MARCA CASSITY
Born a singing, two-spirit tomboy of mixed heritage in the midst of the blue-collar Bible Belt, independent musician Marca Cassity says her life has been filled with challenging adventures-one of which was coming out in her small town on the Osage reservation in Oklahoma. But instead of being cowed by adversity, she used her experiences as inspiration. Cassity has written and produced music since her early 20s-her fourth independent album, Songs from the Well, is a collection of eleven folk-rock spirit songs funded with an artist grant from the Osage Nation. With nods to musical contemporaries Joan Armatrading, Mary Gauthier and Gillian Welch, Cassity´s songs use nuances of Osage singing and drumming to deliver a positive message about “overcoming hardship through connections with nature, humor, love, compassion, spirituality and heritage.” She was honored to sing her song “Bells” at the inauguration of the Osage Chief and Congress in the summer of 2014, and this summer, Cassity will be part of the video crew at the final Michigan Womyn´s Music Festival. When she isn´t recording and performing, Cassity is a therapist specializing in trauma counseling for Native American families and in LGBTQ issues in Durham, N.C. “It is important that we, the LGBTQ community, consistently, intelligently find our strength in our hearts and minds, and be allies to one another,” she says. -KL
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