The Americana Music Association has published a response to the reported transphobic events at Americanafest two weeks ago. The statement is quoted in full below. This e-mail was sent at 4:35 PM EDT on Friday, 10/6 — the Friday of Columbus Day weekend.
Americana Music Association: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion.
Our Commitment.
The Americana Music Association is a non-profit 501(c)(6) music association that advocates for theauthentic voice of American Roots Music around the world. AMERICANAFEST is our most significant annual event. As such, it is where we welcome fellow travelers home and introduce ourselves to newcomers who we hope will join our music family. That is why we launched All-Americana in 2020; to continue to clearly call in a more diverse and inclusive community, including, but not limited to, important voices in the LGBTQIA+ community.
We take it very seriously when any corner of our broad, deep, diverse, and passionate community feels anything less than fully embraced in our living room. We were heartbroken to hear of instances in which some members of our All-Americana community who identify as Trans and Non-Binary were made to feel unwelcome at certain events at this year’s Conference and Festival.
We have spent many hours over the last two weeks hearing first person accounts of points of concern, and in emergency meetings of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, Executive Committee, and Board of Directors to address the concerns meaningfully, sustainably, and actionably. We are listening with great care and working hard to learn how to serve the full spectrum of our All-Americana family better in this moment and going forward.
We thank community members who have offered constructive, actionable steps to help us live our values of inclusion and safety, and we are committed to taking meaningful steps, including, but not limited to:
Broadening representation on our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, including, but not limited to, representatives from the trans and non-binary communities.Seeking sponsorship opportunities for low-income Americana musicians to attend and participate in the festival. We will have additional news regarding a fund being created for this purpose, coming soon.Hosting diversity training for Americana Music Association staff, Board and Committee members.
This is not the end of the journey. We are all works-in-progress. While some action steps we take will be immediate, others will evolve over time. We want you to know we hear you, we are listening and we will honor our inclusivity and belonging mission. We look forward to further constructive dialogue from all the intersectional communities we seek to serve.
The #allamericana inclusivity pledge:
All Colors
All Genders
All Abilities
All Ages
All Sizes
All Orientations
All Identities
All Americana
Yours in music,
The Americana Music Association
Speaking to The Boot in 2021, Executive Director Jed Hilly detailed the creation of the DEI Committee but did not outline their duties. None of the artists who performed at that year’s Americanafest were aware of the committee’s creation — just the t-shirts being sold with the above #allamericana inclusivity pledge.
Mya Byrne, who participated in this year’s panel of trans and non-binary artists, reports that nobody from Americanafest has reached out to her, nor sent her a copy of this statement directly.
As of this writing, Americanafest has not posted the statement to social media. However, both the Americanafest Twitter and Instagram accounts reposted concert and record announcements from a variety of Americana artists.
This e-mail appears to have been sent to the Americana Music Association membership listserv. Artist memberships cost $35 for a single year, industry memberships cost $75, and donor memberships cost $50 a year.