Be Steadwell is a queer pop composer and storyteller from Washington DC.  Be composes her songs on stage using looping, vocal layering and beat boxing.  Her original music features earnest lyricism, and affirming queer content.  Be's goal as a musician is to make other black girlies, introverts and weirdos feel seen and loved.

 

Be earned a BA in Black Studies from Oberlin College and an MFA in film from Howard University in 2014.  Her thesis film Vow of Silence screened in film festivals around the world, including Black Star, HBO's OutFest, The Schomburg Center and Inside Out Toronto.

 

In 2019, Be composed the music for The Alvin Ailey Dance Company's production of "the gone".  Later that year, Be wrote and directed A Letter to My Ex, the musical.  A Letter to My Ex imagines a queer black woman's experience in the aftermath of a breakup.  In 2021 Be released her latest album- Succulent. 

In 2023, Be joined the cast of Parable of the Sower the Opera by Toshi Reagon and Dr Bernice Johnson Reagon.