BY CABBAGE SAUCE

Inside the Kinzie Corridor office building, Editor Amy Schroeder creates her masterpiece Venus Zine, a feminist music magazine with a focus on women in art, film and DIY culture. The zine began ten years ago in Amy’s Michigan State University dorm room as a personal zine about her college life. When she moved to Chicago four years ago, she quit her day job and added a music focus to the magazine.

The challenging part of interviewing a musician, according to Amy, is their busy touring schedules. For example, the first time she interviewed Le Tigre was back in 2001. She had scheduled a phone interview for September 11. “I woke up that morning was nervous, excited to interview Le Tigre, one of my favorite bands,” says Schroeder. “And then obviously September 11th happened and I couldn’t get a hold of them. I knew they lived in Manhattan and it was very scary, their phone lines were down, and I thought, ‘Are they alive? I don’t know.’” Weeks later, the interview took place. “A lot of the interview talks about what happened September 11th and their experience with it. And I think that was a good experience for an interview.”

During her ten years with Venus, Amy has acquired an array of influences. Some of her influences are feminist authors Gloria Steinem, bell hooks, Gloria Anzaldúa, Bella Abzug. She believes feminist authors taught her how to be a critical thinker and how to look at all sides of an issue and never assume anything. “I’m now always encouraging all our writers and interns to second guess everything, fact-check everything and really think about it.” She was also influenced by a lot of the Riot Grrl bands, Aretha Franklin, Tori Amos, Sleater-Kinney, and Stereolab. In addition to the Chicago zine Punk Planet, which has recently expanded into a book publishing business.

Not only the founder and editor of Venus, Amy was also the music coordinator of Chicago’s Ladyfest. After writing freelance articles about the original Lady Fest in Olympia, Washington, she got joined Chicago’s own Ladyfest and became the music coordinator. With 100 bands, such as Le Tigre and Tracy and the Plastics, playing in 16 venues it became the largest LF to date. The festival also included film clips, workshops, spoken word and visual art.

Venus is a unique feminist magazine because they refuse to establish rules and standards as to what is a feminist. “I define feminism as a movement of philosophy that says women are equal to men and men are equal to women,” Schroeder clarifies. “Venus is definitely pro-feminist, pro-women …A lot of artists we cover consider themselves feminist or pro-feminist. Some of them do not, but we’re not going to exclude them because they don’t consider themselves feminist. For example, PJ Harvey does not agree with feminism. I don’t like that, but I like PJ Harvey. I like her music and her work. I think she has amazing things to say and she’s incredibly brilliant. So of course we’ll cover her.” One of her favorite quotes about feminism is Bella Abzug’s, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.”

Amy says, “I actually wish that Venus didn’t need to exist, because if the world were a more equal place and if other music publications covered all the women we cover, then Venus would not have to exist ... That would mean that we’re getting somewhere.” She also dreams of a radio program and a TV show, which showcase women in art, music, small business and politics, but in order to get those dreams accomplished Venus would require more staff. But Schroeder is optimistic when she says, “If we could sell more ads, sell more subscriptions, we’d be able to hire another person to work part-time or full-time to get those other projects going.”

“My advice for people who want to be artists is perseverance; you’ve got to stick with it,” Amy says. “Like Miranda July, the filmmaker who made Me and You and Everyone We Know. It took her a long time to get to where she’s at now with this big film, but she stuck with it even when she had no budget. And as far as holding on to your feminist beliefs, if it’s important to you then you should do everything to hold on to it.”