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The Black Box Focuses on Inclusion and Relaunches WCW

The Black Box Focuses on Inclusion and Relaunches WCW

WCW

Owner of The Black Box, Nicole Cacciavillano, revealed the exciting news that they’re bringing back Women Crush Wednesdays. This night is dedicated to women-centric power and creating a safe and inclusive environment for women, cis or not, to be rightfully showcased.

How did the Black Box come up with Women Crush Wednesday?
Being a woman owner, I feel like not enough females, or anyone identifying as female, are in the industry. During WCW, we have a ton of women who come here, who are always inspired to work in the music industry, but I feel like they’re a little bit intimidated, whether it is the back end of business or just DJing in general. We started WCW as a platform where we first started prior to the pandemic. The first Wednesday was a women’s social, and so it was a time for everyone to come and just chill/hang out and come up with ideas, like ‘Do you want to DJ; how can we make it more inclusive, or can we have this women’s business come in and be a vendor for this event?’ It was a brainstorming session.

Then, the second Tuesday was DJ classes. A friend of mine, Katie, would teach small group lessons to get the confidence up. The third Wednesday would be where people would sign up, and they would come and DJ. Most of the time, it would be after a couple lessons or whatnot just to give them an opportunity to play. Finally, the fourth Wednesday, we were doing headliners like a larger scale event. That way, we can provide opportunities for the beginner all the way to the advanced, a place to just play and encourage females to step up and to really just participate, not be afraid. This is a very male-orientated and driven business, you know, but it doesn’t have to be.

Which artists will be on the WCW line up?
On Wednesday, July 21, it will be Lemondoza, Yokai, Ms Toxicc, and Aimerie  playing in the Lounge at The Black Box.

Which artist on this WCW line-up do you resonate with the most? Who kicks ass?
Aimerie is a huge part of WCW and The Black Box studio. She’s an Ableton-certified trainer, and she’s an amazing DJ. She brings a lot to the table when it comes to being able to provide skills to the female population and to any population. Honestly, our studio stuff is not just focused towards females, but I feel like trying to push an encourage females to step up and to get involved, it’s a lot easier when you have a woman, not only running the night with another woman who’s running the DJ classes and the lessons and things, then it’s not as intimidating. I feel like she’s a huge asset.

As far as Yokai, that’s Kylie, she’s one of our bartenders here; she’s been on our street team; she’s been through the gamut of Sub.Mission and The Black Box, and she’s just gained inspiration over being here and wasn’t afraid to take the chance.I think she’s very new to DJing within the past year. And I think her confidence is something that can help the other females in the industry or up-and-coming females take the bull by the horns and just do it. I think that that level of confidence that she exudes is missing in a lot of females, sometimes, myself included. I love being involved with women because I think that type of energy helps everyone. As far as other local women or just women in general, I’m ultimately inspired by everybody who has the balls to get up on stage.

Is this an opportunity for local female DJs around Denver? How can they participate?
Absolutely yes, we have a signup form that we’ll be sharing on our social media. We hope that everyone signs up. They can come out. We are going to be having signups for those DJ lessons that we have here at The Black Box. We also have a studio, so we provide production lessons, and the lead instructor of our studio is also a female. We’re really just hoping to kind of bridge that gap a little bit and just kind of start building a bit of a stronger sense of community.

How frequently do you do WCW? Do you plan on WCW sticking around long term?
We had that scheduled pre pandemic, then the pandemic hit; we were closed down. So, coming back right now, we’re just doing one WCW a month, and that is with all locals, but eventually, we hope to grow into some headliners as well. That’s the plan right now, build up that one night, and then see how that goes because it is a little bit more difficult than you think to get ladies out more than once a month. There are not as many DJs that are stepping forward. So, we just started our signup form again in hopes that we can start collecting some more names, and then as we get more females out and participating, we plan to expand that again.

Is it empowering being a woman and a successful business owner in a male-centric industry?
I’ve never really focused on gender because, for me, it’s about your work ethic. You either do your job or you don’t. With everything within this past year and the year before, with all the call-outs and just how the culture has changed, it’s really drawn my attention more so on how many females actually suffer from being a woman in the industry. Although I feel really thankful and really grateful that I’ve been given this opportunity, and it’s been able to be as successful as possible, I do think behind every successful business is a woman somewhere in there. We just have organizational traits, and I think maybe it’s just what’s necessary in certain businesses and how we handle situations.

As a woman, how do you feel about being able to change the face of music in Denver?
It’s awesome. With Sub.mission, that was my business prior to The Black Box, I was able to build the scene without anyone, without the corporations even knowing who we were, without anything. it was built under a brand rather than myself. As people started realizing that it was run by a woman, that’s when I would start to get a little bit more attention. They were surprised. It was always interesting to meet someone and them being like, oh you own Sub.mission, or you own The Black Box. If anything, I hope to change the fact that this doesn’t have to be a male-focused business. There are tons of females out there capable of doing this job and doing many jobs in the music industry, and hopefully, if anything, I can inspire them. And I wish to work together to build a stronger scene, a more inclusive one.

Do you think women get the recognition they deserve in the industry? If not, would you like to see a change?
I would definitely like to see a change, I think first and foremost, everybody focuses on women’s month to wait, you know, one month a year, and that’s when we start to talk about all the women in the music industry. I think that’s kind of a joke. Honestly, I think that women should be celebrated all year round. I think people should be celebrated all year round, you know, but I definitely think that there are a lot of women out there doing things and pushing boundaries that need to be celebrated and talked about. I think if that happened more, more of these girls would not be so afraid to stand up, apply for positions that they feel like they may not be qualified for or just feel nervous to apply for a job in an agency, a corporation, or just somewhere that’s mostly men. 

Why do you think it’s important to showcase these women?
It’s vital to the industry because if you look at our festival lineups, and our lineups even just within music venues across the country, a lot of those lineups, the percentage of women that are actually performing is extremely, extremely low. I don’t exactly know why, and it kind of baffles me. We hope by providing the experience, the exposure, and the opportunity, that it will help make a shift there.

How does it feel to use your platform to build up other women?
It’s such an important thing; I think that we should be building everyone up, but especially women. Building up other women, we can all be successful doing our own thing. Using any type of platform that you have to be able to help others see success, be successful, be happy and motivated, you know, is the most important thing.

Do you think it’s important to advocate for women artists?
Absolutely, 100 percent. Just even for some of the things that I just said, you know, finding power partners to help who all exhibit different standards, or levels of professionalism, self confidence, or whatever. I think it’s really important to get a group of people together so people can just vibe off each other. I think that what it comes down to with WCW is, we want to provide a safe space, an environment where anyone who can come who comes in, feels like they belong, and that’s kind of like our ethos behind The Black Box. With WCW, obviously, we’re focusing a little bit more on, you know, the females and anyone identifying as female. We want to encourage them to get up on stage, and we want to encourage them to show us what they got, so we can get them on other lineups.

How important do you think it is to create a safe and inclusive space for these women?
It is hands-down the most important. I think that here at The Black Box, we want it to be a safe and inclusive space for everyone. We do not want to discriminate against anyone here. I think it’s really important because obviously in the nightlife scene, we do see a lot of shady shit that happens. Music’s here to heal people, and to be able to have a place where they can come and they don’t have to worry about being harassed for how they’re dressing. I genuinely feel we’ve created a space where you can be who you are, and you should. And that’s it, I mean, that’s the most important for us, it’s like the best part, when I get to stand on the side in the crow’s nest and just look over the crowd and just be like, man, you know, these people aren’t afraid to be themselves, and I think that’s the first step in acceptance. It’s the first step in belonging; it’s the first step in self care, loving yourself and being in a safe place and in a safe environment I think just makes everything so much better.

Anything else you would like to add?
I see a huge shift in humanity after quarantine. People are more aware about issues. I think this is a great time for the ladies to step up, come out, and take charge of what they want to do in life. That life shouldn’t be dictated by what sex you are, by what you’re afraid of, or whatever it may be. We provide a lot of opportunities here for one-on-one lessons, for small-group lessons, and we have our Sunday schools that happen. Same thing with WCW. It’s an inclusive space, and we just would really love to see the women step up this year and come out and not be afraid to take up space and advance their skills to the next level.

WCW will be held in the Lounge at The Black Box on July 21, with doors opening at 8 p.m. Snag tickets for $5 here.

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