On Discwoman: Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson, Black Futures

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Discwoman, a New York booking agency and event platform that represents cis women, trans women, and gender queer talent in the electronic music community, pulled me out of nihilism and made everything matter to me. Being able to focus my energy into something that can be uplifting for people in this horrible world keeps me alive. It’s not perfect by any means, but I’d rather be doing this than anything else and I genuinely believe it affects change in people’s lives. As soon as it stops doing that, I would stop doing it. At the core of what we do is the bond I have with my partners Emma Burgess-Olson and Christine McCharen-Tran; we’ve somehow managed to stay working with one another and I think it comes down to respect. This is invaluable. And whether we sink tomorrow or live forever, this is something I will always cherish. They’ve believed in me when I thought no one did. It is a unique thing that we’ve cultivated, and I will forever be thankful and cherish it.

This was the morning I woke up and found out my dad had passed, but I still had to travel to New York and play a gig for the Panorama Music Festival. The festival was canceled halfway through my set due to weather conditions; I had rain dripping through the DJ booth over the CDJs. Not the happiest of tales but definitely an interesting one—and one that stands out. —Kerrie Ann Murphy, aka Bearcat

It was my second time in Poland. Somehow, the universe has brought me here twice in one year. Each time, I’ve met people and heard sounds that challenged me. The Unsound Festival brings together dozens of artists from across the globe to descend onto Krakow. I spent the weekend running from lecture to lecture in the day and writhing on the dance floor at night. It was the convergence of all of the medias I love. During this, I decided I was going to only wear a blazer for the weekend and began to start referring to the festival as a conference and my fellow DJs as colleagues. The theme of the festival was Simulator Sickness so I decided to embrace it by making comparisons to white-collar jobs. I closed out this year’s conference by delivering one of the best sets/presentations of that leg of the tour. —Yulan Grant, aka SHYBOI