Image Description: This logo features a bright, white outline drawing of a mortar board style graduation hat with a hanging tassel. Under the hat where someone’s face would be, also in bright, white lettering reads “Dr. Cyn and the Graduates RISE.” The stems on the letter E are lifting up and to the right to symbolize rising. Created with Marilu Herrera.
Check out this story on Disabled to the Front by Channel 5 News (2/18/2025)
Check out this story from the Nashville Scene about Disabled to the Front.
Check out Devolution Revolution from the Disabled to the Front Advisory Group Launch Party, held at East Side Bowl on January 18, 2025. Filmed by Jon Vaughn, posted by A 1000 Pounds of Nashville Hair.
Image Description: The image is the official show poster. It is a large black rectangular poster with brightly colored text in neon pink, green, yellow, and blue. The poster reads: You are invited! Please come to Dr. Cyn’s Birthday Party and the launch party for the Disabled to the Front Advisory Group, a new committee of the Mayor’s Office of Nightlife where Dr. Cyn serves as the Chair working to promote disabled people’s access to nightlife in Nashville, TN. Featuring performances by disabled artists including: Dr. Cyn and the Graduates Rise, Cha Cha Heels, and Stone Deep. Pictures of each band and their logos are shown. The poster also reads Come meet Nashville’s Night Mayor Benton McDonough, and his picture is also shown. The poster also reads Free!! Please come prepared to learn about and donate to: Red Frogs USA, Safe Bar, Save TSU Community Coalition, and Women’s March Tennessee, this event is the official after party for the 2025 Women’s March. Logos for each of these organizations are shown. Bring ear protection! Bring money for shoe rental ($3), food, drinks, games, and be sure to tip your servers please! Live stream at www.youtube.com/@Dr.Cyn.GraduatesRise. Event details: Saturday, January 18, 2025, East Side Bowl – 1508 Gallatin Pike, 5 pm bowling, 6 pm doors, 7 pm music, All ages, under 18 accompanied by a parent/guardian. The East Side Bowl logo and website are shown at the bottom, www.EastSideBowl.com, along with a QR code where you can sign up to be a part of the Disabled to the Front Advisory Group, https://bit.ly/DisabledToTheFront
Baby General Music Video, December 10, 2024
Released on International Animal Rights Day, Baby General serves to indict so-called bargain markets and their surplus of cheap, often non-essential goods’ impact on the environment. IARD seeks to honor animals as sentient beings who deserve the same protections as people. Are the well being of humans and animals inextricably linked to the well being of our planet? What will we do for the things we want?
Visualizer video for Baby General made by Dr. CynCorrigible using Midjourney for image creation and Neural Frames for animation and features a series of realistic renderings of cats shopping like people in a bargain market. Mice are depicted as singing the choruses to represent the voice of the oppressed. They are joined at the end by a band of punk rock cats who see they are the same and join the mice to also call for change. The video cover picture shows a grey striped cat wearing a red santa hat and holding a round, red Christmas bulb tree decoration. The cat is standing in a Christmas tree display area in a store and you can see several Christmas trees and shelves with other products for sale in the background.
To learn more about Dr. Cyn, check out this interview they did with Nashville Voyager: https://nashvillevoyager.com/interview/daily-inspiration-meet-cynthia-george
Listen to Stupid or Cruel? featured on Queenz of Noise on 106.7 Phoenix FM out of Bendigo, Australia!
My Drummer has a Fear of Success Music Video, November 15, 2024
Released on National Drummer Appreciation Day in honor of Keith Moon, the legendary drummer from The Who that inspired the song, My Drummer has a Fear of Success cracks some drummer jokes while also providing helpful advice to support individuals who may be engaging in self-sabotage while managing their fear of success.
Visualizer video for My Drummer has a Fear of Success made by Dr. CynCorrigible using Neural Frames to create AI renderings in the style of Jim Henson’s Muppets featuring a puppet that looks like Dr. Cyn rocking out with their band. Their drummer resembles the Muppet Animal who is a classic puppet character also inspired by Keith Moon. The puppet band are depicted together performing as a band, doing yoga, in the park, and in the city streets. The video cover picture shows a puppet that looks like Animal with long red hair all over its body and it is wearing a blue puppet band t shirt and they are playing drums with flames coming off the cymbals.
Check out this feature from the Wavy Glitter Member Spotlight!
This image depicts Dr. Cyn activating Spoon Theory. They are shown from the waist up with their right right hand held up as if blocking something annoying. The words "Not Today Exploitation!" are coming from their hand. Their mohawk is up and they have a sideways grin and their eyebrows are raised and the image implies they are serious about the no. The artwork is white line drawings on a blue background. This image is part of Dr. Cyn and the Graduates Rise's #DisabilityPride shop. https://www.redbubble.com/people/GraduatesRise/shop?asc=u
Not Today Exploitation Music Video, Oct 10, 2024
in honor of World Mental Health Day & Simone Biles!!
Released on World Mental Health Day in honor of USA Olympic gymnast Simone Biles who inspired the song, Not Today Exploitation celebrates people who stand up for their mental health and seeks to strengthen those that need to say no for safety. Aligned with 2024’s WMHD theme “It is time to prioritize mental health in the workplace,” the song validates “the twisties” as a legitimate condition that humans must manage and draws parallels to Spoon Theory. Both are metaphors that serve to explain how people with mental health and/or chronic health issues may need to deviate from what is expected of them for safety.
Visualizer video for Not Today Exploitation made by Dr. CynCorrigible using Neural Frames. The video features AI renderings of Dr. Cyn as a gymnast, rocking out with their AI band, and it ends with Dr. Cyn leading protests in the streets. The video cover picture shows a close of Dr. Cyn’s face as animated by AI to have their blonde mohawk spiked up and face painted white with a black stripe across their eyes. The background is multicolored squares and depicts the black mirror of cell phones and how the dark screen can reflect your image back to you, but distorted.
Listen to Canary featured on Queenz of Noise on 106.7 Phoenix FM out of Bendigo, Australia!
Listen to Not Today Exploitation featured on Queenz of Noise on 106.7 Phoenix FM out of Bendigo, Australia!
Listen to Stupid or Cruel? and Devolution Revolution featured on Queenz of Noise on 106.7 Phoenix FM out of Bendigo, Australia!
Nondisparagement Music Video - September 4, 2024
Released on World Sexual Health Day to honor the #MeToo movement and all the people who have had to hide their truth in order to comply with legal directives to be silent about what happened to them. We really do need better data reflecting the true scope and impact of abuse and harassment. This song aligns with the WSHD theme for 2024 which is promoting “Positive Relationships.”
Visualizer video for Non-disparagement made by Dr. CynCorrigible using Midjourney for image creation and Neural Frames for animation. The video is a series of brightly colored, close up, abstract images of a woman’s face making various expressions, animated to change and match the beat of the music.
Dr. Cyn and the Graduates Rise’ new album
Canary
This image is the album artwork for Dr. Cyn’s upcoming release. The background is a black and white image of a coal mine, it is very dusty and there are four miners shown coming out of the mine. The background image was created using artificial intelligence through Midjourney as prompted by Dr. Cyn. The Dr. Cyn Canary character shown above as created by Marilu Herrera is featured in the top left corner and then next to this reads the title of the album “Canary” in yellow font. The brandmark showing “Dr. Cyn” in red type is in the bottom right hand corner of the image. Dr. Cyn’s brandmark was also created by Marilu Herrera.
“This album is about both the cosmic joy and profound sadness of modern American life.”
Available everywhere digital September 2, 2024.
Music videos will be released monthly until July 26, 2025.
Nine punk rock songs to help you cope with the horrors of submission to the seemingly inevitable systemic exploitation of human beings in art, commerce, education, finance, healthcare, labor, and sport, and then one spacey love song, there’s always hope you know…
Music, Lyrics, and Vocals by Dr. CynCorrigible
Guitar, Backing Vocals, Piano by Jerry Campbell
Bass by Bingham Barnes
Drums by d. Patrick Rodgers
Synthesizer and canary sounds* by G. Seth West for the tracks Baby General, In Love, and Canary
Recorded and Mixed by Jeremy Ferguson at Battletapes in Nashville, TN
Mastered by Patrick Damphier
Album artwork by Dr. CynCorrigible
Dr. Cyn as Canary and Dr. Cyn brandmark artwork by Marilu Herrera
*Using CanarySennheiserME66LME67R.wav by brfindla -- https://freesound.org/s/26006/ -- License: Creative Commons 0
Check out the full Press Release for Canary here: https://www.graduatesrise.com/press-kit-canary
Pictured are the band on the set of the Stupid or Cruel? music video shoot. From left to right are Jerry Campbell on guitar, Dr. CynCorrigible at the mic, D. Patrick Rodgers on drums, and Bingham Barnes on bass. Dr. Cyn’s hair, makeup, and dress by The Studio Cookeville. Photo Credit: Jason Gilmore from Queen Ave.
Check out this journal that Dr. Cyn is the Founding Editor for that is published Spring of each year. Creating Change: The Online Journal of Zines about Social Movements is an online open access journal of student-created zines and papers about social movements published in Digital Scholarship @ Tennessee State University in collaborative partnership with the Department of Social Work and Urban Studies and the Tennessee State University Library.
Image Description: A screencap of the Creating Change website.
Dr. Cyn’s single The Tennessee Three is On All Streaming Platforms!! March 20, 2024
Pay what you can via Bandcamp!
Lyrics & Vocals - Dr. CynCorrigible
Music & Recording - Benjamin Lowry (from Nashville’s Bang OK Bang)
Recorded at Helping Our Music Evolve (HOME) Studios, Nashville, TN
Album artwork by Dr. CynCorrigible
Visualizer Video by Dr. CynCorrigible made using Neural Frames
This image is the cover artwork for Dr. Cyn’s single release titled “The Tennessee Three.” The background image is abstract and features the outside of a state capitol building with trees next to it on a bright sunny day. The background image was created using artificial intelligence through Midjourney as prompted by Dr. Cyn. The title of the song is in red letters at the top left of the image and Dr. Cyn’s brandmark reading “Dr. Cyn” is in black text on the bottom right.
“Shout out to Tennessee Representatives Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson, AKA The Tennessee Three who inspired this song after truly going to the mat trying to represent your districts. <3”
What if we all focused on Membership?? A Social Work Tutorial on Dr. Hans Falck’s Membership Perspective in the age of COVID, featuring Quarantine Not Quarantined by Graduate Rise
Single, Music Video, and Edutainment Module (2022, Jan 15)
Winner of an International Safety Media Award!!
Graduates Rise won an Honorable Mention in the Campaigns under $50,000 category for this campaign at the 2022 World Safety Conference held by the World Health Organization in Adelaide, Australia. This image features is a white rectangle background, with blue and black artwork and lettering. The words “The International Safety Media Awards: Honoring Powerful Injury Prevention Media Campaigns” and features a semi-transparent image of the Earth.
Starring:
Dr. CynCorrigible as themselves
Shane Cunningham as Dr. Math (voice)
Malia Marshall as Dr, Math (puppetry)
The Grey A as himself
Writer, Producer, Assistant Director:
Dr. CynCorrigible
Cinematographer, Editor, Director: Alex Baldwin
Hair & Makeup: Emaline Briggs of BBC Nashville
Production Assistant: Malia Marshall
Featuring Darcy Katt, adopted via Project Felix. Support cat rescues via PayPal to ProjectFelixSpecialNeeds@gmail.com
Quarantine Not Quarantined by Graduates Rise
Now with Audio Descriptions! (2022, Jan 13)
Audio Descriptions Provided by Nefertiti Matos Olivares and Kensuke Nakamura of Social Audio Description.
Dr. CynCorrigible performs Nirvana’s Rape Me at Exit/In
Dr. CynCorrigible performs Nirvana's Rape Me at Exit/In in Nashville, Tennessee for the 'Nevermind' 30th Anniversary Tribute Show.
Guitar: William James (Sleeper Signal)
Drums: Joey Lauretta (Sleep Nation)
Bass: Trey Waters
Listen to Quarantine Not Quarantined featured on Cidade das Mulheres (City of Women) on Matula Web Radio of Brazil.
NAMI Tennessee’s Gabe Howard interviews Dr. Cyn about Graduates Rise’s recent release Quarantine Not Quarantined on the NAMI-TN Faccebook Live! Monday, March 1, 2021 at 1:45 pm.
Follow NAMI TN on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/NAMI.Tennessee
Watch the interview here: https://www.facebook.com/NAMI.Tennessee/videos/232414561902558
Quarantine Not Quarantined! New Video (2021, Jan 15)
Access the Full Quarantine Not Quarantined by Graduates Rise Press Kit here.
Quarantine Not Quarantined by Graduates Rise performed by:
Dr. Cyncorrigble, Lyrics, Music, Vocals
The Grey A, Backing Vocals, Guitar, Synthesizer
Bingham Barnes, Bass
Rollum Haas, Drums
Recorded, Engineered, and Mastered by Jeremy Ferguson at Battletapes in Nashville, Tennessee
Album artwork by Marilu Herrera
Music Video Directed, Filmed, and Edited by Alex Baldwin
Co-Produced by Alex Baldwin and Dr. Cyncorrigible
Written by Dr. Cyncorrigible
Hair & Makeup by Emaline Briggs
Featuring Darcy Katt, adopted via Project Felix Support cat rescues via PayPal to ProjectFelixSpecialNeeds@gmail.com
This image is the album artwork for Quarantine Not Quarantined by Graduates Rise. It is a square, white background featuring the song title in light blue letters on the upper right corner “Quarantine Not Quarantined". In the bottom right corner is the band’s logo, the silhouette of a black graduation hat and tassel featuring the words “Graduates Rise” shaped within the hat. The central image is that of the band’s mascot, Dr. Math. Dr. Math is depicted as a black and white, hand-drawn, phallic-shaped, little-man wearing thick-framed eyeglasses with tape around the nose, a white button-down collared shirt, a nametag that says “My Name is Dr. Math,” and a light blue medical face mask, worn improperly down around his chin.
Read Dr. CynCorrigible’s autobiographical book chapter! (2021)
Read Dr. CynCorrigible’s autobiographical book chapter First-Gens and Student Debt: Paying More While Getting Less along with other first-gen narratives from around the world in Brill’s Amplified Voices: Intersecting Identities, Volume II, Edited by Jane A. Van Galen and Jaye Sablan.
Single - The Ballad Of Pellagra - (2021, Mar 31)
This image is the album artwork for Quarantine Not Quarantined by Graduates Rise. It is a square, white background featuring the song title in yellow letters shaped like corn and outlined in green on the upper right corner “The Ballad of Pellagra". In the bottom right corner is the band’s logo, the silhouette of a black graduation hat and tassel featuring the words “Graduates Rise” shaped within the hat. The central image is that of the band’s mascot, Dr. Math. Dr. Math is digitally drawn as a black and white, phallic-shaped, little-man wearing thick-framed eyeglasses with tape around the nose, a white button-down collared shirt, a nametag that says “My Name is Dr. Math.” He is depicted as a scarecrow, with straw coming out of the hands and neck of his shirt, and he is standing in a field of cotton. His arms are stretched out to either side. A black crow wearing a t-shirt winks as it stands triumphantly on Dr. Math’s head while another black crow wearing a t-shirt inquisitively studies Dr. Math while perched on his outstretched left arm.
This image shows The Ballad of Pellagra lineup, Sarah Eitel on guitar and ganjo, Dr. Cyn on vocals, Erik Dail on drums, and Michael Majett on bass. They are all shown performing on stage at the 2017 Association of Social and Behavioral Scientists conference held in the Centennial Ballroom of the Holiday Inn at Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN.
The Ballad of Pellagra is a punk rock murder ballad that seeks to help listeners better understand the complexity of pellagra, a nutritional deficiency that killed over 100,000 people in the Southern USA during the late 1800's. Pellagra presents with diagnostic criteria that have come to be known as the "Four D's of Famine,” diarrhea, dermatitis, dementia, and death. The real world story of pellagra is taught in medical schools and schools of public health around the world. It is considered to be a landmark case in understanding economic epidemiology, which is the study of how disease progression in populations is connected to economic conditions. In the case of pellagra, the symptoms were originally blamed on the "filth" of sharecroppers and other poor southerners who were dying of the disease. This stigma persisted for years, and southerners continued to die. Many researchers helped to address the pellagra outbreak, with Dr. Joseph Goldberger and Dr. Edgar Sydenstricker being standout leaders in the movement to properly diagnose and treat the condition. They noticed that the condition was not transmitted to nurses and doctors, so they began to examine the diets of sharecroppers, which they found to be quite poor. They went on to identify that pellagra was specifically a deficiency in niacin and tryptophan that quickly resolved with an improved diet. Economic conditions found to have contributed to the outbreak of pellagra were ultimately systemic functions of poverty and oppression. Specifically, the cotton monoculture, which required sharecroppers to plant the cash crop of cotton rather than to grow vegetables, grain, or to raise cattle; the extremely limited access to healthy and affordable food options from local markets; and the cornmeal they used that had been milled in a way to make it shelf-stable for transport to the south on trains, but that also robbed it of all nutritional value. Researchers found that women suffered the most from pellagra, often because they provided the best food to their men and children. Ultimately, the case led to federal policies requiring processed foods to be enriched with essential nutrients. As this has played out across time, we once again find that poor southerners are suffering from population-level health epidemics fundamentally tied to their poor access to quality food. Referred to as food deserts, too many areas where southerners live in poverty provide very little access to healthy food options, while very often providing things to fill the belly with synthetic nutrients and other junk food products. Stigma persists and poor people continue to suffer and die.
Music, Lyrics, and vocals by Dr. CynCorrigible
Ganjo by Sarah Eitel
Upright bass by Michael Majett
Drums by Erik Dail
Piano by The Grey A
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Mike Purcell at County Q Productions in Nashville, Tennessee.
Graduates Rise performs with Savage Authority for the United Campus Workers Statewide Convention held Saturday, September 29, 2018 at Radio Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee.
Listen to Pussygrabber featured on Grrrl Power Hour with Elysa on Lucky Star Radio out of New York, NY.
Check out the Video for our single PUSSYGRABBER! (2017, Jan 9)
Graduates Rise's single Pussygrabber is a sex-positive song that presents consent culture the Riot Grrrl way. None shall comply with the Pussygrabber! All shall bow to the pussy power!
Lyrics, Music,& Vocals by Dr. CynCorrigible
Music, Drums, & Lead Guitar by Phantom Farmer
Rhythm Guitar by The Grey A
Bass by Brian Stone
Produced, Arranged, & Mixed by Phantom Farmer at The Stone Farm, Nashville, Tennessee
Video by Dr. CynCorrigible
Cover art by Morf
Listen to Whistleblower featured on Grrrl Power Hour with Elysa on Lucky Star Radio out of New York, NY.
Listen to Slave Body featured on Grrrl Power Hour with Elysa on Lucky Star Radio out of New York, NY.
Listen to Bully This featured on Grrrl Power Hour with Elysa on Lucky Star Radio out of New York, NY.
Watch the video for our track SLAVE BODY (2016, Sept 1)
from the international Riot Grrrl compilation to prevent sexual assault on college campuses
Severe Impact: The Brock Allen Turner Mixtape
with a special dedication by Dr. CynCorrigible
Slave Body by Graduates Rise
Dedication by Dr. CynCorrigible
for Riot Grill Productions'
Severe Impact: The Brock Allen Turner Mixtape
Listen to the entire mixtape here:
https://soundcloud.com/user-201306077
Donate to RAINN:
Read more about / Purchase Foibles & Favors
Features 58 of the first poems Dr. Cyn ever wrote, created between 2005 and 2017, including sonnets, haikus, and free verse about love and politics and this crazy universe we are all living in.
Math is Hard! receives academic peer review from the Working Class Studies Association!!!
This image shows Dr. Cyn and the Graduates Rise lineup from the WCSA conference performance, Scott on bass, Dr. Cyn on vocals, Sarah Vardy on drums, and Randy Ross on guitar. The band are shown performing in the Wright Education Building Auditorium during the Working Class Studies Association annual conference held Fri June 2, 2017 at the Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.
Read more here: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/conferences/public/conferences/5/WCSA2017.pdf
Check out this press from RVA Shows You Must See about Graduates Rise’ debut performance at Gallery 5 in Richmond, VA: https://rvamustseeshows.wordpress.com/2016/05/12/rva-shows-you-must-see-this-week-511-517/
Graduates Rise’s Debut Album - Math is Hard! (May 2016)
Math is Hard! lineup
Lyrics/Music/Vocals - Dr. CynCorrigible
Guitar/Backing Vocals - The Grey A
Bass - Jay Westermann (Rest In Peace)
Drums - Herschel Stratego
Math is Hard! Engineered and Produced by
Russell Lacy at Virginia Moonwalker, Richmond, Virginia
Cover art by Morf
Graduates Rise's debut album Math is Hard! confronts some of the issues facing higher education and seeks to shift the focus from blaming individuals to instead recognizing how systems perpetuate aggressions.
Specifically, the record tells the story of Dr. Cyncorrigible and her experiences as a low income student with disabilities in a PhD program.
Counter-hegemony deals directly with the dominance of positivism and how it has led to the financialization of education, further discussed in Student Accounting. Trash Data questions the effectiveness of laws around informed consent in today’s world of big data. Bully This tells the story of women and queers in science, attempting to work within a world dominated by white, male epistemologies. Slave Body serves as a thinking-man’s chain gang song, with perspectives coming from the id, ego, and super ego. Quit Lit sheds light on specifics of how people are degraded by education systems. Blame it on the Oligarchs draws attention to the role education systems play in maintaining wealth disparity in the world and Are You Blind? questions how this continues to happen. Whistleblower delivers a powerful message demanding change. I Can't Wait is a song about falling in love with Richmond, one of the USA's great punk rock cities.
Graduates Rise - Math is Hard! Lineup, Richmond, Virginia.
Photos by Cherie Canary.
Jay Westermann (RIP)
