Pretty Loud: We don’t have a state, we have the whole world
The girls whose music is their strongest weapon against patriarchy.
Silva Sinani and Zlata Ristić found their voice as members of the girl band Pretty Loud, talking about feminism, and the inequality that surrounds them. Photo: Courtesy of Pretty Loud.
Silvia: I became a member of Grubb by accident. I didn’t even know what it was, what they were fighting for. You are probably aware that our Romani weddings are big, and I used to dance at those weddings. A colleague of mine worked at Grubb as a teacher and invited me to come dance in their venues. It seemed interesting to me, so I stayed.I later found out that they have a director from Canada who is traveling, has their own musicals, talks about prejudices and the discrimination they are combating. That was interesting to me because I’m doing what I love, and I’m also fighting for the Romani people. When I’m on stage, it’s not only myself that I’m representing, because I represent all the Romani. Ten years ago, they offered me the chance to become a dance teacher and transfer the knowledge I obtained.
When they asked us if we wanted to have our band, we said yes, and then we decided it would be a women's band.
It's our goal to reach as far as possible, not only to the Roma people but to change people's attitudes toward Roma.
It doesn't matter who you were in the past. You should look to the future and fight for your wishes.
Dejan Kožul
Dejan Kožul is a journalist working for various media in Yugoslav space (Novosti, Lupiga, FTV, etc). For more than eight years he was the editor and anchor for the radio show KUPER which was broadcast on BH Radio, Radio Republika (Novi Sad), Radio Rojc (Pula), KLFM (Split), and Radio Apart (Beograd). He describes it as the territory with the most freedom and the ability to broadcast because there are no taboos.
This story was originally written in Serbian.