Sarah Michaelson, also known as Mama Cutsworth, has been DJing since 2004, so she’s been spinning professionally for 13 years.

She currently has four main projects going on. She’s in a DJ duo called House of Gold with DJ J. Jackson.

“We usually throw big dance parties with drag queens as our guests, and it’s a queer and feminist-positive dance space,” Michaelson says.

She also runs Mama Cutsworth’s DJ Academy for All Women and Non-Binary Folks, which she started in 2012. So far, 100 people have gone through the program.

“It’s been really rewarding … basically building a community of DJs, and it’s been very cool to see it happen,” she says.

Michaelson also does family dance parties for kids and their families. She recently hosted one on Nov. 19 at The Good Will Social Club that raised money for the West End 24/7 Safe Space.

She’s also a part of a theatre project she started in 2013.

“It’s an international project with two Colombian actors (Felipe Ortiz and Daniel Orrantia) called Speechless, and we are lucky enough to travel around the world with that show,” she says.

Michaelson says she came up with her DJ name from a few inspirations.

“Back when I started DJing, there were very few women DJing,” she says. “There was a couple, but it was important for me to convey that I was a woman, which is why I go by Mama Cutsworth, rather than DJ Cutsworth.”

The “Cutsworth” part comes from a funny joke.

“A friend had a grandpa, and he had a dog named Cutty, and sometimes if they were feeling fancy, they would call the dog ‘Sir Cutsworth,’” she says. “And then I realized ‘wait a second, Cutsworth is a really good DJ name, because of all these dual meanings!’”

Published in Volume 72, Number 12 of The Uniter (November 30, 2017)