YOUR VOICE, YOUR STORY: Beverly Bond

I really enjoy spinning, and I really enjoy being able to give people music experiences, to have them constantly just waiting for that next song, and wondering what I'm going to do next, and really being so into it, do you know what I mean?

Where the music isn't a background-- the music is everything.

My earliest memories of listening to music were Saturday mornings with my mom, cleaning house.

My mother made Saturdays music history day for us, so to speak.

And we were listening to everything from Al Green to Kurtis Blow to Hugh Masakela.

It just was such a great experience to be exposed to music that way, and to have my mother just really make it a learning lesson, without us really knowing that that's what it was.

It was an obsession, you know, and a hobby, that I really, really just loved.

I loved collecting music.

And you know, before long I had what looked like a DJ's collection without being a DJ.

I started practicing with my house music collection, right?

So I'm playing my house music, and I'm mixing them, and my mixes are coming in nice, right?

And so I called my friend who was a DJ, and he says, "Oh, you know, because you're playing house music..." he says, "If you play house and hip hop, "it's all digital, so the beats will automatically match up.

"When you can mix soul music... because the drummers "were playing live, when you can mix soul music, "then you'll know how to mix for real.

"So don't talk to me until you can do that.

"You don't get nice overnight.

You have to really work at it."

So I did.

I worked at it, and I practiced on soul music.

I just wanted to do the hardest thing, challenge myself.

But again, all this is happening in my house.

My first job was opening at a little spot called the Spy Bar.

And it was downtown, it was in Soho.

and the DJ booth was way up top, and no one could really see who was DJ-ing.

And everyone's like, "Who is this DJ?"

And so people would come up one by one, and a lot of the guys would come up and be like, "Oh, my god, like, gulp, look at the DJ."

Like... you know.

So I became, like, kind of a... they couldn't believe it was a female DJ-ing.

And also the variety and the musical journe that I was able to take people on.

You wouldn't expect some of the things that I was pulling out, but you were always going to enjoy some of the things that I pulled out.

Men sometimes would underestimate me and think that I wasn't going to be able to do what I was going to be able to do.

And so I think that that actually in that sense helped to propel me even further.

Because I took people by surprise.

And my mom said, "You know, this is your calling."

She's like, "The fact that you found this."

Now, nobody's mama tells them that DJ-ing is their calling.

You know?

And that was kind of like the final stamp of approval.

I started Black Girls Rock in 2006.

The idea was going to be a t-shirt where I listed all black girls that rocked, who've contributed to our music and to our art and to our histor and to our civil rights.

And just everything.

I'm like, "This is big.

"This is bigger than just me, and this is bigger "than this t-shirt.

"This is something that we all need.

"And I'm going to start a mentoring program "for teen girls, and I'm also going to start an award show to honor these great women."

I don't think there's anything that is more powerful than giving.

And I don't think there's anything more powerful than helping someone else to achieve their dreams.

I am a black girl.

I say it, therefore I am it.

I am life overflowing.

I am success manifesting.

I am confidence in action.

I am fearless and free.

I am commitment that moves obstacles.

I am inspiration unfolding.

I am pure love.

I'm a black girl, and I rock.