Steph Anderson: A for Auror, A for Activist

by Tianna Mignogna

Originally written for Issue 13 of the W.A.N.D. in 2017

Steph Anderson and I are in a Dodge minivan on the way to pick up our tour mate, Lara Griffith, from her delayed Amtrak in Chicago. She is new to the Yes All Witches tour, and the idea of new blood brings palpable excitement. Highlighting diverse voices is Steph’s favorite part of the Yes All Witches movement, since it makes her “able to take more people on tour and out into libraries so that library patrons can hear new music and different voices.”

Steph found out about the nonprofit organization Fandom Forward when she began her involvement in wizard rock, a genre of music about the Harry Potter series that was founded by Joe and Paul DeGeorge of Harry and the Potters in 2002. Five years later, Steph started her own wizard rock band, Tonks and the Aurors, and her personal form of fandom-related activism hit the ground running.

Fandom Forward (formerly The Harry Potter Alliance) and wizard rock have a long, connected history. When Fandom Forward was founded in 2005, wizard rock was gaining steam. Hundreds of bands created MySpace pages with Harry Potter-themed names, so it was natural for Fandom Forward to join in the movement by tying wizard rock’s do-it-yourself spirit with grassroots activism. After Steph spearheaded Tonks and the Aurors in 2007, she helped out with a Jingle Spells compilation album that benefited Fandom Forward, and then pitched in whenever Fandom Forward needed, including playing sets on tours that promoted Wizard Rock the Vote, a campaign that encouraged concertgoers to register before the 2008 presidential election.

Steph was extremely disappointed that she turned 18 one week too late to participate in the 2004 presidential election. She has said that “what [Fandom Forward] did help me realize is that we have an impact on the more global issues. The first really big blow-it-all-out was the Helping Haiti Heal campaign. That’s the type of scale that we can really work on.”

While it is awe-inspiring that Fandom Forward has such an impact worldwide, Steph is also concerned with creating change in our hometowns. “Focusing on local laws—it’s cool to see that [Fandom Forward] pivots for what’s needed at the time. … There are demographics and ways that you work with what [Fandom Forward] is recommending that need to be specific to where you are. Chapters are awesome because they get people … to do their own spin on things, such as different ways of doing Accio Books. On tour, we see that directly. The demographics will be completely different in Atlanta versus Iowa. … But I’m also really impressed that, since I wrote the song ‘Yes All Witches,’ every single show I’ve played it at, there’s always people fist pumping and singing along. I don’t know that everyone’s fist pumping because they’re feminist and proud, but it sneaks a message in where … someone’s never thought about feminism before.”

Steph made the time to ensure that a new perspective was featured at the 2015 Granger Leadership Academy conference—the perspective of a woman in wizard rock. She said, “Granger Leadership Academy is my favorite thing that [Fandom Forward] does, ‘cause it gives these volunteers and chapter members and people tangible skills to take out.” She decided to give a presentation at GLA. “I said, ‘This is really important to me. I really would like to be able to have this chance to speak.’ It was around the time that #YesAllWomen was happening on Twitter. I talked about how your identity shapes the work that you do for better or for worse.” At the event, Steph discussed how we can break through the barriers that are set for women in fandoms—even in female-dominated fandoms, including Fandom Forward. “We have a pretty great fandom, but we have to exist in a world that doesn’t share those beliefs. [Like] when you have a wizard rock show in a hotel that has provided sound people that are sexist old white guys. …”

After her GLA talk, Steph founded the Yes All Witches grant program in 2016 in an effort to give back. The grant program funds new wizard rock artists who need assistance recording, performing, or promoting music. She said, “I can’t take everyone on tour with me, so how do I give a little bit of that benefit back?”

Steph has always had a strong presence, but, for a while, she didn’t break through as an on-the-page Fandom Forward volunteer: “I was kind of bothering Matt [Maggiacomo] for years to be like, ‘Hey, feel free to tell me what you need.’” But, as she found her place in wizard rock, she also carved out a role in Fandom Forward as the photographic editor for the WAND Magazine. “It worked out, because it allows me to still host livestreams and be, like, a wizard rock personality while directly giving back on something that isn’t a weekly or a daily task that I need to do—just because my schedule is so erratic at times.”

In the minivan, Steph chews on Goldfish from our snack bag thoughtfully. Finding a place for everything to fit is the approach Steph has always taken in life—and in packing the tour van. She started working at Apple in 2009, and has worked becoming a wizard rockstar around her full-time day job. Only a true rock star could pull that off. Steph has never wasted much time: She started her band in August 2007, created her first album, The Pink Album, in November 2007 for a show with The Whomping Willows, and began her first tour in February 2008. Only one year later, in February 2009, Steph performed in her first solo tour.

I ask Steph if there are things she learned being on the road alone. “It proved this one piece of advice that my dad always told me, which was, ‘If you stay solo as a musician, you keep all the money,’” Steph says, flashing a sheepish smile in the rearview mirror while she merges onto a freeway. “I guess it kind of proved to me that I could do it. Traveling on a long road trip alone as a woman is a lot like walking alone at night, but, like, constantly. You don’t know who’s keeping an eye on you or whatever it is, so you just have to be aware for yourself.”

Some of her tight-knit business strategy comes from the way she was raised, and some of it comes from studying stage management. “Planning is a lot of the same muscle. Some of it’s trial and error,” she admits. However, Steph says that she never felt unsafe, and that she “stayed with friends or the librarians on tour. And that’s how I met Monica.” After her first solo tour, which spanned from Missouri to North Carolina, she pulled off an east-to-west tour in 2016 in which she did the vast majority of the driving. However, her roommate, Monica Stone, flew out to help out with a few West Coast shows, which involved running the Tonks and the Aurors merchandise booth at LeakyCon 2016.

Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire” plays throughout the minivan, which is appropriate for the occasion, because Matt Maggiacomo once described Tonks and the Aurors as “the Bruce Springsteen of wizard rock.” Springsteen also had a huge influence on Steph when she was growing up.

“Springsteen has invited the local food pantries to come and collect donations at his shows since, like, the ‘70s.” She also cites Brandi Carlile as a personal influence—Carlile once released a charity compilation whose proceeds went to War Child for refugee children. “I’m not one of those people that thinks that artists should be quiet,” Steph adds.

Because she is from Detroit, Michigan, Steph is used to communities practicing charitable acts. “The city is so depressed and needs a lot of economic stimulus and help for people, so charity’s always been around. … I went to a Catholic school, so there were pretty much always food drives and clothing drives and penny drives.”

As part of the Summer 2017 Yes All Witches tour, Tonks and the Aurors performed two shows in Michigan that featured Fandom Forward booths. This activism is one of the many ways in which Steph still contributes to Fandom Forward. She is also working hard on an upcoming wizard rock CD. It has been an entire 10 years since she started her journey with wizard rock and activism, but Steph Anderson shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Advocacy Sidebar

At both the Ann Arbor and Livonia Tonks and the Aurors concerts, local volunteers Marci and Sam set up informational tables to represent their Fandom Forward chapter, the Motor City Marauders. They came prepared with lollipops and handmade bracelets in Hogwarts house colors, and at the Livonia show, they raffled off a Mystery Mini-Harry Potter Figure. Flyers were available for an upcoming interest meeting for their Fandom Forward chapter. During both shows, Steph gave a shout-out to the girls at the Fandom Forward tables and mentioned that she is also a volunteer.

The Motor City Marauders encourage those residing in the Detroit area to get involved in activism with ideas that relate to the Harry Potter books. At both concerts, Marci and Sam mingled with concertgoers and provided information about #NevilleFightsBack. This Fandom Forward campaign promotes advocacy for affordable health care, climate protection, and basic human rights. On the flyers, a link to the campaign details what you can do if you have even a limited amount of time to give toward the cause. These resources, including Marci and Sam’s appearance at the shows, boost visibility and accessibility to people who may never have heard of Fandom Forward and are unsure how they can help.

People of all ages attended both the Ann Arbor and Livonia shows, and in Livonia, there was a library-sponsored Quidditch tournament for kids. The audiences were full of young people, which seemed like the perfect atmosphere for educating new voices on important issues. After all, Neville Longbottom was still a teenager when he kept Dumbledore’s Army running, fought against discrimination, and ultimately destroyed one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes.