Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rachel Richardson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Rachel, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Rachel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have always been a performer. I have sung Jazz in clubs and been a busker of folk songs on Toledo streets. Theater and singing were my comforts as a lonely little kid with only a record player to keep her company and they still are today. I’ve been coordinating murals in Downtown Toledo and surrounding neighborhoods since 2010. My mission is to, as much as possible, marry art and activism by partnering artists with non-profit organizations with a social justice focus. Sometimes, though, I just want to put a beautiful piece of high art on a big wall. I am most proud that murals I have coordinated have become local destinations where once there were parking lots or hallways. In 2012, I coordinated a mural called, “The Love Wall” which was a declaration of support for the LGTBQ community. In the past 12 years, it has become a location for events, press conferences, protests. It is a local icon and if that was the only thing I left as a legacy, that would be enough.  Recently, A team of artists led by me turned a corridor in the Glass CIty Center, our local convention center, into a living exhibit of Jazz history and culture in Toledo. What was once a hallway connecting two buildings is now a venue for performances and programming. The book I co-wrote about sexual harassment: “On Drowning Rats: How Two Women Took Down a Sexual Harasser and How You Can, Too” was a culmination of so many things. Partnering with Cami Roth Szirotnyak to tell our story of being harassed by the same local leader allowed me to look back over my career to see how I overcame professional challenges but was usually able to leave each environment better than I found it, even if at the moment, I felt like it was a failure. It was also a way to look back and realize that my college education actually became relevant even after and especially because I had six majors and ended in Sociology. It’s all sociology.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In the summer of 2015, with funding support from Toledo City Council and The Lucas County Commissioners, I coordinated 22 murals. I did this without any organizational support whatsoever. after having been dropped as a fiscal sponsee by our major arts administration organization due to becoming competition for them, That same summer, I got married and was in the third trimester of pregnancy with my daughter. Once I gave birth, I let my mural career taper off so I could stay home with her and support my husband as he got his Master’s Degree and his career began to skyrocket. In 2018, I went to the major Arts administration organization, which had seen how murals had been taking off and took over where I left a void. I asked them to make good on their mission to empower artists and art-based small businesses by referring me mural opportunities to help me get back in the game and make a living as an artist as I had begun to do before. They did not. They ramped up their own mural-making and offered coordinating jobs to their close circle of homogenous friends and gatekeepers.  In 2021, I supported my husband, also a mural maker, as he applied for an opportunity to have work in our renovated convention center. We put his name on the proposal because of his history of being sought after and my history of being blocked, but the entire concept was conceived of by me and drew on my history and relationships in the Jazz community.   His collaboration with a glass artist and our project managers made the project complete and helped us to get the job.  This project put our relationship to the test.  It is now a celebrated living exhibit paying honor to Jazz in Toledo.  And I will never not put my name on an application ever again. I insist on the gatekeepers dealing with me. I have been made to feel like I was too much and too ambitious and to make myself small. And I will never do that again.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

In 2018, I deleted all social media and went radio silent for 3 years. I was having an identity crisis around becoming a mom and losing my career. In 2021, after being anonymous and invisible on Twitter for several months and only being on there to pretend I was friends with Lin Manuel Miranda and Anais Mitchell, I found myself attracted to and amused by anonymous hot-take accounts. I decided I would do the same thing locally. So, I got back on Facebook with an alias and went on friending sprees. I became friends with thousands of people, some I knew and most I didn’t. I talked about motherhood and social justice. I called out Toledo politics and illuminated my experiences in the non-profit sector. And I did one crucial thing that made all of this possible. I only connected with women only, in order to create a safe space for my sharing and their sharing. Exceptions have been made in the meantime, two of my best guy friends and some who have transitioned and whom I trust. Now, I am connected to over 2500 people, without which, the story of On Drowning Rats would not be possible. Not to mention an army of support for me and everyone else around the page.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.girlpartspp.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orange.julius.798
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ODR2222
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@girlpartspp5885

Image Credits
Rebecca Facey, Purple Caricature – Allison Kuhr