For all of its charm and beauty, Vermont has struggled to be a place of acceptance for people who are not, you know, white-skinned. Look, does anyone really need me, a middle-aged white dude, to tell them that Vermont isn’t the most diverse spot on the map? Well, I was going to say no. But singer-songwriter and journalist Myra Flynn had some other thoughts about that when we talked last week ahead of her career-defining gig as a Burlington Discover Jazz Festival headliner. She plays the Flynn Main Stage on Sunday, June 11, the festival’s closing night.
I had asked Flynn if she ever found it difficult to reconcile the urge to entertain with the urge to educate when she performed.
“It’s actually not my job to educate anyone when I’m performing,” she replied. “It’s my job to put on a good show that moves people. That’s why I keep my musician and journalist hats so separate. And, respectfully, Chris, I think it’s actually more your job to do that sort of education — we need the white males to have a hand in that, too.”
It’s a fair point from Flynn, who can certainly be excused for just wanting to let her music do the talking. The artist, who grew up in Vermont and splits her time between Los Angeles and the Green Mountains, has seen her work as a journalist take center stage of late. A former reporter with the Burlington Free Press, Flynn joined Vermont Public in 2021 as a diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging adviser and the host and executive producer of the show “Homegoings.” That show, recently nominated for a New England Emmy Award, has been green-lit as a podcast nationally syndicated by Vermont Public.
Flynn is also filming a five-part Vermont Public television series based on her podcast — which is why, during our Zoom conversation, she was fully made-up and looked significantly more camera-ready than yours truly.
“I’ve got makeup caked on right now,” Flynn said with a laugh. “I’m sort of all over the place, but it feels really incredible right now. I’m a mom; I’m headlining jazz fest; I’ve got a new album coming out. I’m wildly blessed and wildly stressed.”
Indeed, Flynn is taking big steps in 2023, in both journalism and music. For her fifth record, Shadow Work, she has planned the mother of all release shows: headlining the jazz fest at the theater that shares her name. It’s a moment of arrival for a woman who has spent two decades making music in Vermont, looking at that stage with increasing hunger.
The chance to get on the Flynn Main Stage came after she played a kids’ show at the smaller Flynn Space. Flynn executive director Jay Wahl approached the singer to introduce himself. She took her chance.
“I said, ‘Jay! Put me on your main stage, man. Let me shoot my shot. I can do this,'” Flynn recalled. “And I’m so happy I did that, because as I’ve gotten to know Jay, I’ve seen how he’s prioritizing getting Black bodies on that stage, which is so awesome and desperately needed here.”
Flynn is fiercely proud of the opportunity. She bristled at some of the grousing she’s heard from musicians about the new look of the jazz fest, which slimmed down from 10 days to five this year.
“I know there are rumblings in the community about the fest this year,” she said. “I wonder if it’s because the older guard is feeling pushed back. Is it because the fest is shorter this year … or is it because there are Black bodies rocking on that stage for the second year in a row? Because some of the coded language I’ve seen is that the jazz fest isn’t having any local talent this year. And I’m like, ‘Hello, uh, what am I?'”
Flynn, who flies between LA and Vermont multiple times a year, pointed out a reason she’s only a part-time resident these days.
“There are a lot of similarities between music and journalism,” Flynn said. “But in the world of journalism, you want to be heard and not seen. Because it can touch on some scary stuff, where it’s not really safe to be accessible. That fed a lot into my decision to straddle two coasts.
“Look, my beat is race,” she continued. “So imagine if you had a website with a location of where you’d be publicly for people who didn’t agree with what you said.”
One need look no further than what happened to Kiah Morris in 2018 for an example of racism in Vermont in action. The former Vermont state representative, who is Black, decided not to run for a third term after a campaign of racist threats were lobbed against her and her family. Flynn, whose daughter, Avalon, was born in 2021, is wary of encountering similar dangers because of her work as a journalist.
“I want to report on race in Vermont, and I want us to get better. Nobody is going to chase me out of doing that work,” Flynn said. “Vermont is a special place. I hope that one day I can move back permanently, where it feels a little safer. But while I’ve got a little one, who’s been front and center at concerts where problems have happened, that’s not for us right now.”
Flynn sees her upcoming jazz fest headlining gig as a possible blueprint for her career going forward. Given the messy post-pandemic state of touring and the need to devote time to her myriad other endeavors, she would rather appear at a big event than run a leg of smaller tour dates.
“This show at the Flynn is literally my wish list coming true,” she said, beaming. Called “Roar of the Queen,” it will feature a bevy of guest artists, including Phish bassist Mike Gordon, dancer Sage Horsey, guitarist Nick Cassarino, and local saxophone legends Dave Grippo and Joe Moore — not to mention the 30-person Lake Champlain Mass Choir.
The show is a local woman taking her shot, and it’s a beautiful thing to see. I’m not a jazz musician and have never been part of that world, so I’m not going to issue a verdict on what the new-look jazz fest means to a complex and generationally diverse scene based on one show. But I know Flynn is one of us. I’ve seen her grinding on stages across Burlington for 20 years, and it’s about damn time she got to make her move. Props to the Flynn theater for seeing that the time was right.
Myra Flynn performs “Roar of the Queen” on Sunday, June 11, 2 p.m., at the Flynn Main Stage in Burlington as part of the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. $25-50. Her album Shadow Work will be released on all major streaming platforms that day. Learn more at flynnvt.org.
This article appears in The Dairy Issue.
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