Gina Mamone
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"Gina Mamone is the Queer Russel Simmons” - Diana Cage, Diana Cage Show Sirius Satellite Radio, Velvet Park Media, Go Magazine “If Martin Luther King Jr. and Russell Simmons had a love child, it would be Gina Mamone.” – DC Lesbian Avengers Collective RGI’s business plan is “one of the most innovative business plans to date”. – Entrepreneur magazine “All the waves of theory have led to a rEvolutionary wave of action” – Free Thinkers Press |
Gina Mamone is the founding president and CEO of Riot Grrrl Ink. / RGI.
Gina is a Tender Hearted Gender Queer born and raised in wild, wonderful West Virginia. In fact, it was while double majoring in Psychology and Counseling/Rehabilitation at Marshall University in Huntington, WV, that community organizing and activism became a central part of Gina’s life.At Marshall University, Gina helped to found the first Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) Outreach Office on campus, a legacy which still exists today.
In addition to this, Gina also co-founded Marshall University ’s Sexual Minority Steering Committee, edited the University’s feminist newsletter, Ms. Quotes, and created and produced the first all-female film festival ever to take place in West Virginia, A Celebration of Appalachian Women and Film.
But Gina’s crowning college achievement came when she organized the first ever Take Back the Night Rally in West Virginia . To accomplish this, Gina assembled a thirty-person steering committee and created an event that included over sixty information tables from various campus and community organizations. The event drew a record number of supporters from the campus and surrounding communities. Gina’s passion for bringing communities together to share experiences, strength and hope lives on today in RGI’s Take Back the Night project. Each year, RGI helps sponsor and produce over fifty Take Back the Night rallies all over the world. This monumental accomplishment has incited waves of activism in all of the communities it has touched, which is proven by more and more universities and communities becoming involved each year.
Upon graduating Gina moved to Washington, DC, where she continued her education in every way possible. Gina became involved with organizing the annual DC Dyke March, learned to eat fire with the DC Lesbian Avengers, and got arrested one too many times demonstrating with ACT UP. She used the education she had attained at Marshall University to begin practicing psychotherapy and working as a sex educator/therapist.
While living in DC Gina started working with local promoters to produce house concerts, which led to producing at local venues. While bringing in independent artists Gina started producing tours that expanded through out the east coast and eventually led to national tours. Each artist had the same story, traditional record labels saw the their queer identity & politics as a liability not an asset. It was nearly impossible for them to get any type of funding or resources while being true to themselves and their community. Gina saw opportunity there for not just a company but for her community to grow.
The genius of RGI’s business plan is that through various merchandise lines, the company is literally able to fund a rEvolution. 100% of RGI’s profits go toward the companies, organizations, projects and artists that RGI supports. This process allows RGI to sponsor rEvolutionary art in a wide breath of forms including albums, films, live concerts, political protests, and every type of art you can imagine from gender performers to conceptual installations.
What makes RGI possible is individuals choosing to practice fiscal responsibility and consciously making decisions everyday to create a wave of action in their own communities. RGI’s patrons are from all over the world, and their ages and socioeconomic status vary; however, they are united by a common philosophy – that every dollar has a voice; you make the choice who hears it.
These days, Gina divides her time between producing, working with artists, facilitating RGI projects all over the country, representing RGI at festivals and various other events, public speaking engagements, studio time and lastly, making her own art. In true rEvolutionary fashion, 100% of the profits of Gina’s art are channeled back into the company.
Gina lives in New York city with a very large muppet like dog named Allister, a ballerina girlfriend from backwoods Texas and an amazing community that has become her second family.