A 'Voice' for the people: Staff member promotes activism through music

By Ashley Wiggin

For Susan Lewis Graham, it all began with a trip to Siberia in the late 1970s. While working as a camp counselor at a Soviet youth camp, Susan’s interest in music and grassroots movements was sparked. Working with a group of mostly Russian counselors, she quickly discovered that music was what brought them together.

“We had language barriers, but sharing our music was a great way to get to know each other despite our differences,” said Susan, grants manager in the Department of Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Systems.

Inspired by her experiences in the Soviet Union, Susan partnered with close friend Janet Stecher to create the band Rebel Voices, using guitar and voice to promote issues of social justice through their music.

Born in Rhode Island and raised in a suburb of New York City, Susan came to Seattle after several years pursuing dance in New York City. “The people I met in New York City from Seattle actually wanted to come back here, which was somewhat uncommon,” she said.

After coming to the UW in 1984 and working in the College of Education and Department of Internal Medicine, Susan joined the SoN in the Department of Psychosocial and Community Health in the mid-1990s, where she embraced the academic environment and culture. A few years later, she began working on grants in BNHS. “I immediately liked working at the SoN because of the egalitarian systems in place, as opposed to other units I had worked in,” Susan said.

Susan and Janet travel around the country and internationally, promoting ideas generated through the labor movement in the 1970s. They perform original music as well as songs written by others. Highlights include performing at a Communist festival in Portugal, festivals in England, Seattle-based Bumbershoot and the Vancouver Folk Festival.

On Feb. 6, they will travel to San Francisco to perform at a teachers’ convention, and in late January, they traveled from Portland up through British Columbia. They’ve produced three CDs as Rebel Voices. “I love the ability to make a statement through music,” Susan said. “I am lucky to have an outlet that is so personally satisfying and that makes an impact on other people.”

Susan also makes jewelry and sells it at the Saturday Market near her Vashon Island home. Other hobbies include reading and singing in the Vashon Island Chorale. She and her husband, Mark Graham, have one daughter who recently started at Whitman College.

To learn more about Rebel Voices, please visit: www.rebelvoices.com