Penn Undergrads You Should Know About Vol. 4

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Taylor “Ivy Sole” McLendon (W’15)

What do you love about music? I love writing & music because it’s always been a part of my life, thanks to my mom. Telling stories is an important part of Black culture, so the music I make and the music I love has a lot of narrative aspects. What are you involved in that allows you to express/explore that? African Rhythms & Excelano Project are both manifestations of my favorite things. AR fuses intricate rhythms with movement and EP allows me to be in a space with other writers who tell their stories, their truths. Both groups foster community, self-improvement, and respect for arts. I also formed a band on campus called Liberal Arts and that’s where most of the music I make is found at the moment. (Check out Liberal Arts SoundCloud page here!)

How’d you get started? AR & EP were classic tryouts, groups I’d heard were amazing and I wanted to be a part of. And Liberal Arts just happened to be some of my closest friends deciding that we should put together an album. Backpacks & Hi Hats will be available for download some time in October.

What/Who is your biggest inspiration and why? Who do you admire? My biggest inspirations are ideas and people. Black culture throughout the Diaspora is one of the things I’m interested in studying & universally, I think music’s tremendous potential for positivity is unique.

What’s your favorite Penn tradition? Hey Day. It was sobering to know that I had made it this far and that my time at Penn is coming to a close.

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