Bassoonist-composer Joy Guidry is on a roll: In February they released their latest album, “Radical Acceptance”; they were the winner of the 2021 Berlin Prize for Young Artists; they will be starting a doctoral program in bassoon in the fall at the University of California San Diego. Guidry’s work extends beyond performing, composing, and improvising; they also founded Sounds of the African Diaspora, an initiative working to secure access to space and resources for composers from the African diaspora. Guidry’s own music is electroacoustic and ethereal, and frequently sonifies stigmatized topics such as mental illness and fatphobia. “Radical Acceptance” weaves together Black feminist thought, particularly the work of bell hooks, with a personal narrative encompassing experiences with psychiatric crisis, romantic turmoil, and family acceptance. Guidry and I met on Zoom to talk about the album and about Guidry’s perspective on tokenization, diversity, and glitch feminism.
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