Presented by The SONA Foundation with our Backline partner, this month's Fireside Chat is inspired by Women's History Month. Join us and our special songwriter guests, Kay Hanley (Letters to Cleo, Doc McStuffins) and singer-songwriter Grace Pettis; Backline Counselor, Nyeesha Williams; Backline Community Manager, songwriter, and podcast host, Terra Lopez. ABOUT KAY HANLEY Kay Hanley is a Peabody and Emmy-award-winning songwriter and co-founder of Songwriters Of North America, an advocacy organization focused on preserving the value of music and songwriter rights through legislative policy. SONA was instrumental in passing the Music Modernization Act which created the Mechanical Licensing Collective where Kay now serves as vice chair of the Unclaimed Royalty Oversight Committee. As a singer and songwriter, Kay is known for her work with her band Letters To Cleo and composing music for TV animation such as the hit Disney series Doc McStuffins, Cartoon Network/WB's DC Super Hero Girls, Harvey Girls Forever, and Ada Twist, Netflix’s Scientist, and currently as executive producer of Disney Junior’s upcoming Kindergarten: The Musical. ABOUT GRACE PETTIS Grace is the winner of many of the nation’s most prestigious songwriting contests, including NPR’s Mountain Stage New Song Contest, and has received grants from the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation. Grace’s songs have been recorded by other esteemed artists, including Sara Hickman and Ruthie Foster. Her highly acclaimed independently released records, Grace Pettis (2009), Two Birds (2012), and the acoustic EP, Blue Star in a Red Sky (2018), have garnered praise from top-notch magazines, newspapers, and radio. She also holds down duties as a member (along with Rebecca Loebe and BettySoo) of the Americana/folk-pop trio Nobody’s Girl. From an early age, Grace was encouraged to speak her mind and to express herself musically. Words and music were the family heirlooms she inherited from her parents, a traveling songwriter (Pierce Pettis) and poetry scholar (Dr. Margaret Mills Harper). Asked about her conscious choice to work with an all-female/non-binary creative team for Working Woman, Grace explains, “As a feminist, I can't complain that the industry is unfair to women if I'm not actively working on whatever level I'm at to change it for others. I don't feel the need to cloak my own feminism in metaphors anymore or sidle up to it with a wink so I don't offend anyone. Here in the US, women make up something like 22% of chart-topping artists, across all genres. We are 2% of the producers credited on those charts, and just about 12% of the songwriters. Less than 1% of chart-topping songs are written without men. Meaning, we are literally not hearing women. The fact is, women like me work our tails off. We have to, to carve out our place in the world. It's past time to recognize and honor women’s contributions. This is our time and we will make the rules. We are not asking for respect anymore. Now, we are demanding it." Visit SONAFoundation.com and Backline.care to learn more.