Gender Envy

🦋 Our April 11 show was a success!! Thank you to everyone who came out, and thank you to for hosting us! 🦋

Shout out to all the amazing musicians who played this show!










bass



javanna



on sound

🦋 🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ ✨️ Get to know us! ✨️ 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌈 🦋

Gender Envy: Who We Are

Gender Envy is a nonprofit organization designed to highlight and support women, trans, and gender-expansive musicians in Illinois.
We were founded in December 2023 by Rebekah Mangles, Cami Proctor, Josh Sweeney, and Abbey Haste.

Now, we consist of a rotating team of organizers, led by Rebekah Mangles. You can check out our posts to meet all our organizers!

Gender Envy: What We Do

Gender Envy hosts shows around Illinois to highlight gender minorities in music, with an emphasis on intersectionality and gender minorities of color. You can find our most recent events on Instagram, Facebook, and genderenvy.org

Long-term, we are hoping to apply for 501(c)3 status in Illinois. You can contact us via direct message or via email at [email protected]!

TONIGHT!! We'll be selling $10 tickets at the door at Meltdown Creative Works!

APRIL 11 FULL LINEUP! Doors at 6, music at 7!

Here's our schedule for Saturday:

M0j0: 7-7:25 pm
Ms. Jones: 7:30-7:55 pm
FURY: 8-8:30 pm
Jam session: 8:35-9:10 pm*
Channel Seven: 9:15-10 pm
Melo the Generational Hero : 10:15-11 pm

*The jam session will be a time for musicians (including attendees) to jam out on their instruments together! It will be unstructured time for about half an hour between sets. If you'd like to join, you can bring your own instrument and we'll plug you in to the PA system! Or feel free to bring an amp. A drum kit will be available for use, though please make sure you don't alter the tuning. We prefer experienced drummers on the drum kit specifically.

Who are you most excited to see on Saturday? Tell us in the comments below!

It's time to talk about accessibility for our April 11 Show! Thanks to our sponsor, COVID-Safe CU, for sponsoring us with masks and air purifiers!

This will be a mask-encouraged event. COVID impacts marginalized communities, including people of color and the LGBTQ+ community, disproportionately. Let's keep our community safe! will be providing free masks at the door, as well as supplying air purifiers around the venue.

The venue, Meltdown Creative Works, is accessible to wheelchairs and mobility aids. There are no stairs to access the venue. There are 2 all-gender restrooms at Meltdown with multiple stalls in each of them.

This is an all ages show, so please be respectful!
Drugs and smoking are not allowed inside, but you may bring your own beverages, including alcoholic beverages. No glass bottles inside the venue space, please.

We at Gender Envy do not tolerate harassment of any kind. Be cool, be kind, or be kicked out! If you feel unsafe, you can talk to one of the organizers (see our organizer posts to get to know us).

Please respect the space! Meltdown is an organization that operates outside of this show! Lastly, remember to have fun! It's easy to have fun when our community is kind, cooperative and safe!

Thank you again to our sponsor !

If you have any accessibility related questions for us, don't hesitate to reach out!

Gender Envy would like to thank its sponsors, McLean County Arts Center and Bitter Jester Music Festival!

McLean County Arts Center encourages and promotes the appreciation, study, cultivation, development, and practice of art for the benefit of all the people, cultures, and communities of McLean County! Thank you for sponsoring us!

Bitter Jester Music Festival is the nation's oldest and largest professional multi-state music competition for emerging bands and solo artists. They are accepting submissions till April 15 for this year's music festival competition, from solo artists under 22 and bands with at least half their members under 22! Their finale is in Chicago every year, and they receive international submissions. You do not want to miss this! Go check out Bitter Jester Music Festival and apply now!

🖼 Photos on slides 3, 8, and 12 by Phil Bach

🖼 Photos on slides 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 13 by Kamaron Farver

🎵 Artists from last year's Bitter Jester Music Fest are listed in the photo captions!

🎉 We'd like to thank our sponsors, Nomad Theatre Company and Ecology Action Center! 🎉

🦋 Nomad Theatre's mission is to provide an immersive theatre experience by exposing audience members to eclectic and moving stories, taking theatre outside of a traditional theatre space and into site-specific locations. Check out their website and social media to hear about upcoming auditions, shows, and play submissions! 🦋

🦋 Ecology Action Center is the nonprofit environmental sustainability agency for Bloomington, Normal, and McLean County, Illinois. They do some great work so go follow them! 🦋

Our April 11 show is fast approaching! We can't wait to see you there at Meltdown Creative Works in Bloomington! ❤️🌈🎵

🎵 We'd like to thank our sponsors, Hip Cat Music School and Prairie Pride Coalition! 🎵

Hip Cat Music School offers private music instruction to all age groups, from beginner to advanced. They provide a peaceful, welcoming and inclusive environment to experience the joy of making music. Huge shoutout to them for sponsoring us again this year! Go follow them at Hip Cat Music School!🌈

Prairie Pride Coalition pledges itself to the awakening of compassion and understanding among all peoples. They strive to foster mutual respect regardless of sexual orientation, creed, race, gender, gender identity, or physical ability through outreach and education. They are also a recurring donor, thank you Prairie Pride Coalition! They offer some amazing gender-affirming resources, so go follow them! 🌈

We're less than a week out from our April 11 show, so don't forget to go buy tickets! Advance tickets are $7 and day of tickets are $10. We can't wait to see you there!

🎉 Gender Envy would like to thank its sponsors, WEFT Community Radio and Bobzbay Books! 🎉

WEFT Radio, based in Champaign-Urbana, is an independent, commercial-free radio station powered by volunteers and sustained by listeners just like you! They're currently doing a donation drive, so please consider donating to them! And give them a follow .1fm!

Bobzbay Books is an LGBTQ+ woman-owned independent bookstore located in the artistic and entrepreneurial area of Bloomington, IL. We are doing a profit-share day with them on 5/26, so keep your eyes peeled for that! Go give Bobzbay a follow !

Don't forget to buy your tickets for our April 11 show! https://www.tickpick.com/organizer/event/midwest-vibes-hip-hop-and-jazz-showcase-96564517

💖🌈 BIG shoutout to our Primary Sponsor, Coalescence Theatre Project! 🌈💖

Coalescence Theatre's mission is to utilize theatre to understand, acknowledge, and dismantle all forms of systemic oppression as they explore identity and their place in a global community.

We LOVE Coalescence Theatre Project and want to thank them for their generosity that makes our April 11 show possible! Go follow and check out their upcoming shows in Illinois!

🏳️‍⚧️ Lastly, happy (belated) Trans Day of Visibility to everyone trans, nonbinary, genderq***r, genderfluid, all y'all! 🎉🎊🎉 We celebrate you and we love you 🏳️‍⚧️

✨️ Meet Rebekah, the third organizer for our April 11 show! ✨️

Rebekah Mangles (they/she) is a musician, organizer, and event coordinator. They are passionate about writing music to fight fascism and performing it with their band .the.handshakes. They have organized events for Gender Envy since the very beginning, in 2023. is also passionate about making inclusive spaces for q***r people, trans people, and BIPOC via their work with Gender Envy. They look forward to seeing you on April 11 at !

🦋 You can find tickets in our bio! $7 advance tickets are on sale now. See you there, lovelies! 🦋