People often ask me what it feels like to be Women of Drummer. Many expect an easy answer or a picture-perfect moment. In reality, being Women of Drummer does not remove you from life. It puts you right in the middle of it...

The leather was stiff and unyielding. It rode up when I sat, pressing against my throat until I felt like I was choking.

The concept of home has never come easy to me. I carry nostalgia for the places I once fled to as a child—the scattered woods and musky bogs outside of Boston —where I wandered aimlessly just to avoid being in the house.

When I boarded the plane to Atlanta, I was bathed in a sense of excited anticipation. Having spent two decades as a leatherdyke, I...