Published in The Pen Women Spring 2022 by the National League of American Penwomen.
Edited by Marcia Dunscomb
Six Keys to Success for Women Musicians
Writing
Thanks, Erica Manfred!
Why start a business?
In 1999, a well-connected politician called me on the phone, early one morning, instructing me to write down a fax number, starting with area code 202 for Washington, D.C. I knew it was important.
She asked me if I had a company and an Employee Identification Number (EIN) or tax ID number. I said I did. She said, “Write a blues about the 2000 census. Fax it with an invoice for $2,499 on your letterhead to the number I gave you.
One hour later, I sent the CENSUS BLUES to the U.S. Census Bureau to the attention of the person connected to my politician friend. I got paid because I could compose music and I had a corporate EIN.
One of the first documents I give my Speech Communication students is a handout entitled HOW TO START A BUSINESS.
How to start a business
- Choose Your Business Name, Inc. (or LLC) and decide if you will be: (30 minutes)
- For profit
- Non profit
- Product or Service (for profit) or Mission Statement (non-profit)
- Go to www.sunbiz.org to apply for incorporation $78 – 82 (20 minutes)
- For profit must have a president (you)
- Non-profit must have President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Also may have a resident agent, if the officers live in another state.
- Get an Employer Identification Number (EIN or Tax ID #) from www.irs.gov (10 minutes)
- Open a Bank Account (take Certificate of Status + EIN + $100)
- Liability Insurance (optional)
- Order business cards, website, telephone number, and business address (optional or home)
- Set up PayPal, Square, or another method to invoice your customers
- PayPal $150 corporate tax before April 30 each year at www.sunbiz.org
- On May 1st the penalty is $400 for filing your annual report late for a total of $550. So pay by April 30th!
Contact:
Dr. Cartwright
954-740-3398
I was in business for two years before I got that call. My company was not making much money. If I got a check for singing, I put it in my business account. I paid the corporate tax and filed a tax return as a sole proprietor most years. My company grew because of the music I recorded and books I published. I got substantial orders from school principals for one or more of my books. In 2007, I incorporated my non-profit organization and became a lecturer, presenter, and producer of several programs. After releasing my two personal CDs in 1995 and 2005, I produced eight compilation CDs of music from members of http://wijsf.org
In 2019, we published the first issue of Musicwoman Magazine. In 2020, we published the second issue and the first issue of Musicman Magazine. In 2021, We published both magazines, individually, and a flip book of both magazines.
There is no doubt in my mind that having a business has been beneficial to me and our 380 members!
Blues Women: First Civil Rights Workers
On Being a Woman in Jazz
My response to Andromeda Turre who asked me what it means to be a woman in jazz.
Being a woman in jazz is the crux of my existence. 70 years ago, I sang Somebody Loves Me, onstage. The footlights mesmerized me. But the music captured my heart. In my later years, promoting women musicians, globally, is my mission for Women in Jazz South Florida, Inc. Visit us at www.wijsf.org
From 4 to 67, Joan sang her songs and those from the Great American Songbook
Diva JC in Pensacola
Bookstores
A Vision for Books and Bookstores
We see a world where we, the people, no longer buy into the lie that the booksellers have been handing us about providing us with what we’re wanting to read – because we’ve now realized, beyond all doubt, that they’ve been providing us with what they want us to read in order to satisfy their own self-serving purposes.
Thus, we see a world where bookstores have changed their priorities entirely, so that now when you walk into a bookstore, the books which are most likely to bring you happiness and fulfillment are displayed prominently in the front of the store – while the books which were written solely for the purpose of frightening you or lining the author’s pockets are relegated to the obscure shelves in the back of the store.
We also see children’s books, now, written and distributed so that the child’s highest and best interests are served; and where the subject matter of these books is meant, not to subtly encourage our children to become better consumers, conformers, or soldiers, but to encourage them to be more resourceful, creative, and free-thinking people.
And finally, we see a world where authors, publishers, and booksellers alike have all moved away from praising and offering us stark tragedies. Now they have lightened up and filled the shelves with books that are meant to help us, books that warm our hearts, and books that have happy endings.
Owning Jazz
While whites in the jazz music industry got rich, black musicians did not reap equal benefits. The industry caused a great deal of exploitation and discrimination by whites against blacks. Rex Stewart said, “Where the control is, the money is. Do you see any of us running any record companies, booking agencies, radio stations, music magazines?” (Kofsky, 1998, p. 19).
[Source and References: https://www.york.cuny.edu/academics/writing-program/the-york-scholar-1/volume-6.1-fall-2009/the-social-effects-of-jazz]
Linked from the blog post: Who owns Jazz?
It’s 2020! It’s 22 years since Frank Kofsky recorded Rex Stewart’s quote. The part about controlling a music magazine is fulfilled in www.musicwomanmagazine.com
I own Musicwoman Magazine. I envisioned it, planned it, funded it, and created it.
The second issue is publishing in Spring 2020.
I am humbled by this accomplishment that enables me to create the narrative for and about women musicians, especially, women musicians of color who bring so much love, joy, and talent to the world.
Surf our site at www.wijsf.org where we promote women musicians, globally!
All the best in 2020!
Dr. Diva JC
Honors and Progress
Throughout the years, several people and organizations have felt me worthy of being honored. Those moments are documented here.
Priscilla Dames (right) of Wingspan Seminars in Miami, FL nominated
Joan Cartwright for the 2011 Pea’ce Award.
Thanks to Howard Mandel and Laurie Dapice for honoring me as a 2019 Jazz Journalist Association (JJA) Jazz Hero.
Thanks to Brian Zimmerman, Digital Editor of Jazziz Magazine for presenting the award. Thanks to Marika Guyton for organizing the award ceremony. Photos: Gregory Reed
Thanks to Old Dillard Foundation for partnering with Women in Jazz South Florida, Inc. for this program
The universe provides. Last week I got the news that the Speech class I taught for 3 years is moving online, leaving me without income in June-July. I cried. I felt helpless. However, as things always go, I have the opportunity to teach 3 classes at PBSC in Palm Beach Gardens, starting May 15, through the summer.
JJA Jazz Hero
The Jazz Journalists Association is pleased to announce the 2019 Jazz Heroes: Advocates, altruists, activists, aiders, and abettors of jazz who have had a significant impact in their local communities. The ‘Jazz Hero’ awards, made annually on the basis of nominations from community members, are presented by their local fans and friends in conjunction with the JJA’s annual Jazz Awards honoring significant achievements in jazz music and journalism. Please spread the word of Jazz Heroes you know as neighbors and admire, via your own social media posts. See all JJA Jazz Awards for 2019 Jazz Heroes
Dr. Joan Cartwright
2019 South Florida Jazz Hero
Dr. Joan Cartwright is a professor of Speech Communication at Southeastern College in West Palm Beach, Florida and in 2017 completed her Doctorate in Business Administration/ Marketing (DBA) at Northcentral University in Arizona, but it’s for her writing, composing, lecturing, producing, research and documentation concerning women composers (especially) in jazz and blues, and for her founding in 2007 of the non-profit Women In Jazz South Florida, Inc., that the Jazz Journalists Association hails her as 2019 South Florida Jazz Hero.
Dr. Cartwright is clearly a person of many parts and high energy. In the 12 years of its existence, WIJSF has released six compilation albums, comprising 63 songs from 45 women composers. Since 2008, she has hosted 300 episodes on MUSICWOMAN Radio, published four Catalogs of Women in Arts & Business and Musicwoman Magazine’s premier edition. She has published 14 books with her own FYI Communications, Inc. on lulu.com. She is an ASCAP-affiliated publisher and songwriter, a member of National League of American Pen Women, and through WIJSF maintains international relations with diverse peer groups. She blogs and has contributed to the South Florida Times, In Focus Magazine, Global Woman Magazine and Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora. She has an impressive array of academic accreditations and has been honored by several professional associations. But one senses that the devotion of her WIJSF members, and the continuous support of her daughter Mimi Johnson, with whom she owns MJTV Network (“Positive Influential Television”), is based on personal qualities that imbue her larger projects.
Among those is a goal to build the Musicwoman Archive to house the musical and literary works of women musicians and provide performance and educational center where women musicians can thrive. In educational workshops Dr. Cartwright presents, which highlight the pitfalls and benefits of the music business, she insists that “Knowing music theory is a step in the right direction for any singer who truly wants to excel in the world of music!” Yet her own breadth of endeavors — acting, singing, media creation, marketing, advertising, public speaking, and public relations skills as well as command of theory are arrows in her quiver — attests to the reach she models for all women, all artists, anyone whose ambitions extend to being creative, innovative, expressive, self-realized, in the moment while communing with others, sharing experience, telling truth, seeking beauty — in other words, living as a Jazz Hero. ~ Howard Mandel
Dr. Cartwright will receive her JJA Jazz Heroes Award on April 25, 2019 at this event
Dr. Diva JC - Scholar . Teacher . Author 