Pulse of the City: New York’s Women DJs
By Flavia Furtado – DJ Samurai
Women DJs are rewriting the language of nightlife. Their sets are archives, healing practices, and stories in motion: raw, vulnerable, and electric.
We spoke with three remarkable women shaping the city’s soundscape: Mica Sociale, Senaida, and CMD+Jazmine. Each brings her own journey, influences, and approach to building community and expanding sonic possibilities. We asked each to share three tracks from her extensive musical library, songs that capture the city through her unique perspective.
Mica Sociale: From Caracas to Rome, from Rome to New York
Photo credit: @victoriaromulo - DJ Mica Sociale in East Village, NYC
Mica Sociale’s story is deeply rooted in vinyl, research, and multiculturalism. With a background in journalism and radio, she sees DJing as a curatorial act: “More than a DJ, I am a mobile library.” Her sound is eclectic and experimental—world psychedelia and heavy bass interwoven with independent voices and local talent.
Her first NYC gig happened in early 2020 at Cinderblock People, a record shop in Harlem. The intimate neighborhood vibe gave her the space to introduce post-punk, cold wave, electro, and synth-pop. Since then, she has connected with the city’s underground through record shops, hi-fi bars, and grassroots collectives. For Mica, music is activism: opening borders, uniting people, and planting new traditions through sound.
Interview Highlights
Cultural Journey
"You’ve been DJing vinyl for over 10 years and have lived in Venezuela, Italy, and now NYC. How have these different cultural experiences shaped your approach to music and your style behind the decks?"
My approach to music and style behind the decks derives from my journalism and radio broadcasting career. More than a disc jockey, I am a researcher, a sort of mobile library and definitely a promoter of local talent and worldwide independent artists. For sure having a multicultural background has made me a more conscious and curious explorer, and by consequence I have an eclectic taste in which my radio mixtapes and live sets both reflect—full of experimentation and world psychedelia, with a heavy bass component.
First NYC Gig
"Can you tell us about your first NYC gig? What were your nerves, your energy, and the atmosphere like? How did you connect with the local underground scene and communities like Discwoman, XOXA, or Unter?"
My first NYC gig was in lineup with other local DJs in February 2020 at a record shop in Harlem called Cinderblock People. It was very much a laid-back atmosphere with neighborhood vibes. The owner of the shop invited me to play at that party after I had visited to buy some records. I had moved from Rome to NYC just a few months earlier. For that set I selected some post-punk, cold waves, electro and synth pop records.
I connected with the underground scene and communities just by visiting record shops and hi-fi bars as well as reaching out to local collectives and radio stations.
Soundtrack of the Scene & Activism
"If you had to pick 2–3 tracks that define the NYC underground scene for you, which would they be and why? And how do you see your music, style, or presence contributing to broader conversations around community, visibility, or activism in the scene?"
I cannot say I am capable of distilling or associating any given sounds to a handful of particular tracks, rather artists, albums, record labels and sounds that inspire and grow with me on a daily basis and activity no matter where they come from. I could name you 3 record labels I like so you can explore their catalogue and have a taste of the sounds I am currently divulging: Wonderwheel Recordings, Batov Records, and ZZK Records.
I believe that music has an incredible power to open borders and unify people. My goal is to promote multiculturalism through such magical energy—engendering a world embraceful of diversity, appreciative in languages, willing to learn from each other, exchanging and creating new folklore and traditions.
Senaida: Sonic Rituals & Glitch Feminism
Photo credit: @vitaliko - DJ Senaida performing at Mood Ring, NYC
For Senaida, DJing is both ritual and resistance. Her practice draws from sound healing, shamanism, and Glitch Feminism, which challenges normative structures in music and culture. Each set becomes a collective world-building act: fluid, expansive, and more-than-human.
Interview Highlights
About artistic identity
The defining quality of exceptional artists is their ability to defy labels and transcend categorization. My approach to art and curating DJ sets is to express the true depth and complexity of our social experiences by incorporating eclectic sounds from around the globe and blending them into a seamless journey that is rooted in archaic principles of sound healing and shamanism.
About unexpected influences
Much of my work draws from principles of Glitch Feminism (a cyberfeminist framework that embraces error, disruption, and digital “glitches” to subvert dominant systems), which refuses normative structures and dominant culture in music. My DJ sets offer a space for identities that are fluid multiplicities, embracing and creating new musical paradigms.
About fashion in DJing
Both fashion and DJing allow for freedom of expression beyond preset cultural boundaries or conventional norms, inviting individuals to explore identities, aesthetics, and sonic landscapes that transcend ordinary limitations through innovation and technology. Though I am strongly against the idea of DJ worship and the rise of social media DJs, I believe fashion helps to strengthen the identity of a DJ by showcasing their visual identity beyond sound.
About New York
Tracks capturing the city’s vibe for me include:
CMD+Jazmine: Documentary Roots, Cyborg Futures
Photo credit: @chenoatarin - DJ CMD+Jazmine at Bouquet Beats
With a decade of work in sound design and documentary audio, CMD+Jazmine approaches DJing as storytelling. “Whenever I create a set, I think about a character going on a journey, where they are headed, how they want to feel at the end.” This narrative perspective shapes her mixes, productions, and compositions, making each performance a unique exploration of emotion and experience.
Her influences extend far beyond music. Trained as a graphic designer and durational performance artist, she draws from visual art, code, and cyber aesthetics. She explores the tension between human and machine, imagining DJs and audiences alike as cyborg bodies shaped by technology.
Interview Highlights:
Artistic Identity
"Your work spans DJing, sound design, and production. What do you feel makes your sound and sets uniquely yours?"
My background has roots in documentary audio, where I’ve been a producer, sound designer, and composer for over ten years. DJing and music production, much like making a documentary, is a narrative form for expressing fact, an emotion, or exploring a feeling in public. Whenever I create a set, build an audio scene for a podcast or the screen, or write a song, I think about a fictional character going on a journey. I think about what their motivations are, where they are heading, and how they want to feel at the end. Sometimes, it leads to autobiographical work; other times, it leads to creating a fictional universe to escape into. Either way, that documentary approach to all of my work makes it very much my own.
Unexpected Influences
"Beyond music, are there artistic or cultural influences (cyber aesthetics, film, technology, literature) that inspire your approach to sound and performance?"
I’m formally trained as a graphic designer and durational performance artist, so those two forms of study often influence my work. I owe a lot of my artistic ethos to visual artists Adrian Piper, William Pope L., Martine Syms, Sondra Perry, and Jenny Holzer. My aesthetics are drawn from a career in front-end development and staring at lines of code for hours on end. I’m artistically interested in the tension created by technology as both a tool for expression and a source of risk, I feel that most people today, through smartphones, wearable devices, and medical enhancements, are, in a sense, cyborgs.
NYC Vibe & Scene
"If you had to pick 2–3 tracks that capture the spirit of Brooklyn/NYC underground right now, which ones would they be and why?"
I’m So Grateful - Petal
I was born and raised in the Chicagoland area, but lived in the city proper for a few years before moving to NYC. I grew up on the sounds of footwork, ghettotech, and deep house. Sampling was all over. When I moved to New York, I was exposed to so many new drum patterns, break chops, and ways of sampling. This song by Petal feels like the soul of Chicago with the speed and chops of New York, which I’m obsessed with.
Artifact - Hannah Account
I have tinnitus, but I enjoy songs that feel like they tickle that little whine that permanently exists in my right ear. The textures and drums in Hannah’s work, especially Artifact, have sounded incredible in the places that I’ve played this track. There’s an incredible amount of sound design excellence in this track that is not only a delight to listen to, but is inspiring.
projection - Crystal Peñalosa
Ambient and drone will always have a special place in my heart, and no one does it like Crystal. Her works feel like worlds that are sculpted in front of you in real-time. The first time I experienced her work was live on a multi-channel system installed in a gallery, and it changed my life. While her music is great for live experiences and headphones, I also use it as tonal tools in the club to add harmonics to mostly drum-driven tracks.
Together, these artists show that DJing is no longer just about moving a crowd, it’s about rewriting the conditions of belonging, reshaping sound as a tool for memory, and insisting that nightlife can hold knowledge, resistance, and care. In their hands, music becomes a living record of the city’s future.
