Mutual Mentorship For Musicians

When the COVID-19 lockdown began in NYC in March of 2020, Jen Shyu and Sara Serpa co-founded Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³), recognizing that the music and performing arts worlds, with their multiple languages and traditions, have been mostly shaped by male power. This imbalance results in unequal environments and presents multiple challenges for musicians from underrepresented groups to have access to meaningful mentorship and career opportunities.

In just three years, Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³) has commissioned 60 women, non-binary, and mostly BIPOC musicians, to create 30 new duo music/video compositions across five cohort cycles, each lasting 6-10 months

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When the COVID-19 lockdown began in NYC in March of 2020, Jen Shyu and Sara Serpa co-founded Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³), recognizing that the music and performing arts worlds, with their multiple languages and traditions, have been mostly shaped by male power. This imbalance results in unequal environments and presents multiple challenges for musicians from underrepresented groups to have access to meaningful mentorship and career opportunities.

In just three years, Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³) has commissioned 60 women, non-binary, and mostly BIPOC musicians, to create 30 new duo music/video compositions across five cohort cycles, each lasting 6-10 months. M³ has produced and presented three interactive online M³ Festivals premiering 18 music/video commissions in December 2020, June 2021 and March 2022 at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. M³ also published its first M³ Anthology of Writings, The Art of Being True edited by acclaimed jazz writer Jordannah Elizabeth in April 2021 and its first physical M³ Anthology of Writings Volumes 1 & 2, with Volume 2 edited by writer, poet, and scholar Naomi Extra. Volumes 3 and 4 have been published online, with Volume 3 also edited by Naomi Extra and Volume 4 edited by writer, poet, and journalist Kyla Marshell. This series is a legacy and archive of writings on creative work, listening, struggles and hopes of women, non-binary musicians, and artists of other underrepresented gender identities.

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