'Theyness' - Millie Ahearn's Chicago Debut Album

Millie Ahearn is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hello! My name is Millie Ahearn, and I am a British multi-instrumentalist currently recording music within the Chicago jazz scene. My band, “The Octagyn Collective,” houses the thoughts and feelings of a transgender musician navigating expressions of queerness in jazz, focusing largely on transformation and the coming of the self into new life.

My mission is to make my community feel seen and to transform collective pain into healing music. With this in mind, I have just recorded my first Chicago album, 'Theyness:' a 12-song storybook that paints the human self as a multitude and examines the beautiful chaos of developing self-love. Each tune dedicates itself to a season of the year, exploring cycles of continual death and rebirth as a prerequisite to renewed life. It addresses the coexistent grief, joy, displacement, chaos and undying hope of the queer experience, paying respects to loved ones lost and expressing gratitude to those still fighting with us.

The album will be available for both physical purchase (CDs) and digital download/streaming, in addition to a movie filmed live in the studio documenting our journey. The entire album has been tracked and recorded, but is almost entirely unpaid for due to my lack of personal finances; I am now searching for funding to complete the project, as without this I will be completely unable to release it. This funding would cover many of the existing costs of recording and marketing the album, including studio time, mixing and mastering sessions, musicians' fees, videographer fees, and publicist fees. I would be extremely grateful if you could read the following to understand why the release of this project holds such meaning for me.

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It is deeply important to me that my career remains focused on the power that my music can have on my people: an inclusive expression of the power of jazz to speak to and include the queer community. The bimonthly jam session I run at Chicago’s Clara bar, for example, provides a safe haven for female, non-binary, genderqueer and otherwise trans folk to exist and breathe, and it is a space of which I am vehemently protective. As I continue to dedicate myself to amplifying the voices of my communities, the completion and successful release of 'Theyness' will enable me to continue to hone these skills to a point where I can be at my highest point of usefulness to my audience.

While I am extremely grateful for having been able to channel my experiences into music, queerphobic acts remain draining and exhausting at best, and life-threatening at worst. Finding beauty in the slow moments becomes a practice of self-care and survival, and choosing every day to show up for ourselves as a community is an act of collective strength of which I am endlessly proud. Without the resilience of our ancestors, specifically queer people of color, America would be experiencing nowhere near the richness and fulness of human experience as it currently does. IT IS FROM THEIR DETERMINATION THAT WE DRAW OUR STRENGTH.

Whilst my pull may currently be relatively small, I strongly believe that continued visibility of successful queer people is vital in the re-education of people's prejudices. I believe that exposure to difference is a key part in the progression of society to safer and more equitable times, and with the right funding, I genuinely believe that the reach of this project could amplify that beyond anything I am currently capable of. For many people who are on the edge, all it can take is a small ray of hope that they are heard and seen, and it would be of indescribable meaning to me to know that the potential of this project in securing that extra thread of life had been expanded.

If the scope of this project moves you, I would be endlessly grateful if you could consider donating to its mission. If you are able to contribute $10, I can guarantee you a physical copy of Volume I of the album upon its release, free of shipping; a contribution of $20 will guarantee both Volumes I & II, free of shipping; contributions of $50+ will receive both volumes, free of shipping, in addition to comped entry into 2 of my release shows; $75+ will include all of the above plus a personal thank you in the liner notes.