TAE PHOENIX

Singer-Songwriter • Activist • Writer

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A natural-born storyteller with the polish of an accomplished actress and the authentic edge of a seasoned blues musician.

Seattle Weekly

Music

Featured Track: “I wanna see you be brave.”

Music is the art form we turn to when we need to build bridges and make ourselves plainly understood.

In January 2020, the United States was in crisis. The president was holding vital defense support to Ukraine hostage as a means of coercing their government into investigating the son of a political rival.

My civil disobedience action inside the Senate’s Russell Rotunda – performing Sara Bareilles’ “Brave” in an area where protest is strictly forbidden – was a call on Republican Senators to join Democrats in voting to remove that corrupt president from office.

More Music

Everyone You’ll Be EP • Studio Album Release Date: Feb 2024
Home demos…

Tae Phoenix · The Girls You'll Be Demos
Deep Cuts

Tour Dates

CityDateTimeVenue
Boston8/7/23TBABerklee Performance Center*
Boston8/8/233:30pmCafe 939
New York8/14/236pmRockwood Music Hall
Washington, DC8/17/232-4pmWOWD Radio
Reston, VA8/18/236pmLake Anne Plaza
* I am a backup singer as part of a larger ensemble.

Bio / Artist Statement

My name is Tae Phoenix and my favorite party game is “two truths and a lie.” See if you can guess which is which:

The answer is in the footer of the website.

My work is about themes that everyone can relate to on some level: rejecting conformity, embracing authenticity, and finding the connections between healing ourselves and building the world we want.

Sometimes, when I’m stuck on where a musical idea belongs, I’ll write lyrics from the perspective of a fictional character and see where that takes me. I love this approach because I tend to obsess over stories: telling them, absorbing them, analyzing them. It doesn’t really matter as long as I’m immersed. I’ve written songs that started out as screenplays and the beginnings of musicals that I originally thought were novels. It all makes me ridiculously happy.

My favorite thing about using music as a storytelling vehicle is that a well-timed and well-written song can convey a tremendous amount of information just with the placement of a quarter note rest. I learned this the first time I performed in a Sondheim show. (“Into the Woods.”) I looked at the score, thought, “wow! It’s turtles all the way down, “and never looked back.

The performing arts world is a wonderful place for many reasons, but it’s also not an easy space for me to enter. As an Autistic, I get easily overwhelmed by loud, chaotic environments like music clubs. In a people-oriented business, missing a social cue, facial expression, or change in tone of voice can have implications that aren’t always obvious in the moment. One of my goals as I work in this space is to build more inclusive and accessible spaces for “neuro-spicy” artists and our supporters.

Videos

Live

Music & Lyric Videos

Forced Birth Extremism Kills Women

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Forced Birth Extremism Kills

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This project is a response to the extreme prohibitions on abortion care in Georgia, Alabama, Ohio and more.

100% of profits (about $10 per shirt, slightly less for larger sizes) will be contributed to the Yellowhammer Fund, an organization that makes abortion care accessible for the most vulnerable women in Alabama.

Each tee shirt is named for a prominent woman from Alabama’s history.

Scroll down to learn more about the shirts or click the button to shop now.

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Named for Alabama-born educator, prison reformer, and writer Julia S. Tutwiler, this red tee shirt features a Latina woman wearing a polka dot head wrap on a pink background.

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Named for Emrys, an Alabama abortion access and trans rights activist affiliated with the Yellowhammer fund.

[/et_pb_slide][et_pb_slide heading=”Angela” button_text=”Shop” button_link=”https://taephoenix.com/product-category/store/merch/apparel/forced-birth-extremism-kills-women/angela/” url_new_window=”on” image=”https://taephoenix.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/OverProject-52.jpg” admin_title=”Angela” _builder_version=”3.19.14″ link_option_url=”https://taephoenix.com/product-category/store/merch/apparel/forced-birth-extremism-kills-women/angela/” link_option_url_new_window=”on”]

Named for Alabama-born activist, author, and all around badass Angela Davis, this yellow tee shirt features a Black woman wearing a red polka dot head wrap.

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Named for Melodi, an Alabama abortion access and trans rights activist affiliated with the Yellowhammer fund.

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Named for Alabama-born astronomer Ellen Dorrit Hoffleit this purple tee shirt features a white woman on a pink background wearing a black polka dot dress.

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Named for Candace, an Alabama abortion access and trans rights activist affiliated with the Yellowhammer fund.

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Named for Alabama-born author Harper Lee, this dark blue tee shirt features a white woman seated on a pink sofa against a yellow background.

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Named for Alabama-born feminist, civil rights, and anti-nuclear activist Yolande Betbeze, this blue tee shirt features a white woman wearing sunglasses and a pink blouse on a light blue background.

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Shop

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Womens’ Tees

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Womens’ Tanks

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Unisex Tees & Totes

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FAQ

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_toggle title=”What is Forced Birth Extremism?” _builder_version=”3.19.14″ title_font=”||||||||” background_color=”rgba(238,242,234,0.63)”]

Nearly 80% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal; but across the country, politicians who are radically out of step with that vast majority are passing laws that effectively ban all abortions. Many of these laws mandate procedures that are medically impossible, such as transplanting ectopic pregnancies from the Fallopian tube to the uterus. The views that lead to these kinds of unpopular, scientifically uninformed laws can only be described as extreme

Were these politicians truly concerned for the welfare of the unborn, they would be pursuing legislation to ensure that every child gets fed, sheltered, and educated. Instead, their support for children ends at birth. Therefore, the obvious goal of these laws is to force women to give birth under all circumstances, regardless of our desire to do so.

Hence, “forced birth extremism.”

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Yes. Forced birth extremism is deadly for anyone who has the capacity to become pregnant, be they a cis woman, a trans guy, or someone who does not conform to the gender binary.

Because the original clip art I used (and licensed, and paid for) for these tee shirts did not include trans faces, I was not able to make images that reflected the breadth of human beings this kind of cruel legislation impacts.

I am currently working with a trans artist on creating images that will make this project as inclusive as it should be.

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I’m not exactly what you’d call a visual artist, but I know my way around Over, an iOS app that offers pre-cleared clip art and layouts.

The women featured in these drawings were created by Ilenia’s Design. I chose these images because these were women in poses associated with traditional femininity. It seems like the only time the world sees women as human is when we’re dressed up real pretty, so I thought maybe this might bring the point home.

The trans folx who were featured were drawn by Calvin Benson.

The flowers were drawn by Twigs & Twine.

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Clothing manufacturers often charge more for sizes larger than 1XL, but I don’t want to play into that fatphobic nonsense by passing those additional costs along to the buyer.

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My name is Tae Phoenix and I’m an activist singer songwriter.

I’ll be keeping track of product sales as they come in and donations as they go out on this Google Sheet.

I’m periodically posting screenshots of my receipts from Yellowhammer on this Twitter thread.

[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle title=”There are abortion bans across the country. Why did you pick Alabama?” _builder_version=”3.19.14″ background_color=”rgba(238,242,234,0.63)”]

A dear friend of mine grew up there and we visited together last summer. While we were there, we went to the Equal Justice Initiative and the lynching memorial in Montgomery.

Everywhere I went, I saw the ongoing disparities in wealth and access to opportunity that separate Black and white families that are the legacy of slavery and segregation, and that really stuck with me. Reproductive justice is an economic issue and a civil rights issues, and these abortion bans will impact poor, rural, Black women hardest. I got more viscerally in touch with that reality in Alabama, so I feel a need to help make things right there in particular.

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