Laura Heywood Interviews Ari Afsar ("Jeannette")

Arianna "Ari" Afsar is a composer, singer, actress, activist and entrepreneur.  Ari wrote the music and lyrics for "Jeannette" -- a new musical about Jeannette Rankin, the first woman in Congress, which was recently workshopped at the Eugene O'Neill National Music Theatre Conference.  Hamilton fans know Ari as the original Eliza in the Chicago production of the show. Before that she was on American Idol (at age 16!) and was crowned Miss California just a couple of years later. She has a degree in ethnomusicology with an emphasis on jazz vocals from UCLA. She went directly from college to writing music for TV and film. And she has been an activist her whole life, starting with founding an organization bringing teens to perform at senior centers, and more recently has done extensive work with the ACLU an other human rights causes, including working on The Women's March and opening for Michelle Obama at the Shrine Auditorium. This is all in addition to her new EP, "Somewhere I thought I'd Be," released this Spring, which is available on Apple Music, Spotify and everywhere else you buy or stream music.