"Whenever I see something that makes me upset, I try to think, 'What can I do about this?'" says Lucy Dacus
Ebru Yildiz*Like people across America, Lucy Dacus was deeply troubled by this week’s news that Texas Senate Bill 8, the most extreme abortion ban in the country, had become law as the Supreme Court sat idle — effectively taking away the constitutional right to bodily autonomy for millions of Texans.
“Whenever I see something that makes me upset, I try to think, ‘What can I do about this?'” says the singer-songwriter, who is about to head out on a U.S tour that includes four shows in Texas this month. “If I can’t do anything, I try to not panic. But if I can, I try to mobilize.”
On September 2nd, Dacus pledged to donate all the money she makes at those Texas shows to the state’s grassroots abortion funds. “As I had the thought, I wrote the tweet,” she says. “It was just like, ‘That’s something I can do.'”
Dacus spoke with Rolling Stone about her pledge to stand up for reproductive justice.
I grew up in a really conservative area. A lot of people were pro-life. When I was a child, I understood things that way, because I was inheriting that view from the older people in my church. But as you get older and you meet people with many experiences, you realize the economic situation, and the mental and emotional strain of a pregnancy. I’ve had some life-changing friendships with people who are involved in abortion rights and any-outcome pregnancy support. I was talking to my friend who had a kid recently, who was like, “It’s hard enough when you want to have a child.” Being forced to carry a pregnancy to term is just evil.
This bill makes ending any pregnancy after six weeks illegal. A lot of people don’t even know they’re pregnant after six weeks. It’s so punitive and puritanical, and it’s rooted in so much shame and restrictiveness around sex. Every single bit of this law is completely disrespectful to human autonomy. Which is surprising, because the people who support this bill probably value freedom in other ways that actually do endanger other people — like not wearing masks. But abortions are going to keep happening. People have been having abortions forever. It’s a part of the human experience. Restricting access to them is only making it more dangerous for the people who need them.
I have been getting a wonderful flood of resources in, with names of funds. There’s one called the Lilith Fund. There’s one called Buckle Bunnies. And there’s this ActBlue Support Texas Abortion Funds link that splits your donation between Support Your Sistah at the Afiya Center, Whole Woman’s Health Alliance, the Bridge Collective, the Lilith Fund, Jane’s Due Process, Frontera Fund, Fund Texas Choice, Texas Equal Access Fund, Clinic Access Support Network, and West Fund. A lot of charities have a ton of overhead, and the money that you donate often goes to administrative costs and other expenses. But these smaller, grassroots organizations of volunteers, the money that you give is actually directly getting to people who need it most of the time. And there are hard costs with abortion that are often too much for an individual, but attainable enough that donations really result in something: Paying the cost for a procedure, or the pill, or travel.
So I’m donating everything we’re going to make at these shows on merch and from tickets. My management is going to waive their commission. My agent is working to ask venues if they’re willing to hand over what the venue will make as well. I was really grateful I didn’t have to think twice about anyone on my team being supportive of this. I feel very lucky to be surrounded with people who get it.
I tweeted, “If you’re not cool with me doing this, don’t come to the shows.” Maybe that came off as a little confrontational. I am pissed. I’m pissed at the politicians. But I’m not pissed at people who are misguided — that’s just what their combination of information has led them to believe. I believe people are capable of change. I don’t think it’s useful to blanket-statement hate Texans. I’m really angry at these laws. They are hateful and evil. But you have to believe that people are capable of change, and having experiences that lead them to care about people more, instead of less. I don’t think I can believe otherwise.
NEWS
Supergrass are teasing an upcoming announcement with fans, according to a new post.
The British band, fronted by Gaz Coombes, shared a cryptic new post across their social media channels this morning (September 13), suggesting to fans that a new announcement is on the way.
Posted at 9am BST, the post simply shared artwork of the band’s logo in red, alongside next Monday’s date, September 16. In the caption, the band simply wrote: “Sign up now”, alongside a link to their website’s homepage.
Upon clicking the link, the page prompts fans to sign up for future updates, and asks them to input both their email address and the country they live in. Check out the post below.
While details on the announcement remain sparse, the post has already caught fans’ attention, with some speculating that the news could be around the upcoming 30th anniversary of their debut album, ‘I Should Coco’.
Released in May 1995, the release marked the record that first put the band on the map, and contained singles ‘Mansize Rooster’, ‘Caught By The Fuzz, ‘Lose It’ and ‘Lenny’. It also saw Coombes and Co. nominated at the 1995 Mercury Prize, and contained what would soon become their biggest track to date, the Ivor-Novello winning ‘Alright’.
At time of writing, the band haven’t shared any further indication as to whether the announcement is related to the huge upcoming milestone – whether it be an anniversary tour or reissue – nor whether it has anything to do with new music that could be on the way.
The band’s last studio album was ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’, which arrived in 2008. Since then, they have shared remastered versions of both their 1999 self-titled album and their 2003 record ‘Life On Other Planets’.
In other news around the band, last year it was reported that the band’s frontman joined Johnny Marr onstage last month to perform The Smiths‘ classic ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ at Lakefest 2023.
Before then, Coombes opened up about how “nervous” he was about reuniting Supergrass following the success of his solo albums.
Supergrass split up in 2010 but reunited for a series of live shows in 2019. They released a live album in 2020, Live On Other Planets, to celebrate their 25th anniversary and raise money for grassroots venues affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Having got into a flow and the last two albums having done so well, it seemed a bit odd, like a backward step,” he said. “But then I was confident that I could operate both things together and it seems that I did, because I was obviously writing this record mainly during the reunion so I feel like I made best use of both things.”
Coombes’ fourth solo album, ‘Turn The Car Around’, came out in January of last year.
