UPRISING: Songs of Change at Balboa Theatre

This fundraising concert, featuring the San Diego Women’s Chorus and special guest legendary songwriter Janis Ian, will benefit SDWC and the Lesbian Health Initiative at the San Diego Human Dignity Foundation

JANIS IAN – Now in her fifth decade of writing songs and performing, Janis Ian received her most recent Grammy nomination in 2016, making a total of 10 nominations over the years in 8 categories! (She lost to President Jimmy Carter.) Her last Grammy Award, presented at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony, was for Best Spoken Word Album for her audio book “Society’s Child” (Audible.com). She had stiff competition — President Bill Clinton, First Lady Michelle Obama, Rachel Maddow and Ellen DeGeneres. When she won, she sincerely considered it to be a “stunning upset.” With her inimitable sense of humor, she went on to say “There must be a joke in here somewhere. An ex-president, a First Lady and three lesbians go into a bar…”

On a more serious note, she said, “We artists are the last alchemists, pulling your dreams, your hopes, your deepest desires out of thin air, and turning them into something you can hear, and play, and sing. We don’t sell music. We sell dreams.”