In celebration of Women’s History Month, Atwood Magazine has invited various artists to contribute essays that explore themes of identity, music, culture, inclusion, and more.
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Today, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist CLOVER reveals how delving into reproductive health education has led to more genuine songwriting in a special essay for Atwood Magazine’s Women’s History Month series! CLOVER hails from Frenchtown, New Jersey, and merges the sounds of folk, pop, and soul. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Lake Street Dive, Maggie Rogers, and Carole King, she fuses the energetic styles of the ’60s and ’70s with modern music, crafting a sound that resonates with audiences from various generations. Her work ranges from lively, groove-centric tracks that inspire movement to deeply emotional songs that evoke tears, covering themes of love, grief, autonomy, confidence, and spirituality.
After graduating from Bard College in 2018, CLOVER was invited to audition for NBC’s The Voice. She spent a month in Los Angeles filming but chose to leave before the show aired, a pivotal decision that reinforced her desire for artistic independence and control over her music and image. Since then, CLOVER has navigated her independent career with elegance. In the fall of 2018, she relocated to Brooklyn, NY, where she often performed at local venues like Rockwood Music Hall, Pete’s Candy Store, and PIANOS, also making an appearance on WNYC’s The Greene Space for Next Best Thing.
Following the release of her debut single “This Love” in early 2020, she departed from Brooklyn and spent a year traveling across the country, sharing music through street performances with her partner Dani Sundream during the pandemic. During her travels, she began creating her own sustainable merchandise, thrifted t-shirts that she naturally dyed with plants, and learned screen printing in the various locations she called home.
Her music is driven by themes of sustainability, female empowerment, and social activism. She co-wrote the song “Power” for MILCK, which was featured on ABC Network for Women’s History Month in March 2022. Subsequently, she performed “War on Women” and “My Kind of Woman” at the NYC Women’s March. In June 2024, she is set to perform on her largest stage yet at the Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks in Bethlehem, PA. With her debut EP on the horizon, CLOVER’s journey as an artist is just beginning.
CLOVER’S debut EP, ‘Atlas,’ will be released on May 30th. You can listen to her latest singles on streaming platforms, and read her Women’s History Month essay below!
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by CLOVER
In the summer of 2020, I made the challenging choice to stop taking the birth control pill. At 24 years old, in a committed relationship, I wanted to experience how my body felt without it. I had been on the pill since I was 14... a decade spent manipulating my hormones without understanding the effects.
By the end of the first month, my new period arrived and hit me hard. I experienced crippling cramps that made me curl up like a baby, retch over the toilet while vomiting, and eventually fall asleep from sheer exhaustion due to the pain. “What the actual f?” I wondered. Was this what my period would have been like all those years without the pill? Or was it due to being on the pill for so long?
It couldn't possibly be like this forever…so I began educating myself. I investigated what happens during each cycle, why we bleed, what creates imbalances, and what I could do about it.
What did I discover?
A wealth of information that no one had taught us in school! I learned that our cycles hold answers to many mysteries, revealing valuable insights about our vitality each month. I found out that you can track where you are in your cycle by measuring your temperature each morning, enabling you to know exactly when you are ovulating or about to bleed (even if it varies each month). I also learned that the four phases of the cycle resemble the four seasons – Winter (Menstrual), Spring (Follicular), Summer (Ovulation), Fall (Luteal).
This newfound knowledge not only motivated my health journey but also inspired my songwriting and creativity. If you ever see someone sporting a t-shirt with a hand-drawn uterus, it might just be CLOVER merch!
CLOVER t-shirt
CLOVER © Jennie Hankins
“My Kind of Woman” is an unreleased song that I hope to release later this year. In the second verse, I sing, “my softness is a cycle spinning around the womb / saturated scarlet, uterus an artist, watercolor blooms.”
I wrote this song during a period when I began consciously aligning my life with the seasons of my cycle. When I bleed,
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Singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist CLOVER reveals in a special essay for Atwood Magazine's Women's History Month series how exploring reproductive health education has led to more genuine songwriting.