alum, who has done amazing work with text. (This computer work is 1980!!)

Phil Haromic was a Mills alum and also the housemate of my MA thesis advisor. I wish I'd met him, but alas, he did not survive the AIDS crisis.

Frankie Mann was an early adopter of computer controlled synthesis. I know of her because John Bischoff told me to to look her up. This is one of the only things I've found.

Maggi Payne is a Mills alum and the former director of CCM at Mills. She was my composition teacher.

Blue Gene Tyranny was a teacher at Mills and also a member of the Once group in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His work is extremely influential, especially on piano.

#MillsMusic #SaveMills #SaveCCM