Events

Meltzer’s began her book Girl Power as a single article in Slate Magazine years ago when she spoke to the greater loss that women felt when the band Sleater-Kinney broke up.  At the time, her article generated a tremendous reader response and inspired Meltzer to take a deeper look at the role of women in music and the situation they face today, and so the title for Girl Power was born.   The nineties were a boom time for women in all genres of music. It was a time when underground met the mainstream: riot grrrls wearing kilts and playing in all-girl punk bands, rock musicians like Courtney Love and Liz Phair writing songs about sex, the Spice Girls’ pop domination while assuring girls that they could—and should—kick ass. It was Lilith Fair and Alanis Morissette and Tori Amos.   Meltzer writes, “Girl power recognizes that not everything is pure: it delights in ambiguous gray areas. It’s not just about testing out your own relationship to feminism, but about finding your identity in the world. But girl power’s ‘do-it-yourself’ message of ‘You can do anything ‘is a powerful entrée to feminism, especially because its simplicity brings in the very young . . . Girl power is a way station, not an endpoint, and a gateway, I hope to a more profound equality of the sexes.”   Interspersing her own personal accounts with interviews with some of the most powerful voices in women’s music, from The Indigo Girls to the Spice Girls, Meltzer gives us a powerful account to the importance of women in music.   Marisa Meltzer is the co-author of How Sassy Changed My Life. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, New York magazine, Salon, Slate, and SPIN.  As a one time Santa Cruz resident, Bookshop Santa Cruz is proud to welcome her back to the area to honor her book.