FEMINAE NOX

Co-created by live music agents, Mira Silvers (IG) and Seny Kassaye (IG) of FORT Agency (IG) FEMINAE NOX is a woman-led not-for-profit founded with a mission to prioritize financial equity & economic self-determination through education, training, empowerment, experience, and celebration for Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other racialized women, femme, and gender nonconforming folks seeking to work in or already working in live music and nightlife, both off and on stage.

FEMINAE NOX was born exactly two years ago this month, after a trip to London. In 2023, Seny was told by the CLMA that she may have been one of few Black agents in Canadian music history, if not the only one. In London, Mira & Seny set out to discover exactly how many Black or racialized female agents were actively working at talent agencies in live music. And unsurprisingly, they discovered that among the independent or major talent agencies, globally there are only a handful of Black or racialized female live music agents.

The pair started to examine the live music and nightlife ecosystems closely, as a whole and all the roles involved in it, whether that was an agent, promoter, production, sound engineers, creatives, artists, managers, etc. Again to no surprise, there was not enough Indigenous, Black, Brown, and racialized women, femme, or gender diverse individuals working in live music or nightlife, especially behind the scenes.

Going through the reports published by USC Annenberg, UK Music, UK Musician’s Census, MiDia, CLMA, AOA, FEMINAE NOX came across some astounding figures. Women make up 36% of the workforce in all music roles worldwide. If we look at Canada specifically, BIPOC individuals of all genders make up 16% of the live music workforce and approximately only a mere 2% are racialized women, femme, & gender diverse peoples. While women of color make up a significant portion of the music industry as performers, they are almost absent in executive roles in live music. Women of color hold a negligible percentage of positions in live music —for example only 1.7% of live music executives are Black women. In comparison, about 90% of live music executives in the music industry are white men, who control about $38.58 billion of the global live music revenues, as projected for 2025.

And so this became the landscape that FEMINAE NOX set out to change. The idea is to create generational change rooted in equitable and sustainable practices throughout the entire live music ecosystem starting with the most marginalized voices. And so as FEMINAE NOX’s 2nd anniversary coincides with Black History Month, it is important to reflect upon the generations of activists, community organizers, leaders, music executives, organizations, and peoples that have done this work before, both past and present. FEMINAE NOX is not the first and will not be the last. FEMINAE NOX strives to continue contributing to a long historical and present legacies of resistance, equity, transparency, resources, empowerment, and triumphs in creating sustainable and equitable spaces. The mission is to arm aspiring and established music executives and artists alike with hope, equity, transparency, encouragement, inspiration, amplification, opportunity, resources, belonging, community, and empowerment.

FEMINAE NOX’s mission is clear: to prioritize equity and economic self-determination through education, training programs, mentorship, events, career support, entrepreneurship and celebration. Now more than ever, it is evident that in live music and nightlife a a full overhaul is required and a more holistic approach is needed to bridge the gap with immediate action-based goals to innovate the live music industry.

You can read more about FEMINAE NOX and it’s role as guest curator and programmer at MUTEK’s 25th anniversary Festival & Forum . https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H2D7pbi0acTrenAAzYgl-OZwaxi3M4vq/view?usp=drivesdk