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Trailblazer 'DJ Lady D' making waves across Chicago
This Women's History Month, we're meeting talented women who have shaped the DJ business in Chicago and beyond.
CHICAGO - This Women's History Month, we are spotlighting talented women who have shaped the DJ business in Chicago and beyond.
Darlene Jackson takes her role as a mentor of young talent very seriously.
"So, I think that the next generation has a lot in front of them to consider and my hopes for them are that they always fall back to the foundations," said Darlene Jackson, DJ Lady D.
She serves as a creative industry liaison at Columbia College Chicago, but her career as a DJ dates back to her time as a high school student at Whitney Young.
"There was the explosion of house music around Chicago and a lot of my friends were DJs and had DJ equipment," said DJ Lady D.
Jackson gave podiatry school a try for a time, but the music kept calling her back, leading to her first paid booking as a DJ in 1995.
"After that, it was like a snowball effect and I just got booked all over the city and then started getting invitations to play across the Midwest and all across North America. So it really expanded," said DJ Lady D.
Jackson would go on to be a founding member of "Super Jane" in 1997, an all-women DJ collective.
"Some people recognize us as America's first all-woman DJ collective," said DJ Lady D. "The idea was that, you know, your ears don't know gender, and so we could bring our own approach and our own techniques to the game, and play together so that people got the idea that being a woman and a DJ is not a foreign concept."
Heather Robinson is another founding member of "Super Jane." She got into the profession at 19 or 20 years old, playing music at a small bar in Wicker Park.
"We were friends. Friends who DJ'd. Friends who really enjoyed going to parties and events and stuff. We thought, 'We really enjoy this. Why don't we put on events ourselves? Because some of us aren't getting a chance to play as often,'" said DJ Heather.
DJ Heather took FOX 32 Chicago behind the music, demonstrating how she puts a set list together and discussed the meaning behind the name, "Super Jane."
"One of the partners in the collective came up with the name 'Super Jane' because it was kind of a moniker of the every woman, which is being extra but known as Jane, which can be kind of a derogatory way to speak of women, but putting the super ahead of it, it kind of had a different kind of take," said DJ Heather.
Super Jane went on to leave quite a legacy on the Chicago music community and toured across the U.S. They will soon celebrate 25 years together.
"Over time, we've heard quite a few women say, ‘I started DJing because of you guys,’" said DJ Heather. "I was inspired because you guys were just doing your thing, so I wanted to do that too."
"Even though some of us live on the West Coast now, some of us are still in Chicago. We try to get together at least every five years to celebrate our anniversary. And so that's always a good time. That is always something we look forward to," said DJ Lady D.
DJ Lady D and DJ Heather say they feel their role as DJs is all about bringing joy to an event and elevating the mood of the room through music.
"In essence, it's a party. So you're responsible for a good time," said DJ Heather. "When everyone is having a good time, that energy is translational."
"So there's no other — no other feeling. No other better feeling to me in doing what I do than watching people come alive on the dance floor and really achieve a state of liberation," said DJ Lady D.
The love of bringing joy to a crowd is something that is now being passed on to the next generation of women DJs.
Ayu Eini is a junior at Columbia College Chicago and has big aspirations in the world of music.
"I think the goal is to travel and, you know, share music from all around the world to kind of mix genres together and kind of give the people what they want and what they've never heard before," said Eini.
She hopes to one day be a mentor like those who are now teaching and encouraging her.
So, what's the top advice for the next generation hoping to break into the business?
"Being consistent and doing good work repetitively will get you where you want to be, and so to always be working on what you do," said DJ Lady D.
"Never forget to have fun. That is clearly the whole reason why you're making music and playing for people," said DJ Heather.
If you want to check out where DJ Heather and DJ Lady D are spinning next, click the links below: