Carla DeSantis Black
| Carla DeSantis Black | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 21, 1958 Boston, MA, U.S. |
| Residence | Austin, TX, U.S. |
| Known for | Musicians for Equal Opportunities for Women (MEOW), ROCKRGRL, advocacy for women in music, music journalism |
| Website | www |
Carla DeSantis Black (born February 21, 1958) is a writer and advocate for women in music. Sometimes referred to as “The Gloria Steinem of Rock,” she is the founder of ROCKRGRL Magazine (1995-2005) and MEOW - Musicians for Equal Opportunities for Women (2010-2013).
Black was born in Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from high school in San Jose, California in 1975. She attended college at Chico State University from 1975-1978 to study communications and theater arts but left after two years to pursue music full-time.
In 1979 she moved to Eugene, Oregon to continue college and quickly became immersed in the city’s emerging music scene, serving as the entertainment editor of the Lane Community College newspaper, The Torch and singing with a local band.
In 1982 and back in the Bay Area, Black joined an all-female cover band. Although she initially did not know how to play bass, she learned on-the-job.
In 1990 she formed an oldies band with two members of her former all-female band, performing at fairs, festivals and private parties.
In 1994 Black created ROCKRGRL, a magazine for female musicians, noting the lack of positive attention given to women musicians she had experienced first-hand. The premier issue of ROCKRGRL was 14 pages, black and white and released on January 1, 1995.
ROCKRGRL published 57 issues with Black at the helm for the entire run. Sleater-Kinney and Tegan and Sara were featured on the cover of ROCKRGRL early in their career. The final issue of ROCKRGRL was published in the fall of 2005.
Black also produced The ROCKRGRL Music Conference in Seattle in 2000 (honoring Heart with the Woman of Valor Award and featuring Keynote addresses by Ronnie Spector, Amy Ray and Courtney Love) and again in 2005 (honoring Patti Smith with the Woman of Valor Award and featuring Keynote addresses by Smith and Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde).
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