When I took over as Editor-in-Chief of I CARE IF YOU LISTEN back in September, one of my top priorities was to continue the work of our founder Thomas Deneuville by fostering an inclusive environment that reflects the amazing diversity of artistic voices in our field.
Yesterday, we were tagged in a tweet with some statistics about our video premieres.
Hey @icareifulisten! How come, out of the 29 videos you’ve premiered on your site, 24 of them are by white men? You have more video premieres by @NickZoulek than you do by POC. Sometimes it’s tough to admit that you’re part of the problem, but I believe we all can change! pic.twitter.com/mNiLSj9mw9
— Hildegard von Bingen (@HildyVonB) March 22, 2018
We understand that those numbers seem to contradict what we are supposedly out to accomplish. As I explained in a response to this tweet, we premiere videos that are pitched to us via email, either by the artists or by media production companies. What you see reflected in those statistic is almost the entirety of what has been pitched to us. We are interested in premiering videos from a more diverse constituency, and we would love to hear from you.
In light of this, we wanted to take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to providing an equitable platform for all artists in our community.
Over the past several months, I have been communicating with publicists to let them know that I am primarily interested in promoting the work of historically underrepresented and marginalized artists. I have also already committed to turning down 100% of concert reviews and album reviews that feature works by all white men, with the only exceptions being portrait albums or evening-length works by a single composer.
These behind the scenes operations aren’t always immediately apparent in the final product you see on our website, but we want you to know that we are actively working to enact the change that we all want to see in our community.
We wanted to take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to providing an equitable platform for all artists in our community.
Everyone at ICIYL is a volunteer–top to bottom. I am incredibly grateful for all of the people who make this publication happen on a daily basis. We all have full-time day jobs or are enrolled in school full-time, and we work on building this community in our spare time.
This means, though, that we don’t always have the time or resources to make change happen quickly. And that’s where we need your help.
Almost everything that is covered on our website is pitched to us via email. Please help us in our mission to create an online space that is reflective of the many voices in our community by encouraging people to send us their work.
Thank you for your support and your readership throughout the years.
-Amanda
