About
Hi, my name is Dr. Maggie Rizzi.
I am a philosopher, musician, educator, writer, and documentary film maker.
I am currently working on a documentary series about Ann Maguire and a Circle of Heroes, some of the greatest heroes that you have never heard of. But chances are you have been impacted by their work. It is an important American political success story waiting to be told.
I am honored and thrilled to be able to tell it, now particularly, when a new generation of activists needs a successful road map for the next wave of social justice movement.
The Personal Is Political
I grew up in New York City, a great place to live and learn. The bustle, the culture, the bigness and vibrancy of it all, was a preparation for any and everything. And I had a family that could help me take advantage of this.
I was quite young when I realized that my orientation was not the straight one of so many people around me. I was lucky enough to grow up and come out as a Lesbian during the early 1970’s when there were many stirrings of the post Stonewall LGBT rights movement, especially in Massachusetts where I chose to go to college.
It was here that I met Ann Maguire, and learned about the Gay Academic Union, the Gay Community News, the gatherings at the Charles St. Meeting House, the Elaine Noble campaign, the Gay Way radio show, the bars where men and women gathered and could be themselves. I was younger than Ann and Elaine, and so many of the others whose stories I am now in the process of collecting, but I was old enough to participate in what they had started, and to see the early tide gain strength.
It was only when I saw this work reflected back to me by my British wife, whom I met in 1990, that I realized I had taken for granted the great social change I had witnessed at such close range. It was she who marveled at what had been accomplished and gave me that perspective of an outsider. I understood then that the story had to be told.
How some things become history and others don’t is a study in itself, rooted in who holds the power in a culture. Even now the stories of this remarkable and successful change work have not made it into the mainstream annals of history. Through this documentary, that is about to change.
Philosophy – ‘Annex Every Age Into Our Own’
As someone interested in the big questions from an early age, I chose to study philosophy as an adolescent and undergraduate. I wanted to know, ‘What is good?,’ truth? “beauty?’ ‘what do we do with the life we have?’ At the age of 15 I discovered Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, and found some of my favorite insights into those things. Unlike so many readers, I delighted in every page. The book became my constant companion, and a few years later I earned a BA in Philosophy from Clark University.
Even before I read Seneca’s prompt, quoted above, I knew it was true: we are smarter and richer if we use the wisdom and experience of those who came before us. In part, this belief drives my need to record the stories in this series.
And while there are many ways one can pursue the major lifelong questions, for me, the transcendent universal language of music, and the connections we make through it, were always going to play a central role.
All that Jazz
My father taught me to play guitar when I was eight years old and I have been playing music ever since. When I was 20 a friend gave me a bass, a set of lessons, and her place in a band she was leaving. Thus began my life as a professional bass player.
My musical path has included a Masters from New England Conservatory, many bands and recordings, and continues, reinvigorated, as I now live in Rhode Island,here the vibrant music scene provides many opportunities for our band to perform.
While I love funk, rock, blues and show music, and play them a lot, I quickly realized that Jazz is the most fun for the player: everyone takes turns in a supporting and a featured role, you never play a piece the same way twice, and even the bassist gets to solo. Unlike classical music, where everyone plays a set sheet while being led by one person at the front, in Jazz, all players are pretty much equal, and the music is an egalitarian conversation.
It was immediately apparent that there were not many women in the profession. Everyplace I played, there were comments on the novelty of a “girl bass player.” I often heard “You’re good for a girl,” either explicitly or implied. I still do. As you can’t prove a negative, I will never know what opportunities my gender closed for me, and I never dwelled on that. But I never forgot it either.
Those That Do, Teach
As I studied Jazz, I learned from my teachers that older players taught younger players, and that this apprenticeship style of learning survived, even as the formal study of jazz was adopted by universities. Inside and outside the walls of academia, this beautiful ancient tradition remains, hiding in plain sight. Studio teaching of bass and guitar was my entrée into the world of education, a world I have never left.
One day I was invited to teach a class in a high school for challenged teenagers. They were challenging as well, but love, faith, and respect helped them blossom, and to music teaching I added photography, historical research, social history, and English.
Since I had a Bachelors in Philosophy and a Masters in Music, I decided to do my Doctorate in Education, honoring the other side of my working life. As a part of that journey I taught group instruments and Jazz history to university students, and mentored and supervised student teachers.
Eventually, I left the classroom to become a leader, designing systems and teaching teachers, thereby reaching more students. My primary role as the Superintendent of Schools in the town of Stoughton is to get the teachers what they need: the resources, the training, the time and space to be their best.
I will shortly be moving on from the world of education, but I know that teaching is something I will never really leave entirely, there are so many forms it can take.
Telling the Untold Stories
Thanks to the amazing Lee Indrisano at Boston University I was able to do a non-traditional doctoral dissertation that was about the experiences of 16 women Jazz musicians and how they were able to succeed, told in their own voices. I recorded their interviews, and each of them was rich, engaging, and uniquely beautiful, full of insight and sharing. Every woman vividly described exactly what elements of her education and which actions of her teachers helped her overcome the obstacles. The dissertation is posted here on the website under another tab, a collection of multidimensional stories.
The relational experience of storytelling is as powerful now as it was thousands of years ago. My evolving relationship with documentary film making is an extension of this process to which I have long been drawn.
It was a natural move into video as a way to record some of my more innovative concert projects, including a unique presentation of a Gounod Mass, and a big band concert set in the context of Big Band history. I did videos for some of my musical friends, and then as an educational leader I began making videos about notable aspects of our work.
It’s Not a Movie, It’s a Movement …Join the Journey
My current project, the documentary series and related feature screenplay about Ann Maguire and her circle, brings all of the aspects of my work and life together.
It can be easy to read about great people, prodigious achievements, famous moments in history and see the people in those stories as different from us. But are they really?
What I have learned from the Circle of Heroes is that greatness, among other things, is a choice. To write this invisible history and inspire a new generation is a choice I am making.
You can participate in this work.
I am currently engaged in fundraising and finding collaborators to get the documentary series and the feature made and distributed to a mass audience.
If you think you can help in some way please contact me through the website.
You can also become part of our community via email, Facebook and Twitter.
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