The sound of activism

ABSTRACT A longtime advocate for female empowerment and equality, Boden Sandstrom has worked for political change in many arenas. In the 1960s, she began a career as a librarian, but soon made activism her full-time job, working for feminist, leftist and socialist causes. In the 1970s, she found a way to turn her lifelong passion for music into a career as a sound engineer. Once established in that profession, she began donating her services to political events, marches, demonstrations, and rallies. After thirteen years of running her own company, called Woman Sound,Inc. (later City Sound Productions,Inc.), she turned to the study of ethnomusicology. She is now Program Manager and Lecturer for the Ethnomusicology Program at the University of Maryland, where she is also working on her doctorate in that subject. She continues to freelance as a sound engineer and serve as a technical producer for major events.