Tom Tom Magazine

Tom Tom Magazine™ is the only media company in the world dedicated to female and gender non-conforming drummers. We are a full-color quarterly print magazine, website, social media community, irl community, events, and more. Tom Tom is the ultimate go-to guide for the latest information about girl drummers and beat makers around the globe.

We seek to raise awareness about female percussionists from all over the world and hope to inspire women and girls of all ages to drum, all while strengthening and building the community of otherwise fragmented female musicians. We cover drummers of all ages, races, styles, skill levels, sexualities, body sizes, and notoriety. We are also proud producers and creators of the Hit Like a Girl Contest, the only contest for female drummers in the world.

is known by her stage name Madame Gandhi. She is an NYC artist and activist currently based in Los Angeles. Having gained recognition as the former drummer for M.I.A.—and as the iconic free-bleeding runner combatting menstrual stigma at the 2015 London Marathon—Madame Gandhi now writes her own electronic music that elevates and celebrates the female voice. Kiran holds an MBA from Harvard and a BA from Georgetown University.
is a poet, film curator, and drummer born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. She spent her summers steeped in matsuri festivals and was part of the local traditional taiko drumming group. She moved to New York in 2008, and began her first rock band, Bodega Bay, in 2013. She plays the rock kit standing up to incorporate her background in taiko drumming. She plays in multiple bands and is a blogger for Tom TomMagazine.
is in the bands Smoosh and Chaos Chaos; and also plays with Samantha Urbani (the female voice of Blood Orange), with Fred Armisen on Late Night with Seth Meyers, and with Phil Collins in US Open commercials. She has developed her own percussive trademark by combining live drums with the Tempest drum machine and programmed beats.
has been playing the drums with different bands and venues in Ecuador and the U.S for twenty years. “I have been playing the drums for some time, and I want that to last forever until the day I die.”
is a founding teaching member of the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls in N.Y.C; the founder of the NGO Groove Diplomacy; a Cultural Ambassador for the U.S. State Department; and teaches at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Her band, The 13th Amendment?, is an educational collective focusing on the genius of Black American music. She has played drums for The Black Rock Coalition Orchestra, Keziah Jones, Nancy Sinatra (w/ Morrissey), Jr. Mack and Pinetop Perkins, Dr. Lonnie Smith, among many others.
was voted 2014 champion of the “Hit Like a Girl” global drumming competition for female drummers, opening the door for her to perform at PASIC 2014, complete a 3-month tour playing in China and a TRX Cymbals endorsement. She is currently the drummer for No Last Call and 3 churches.
is a multi-instrumentalist and producer artist based out of Albany, NY, and the solo musician behind the project Bell’s Roar. They have performed at the Brooklyn Museum; the University of Pittsburgh, Cornell, and Rutgers; at SXSW, Treefort, and Ladyfest. Much of the work focuses on LGBTQ rights, politics, gender identity, and love. They are signed to Firebrand Records, and have opened for MS MR, Mirah, K Flay, THEESatisfaction, and Chrisette Michele. For more information, visit BELLSROARMUSIC.COM.
is in the rock group Jane; the jazz group Acada; the all-female theatre group 11 Reflections; and the hard rock/experimental band Secret Chiefs 3. She leads music therapy groups for women, utilizing frame-drumming and singing, and has taught music to children in refugee camps in Lebanon via her project, Juthoor. She lectures on Arabic music and percussion, and is the co-founder of the nonprofit NY Arabic Orchestra. For more information, visit APRILDRUMS.COM.
is the founder/creator of Drum Like a Lady and an internationally exhibited artist. Her DRUM4L.I.F.E. workshop has been welcomed by RHD (Resources for Human Development), PEEA (Project Elijah Empowering Autism), and The New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

ARTISTS

The one-day event is an immersive sound installation performed by ten female-identifying drummers, each set up in different locations throughout Mana Contemporary Museum during the Fall 2016 Open House.

Designed to explore the undocumented history of female drummers, the participants are both hidden and visibly featured. They will play simultaneously, out of sight and sound range of each other. The performances begin short and grow longer throughout the day to reflect the growth of female drummers' visibility and presence.

This event seeks to inspire and challenge viewers through their engagement with the musicians. Women and girls are traditionally seen and not heard; here, they are both seen and heard. The artist Itta has painted the drum heads and the drumsticks.