The Women In Music Showcase is one way Guelph’s CJ Cooper is giving back to the industry and the mentors she has had in the last 10 years of her professional music career.
The showcase is Aug. 4 at Onyx from 6:30 to 10 p.m. and is for ages 19 plus. It is free, but donations are accepted. All of the donations from the showcase will go to Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis.
Cooper performed at a similar event in Toronto to the one she is hosting, which sparked the idea.
She applied for a grant from the Guelph Arts Council and managed to get $750 to turn her idea into reality. She also received $250 from a local business.
Part of the money will be to pay the musicians adequately “because so often we don't get paid what we're worth,” said Cooper.
If this event takes off she hopes to put it on annually.
D’eve Archer will be headlining the event. Performances by Claire Whitehead, Mikalyn Hay, and Madison Galloway will be underway. The musicians each have a different genre of music like R&B, indie pop and folk.
Cooper grew up in Guelph listening to women perform like Archer and getting lessons from Ambre McLean. This showcase is a chance for her to thank the women in Guelph who have guided her in her career.
During her time performing in the city she and Hay were in the same circles, performing the same events but didn’t start working together until recently. Cooper said there was a slight bit of jealousy and competition between them previously.
Cooper wants the Women In Music Showcase to be a supportive environment where newer artists can ask for advice and feel welcomed.
She said Guelph is a supportive community for women in the music industry especially compared to Toronto.
Cooper saw glimpses of what challenges women artists endure when she enroled in Seneca College in the songwriting and performance program.
Some of her professors, who were men, were misogynistic, she said. The professors didn’t take the women musicians seriously, Cooper said. The professors were reported.
“We had action with numbers to say, we are just as valid to be here. We are just as worthy to make music and to have our place in the studio and to run the session and to write the songs." she said.
The head of the program had told a professor, “these people are here to learn from you and you're setting a horrible example of what this industry represents,” said Cooper.
When Cooper booked gigs over email and showed up in person the organizers expected her to be a man since she has an androgynous first name. She said it worked to her advantage.
She has boosted her confidence as a woman in music and said she has earned in place in the industry. "It was definitely a learning curve, to be a young woman is already hard enough" Cooper said.
