Lindsay White and Songwriter Sanctuary San Diego Honored with Larry T Baza Arts & Culture Award for Building Queer Community Through Music
By Cesar A Reyes
Songwriter Sanctuary San Diego has quickly become one of those rare spaces where music feels less like performance and more like shared breath. Held in partnership with Normal Heights United, a progressive church that opens its historic sanctuary as a listening room, the series brings local songwriters together in an intimate “in-the-round” format where artists sit in a circle, trading songs and stories one by one. There’s no barrier between stage and audience, no spectacle to hide behind—just voice, vulnerability, and connection. “It’s an in-the-round experience,” says Lindsay White, president and curator of Songwriter Sanctuary San Diego, “where musicians sit in a circle instead of on a stage, trading songs and stories one at a time.”
White moved to San Diego in 2005 after playing basketball at Occidental College and working as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Mesa College. After coming out, she stepped away from coaching and turned toward arts and culture work, building a life rooted in creative community and care. Today, as president and curator of Songwriter Sanctuary San Diego, she helps guide a monthly series that began in 2023 as a sibling project to Writers Round San Diego and has since evolved into a nonprofit rooted in access, equity, and belonging.
That evolution is part of what makes this year’s Spirit of Stonewall recognition especially meaningful. Songwriter Sanctuary has been named the Larry T Baza Arts & Culture award honoree, placing its work within a broader legacy of LGBTQ+ cultural leadership in San Diego. For White, the honor is less about individual recognition and more about what it represents collectively. “It helps me reflect on the trajectory of social justice movements,” she says. “The consistent and dedicated service of community members helps blaze new trails, but also fortifies the work of those who came before.” She describes the award as affirmation that the organization is part of a living continuum of queer arts and cultural care.
At its core, Songwriter Sanctuary is built on the idea that music can hold both intimacy and justice at the same time. In partnership with Normal Heights United and supported by season pass holders, the series prioritizes fair pay for artists while maintaining a donation-based model that ensures no one is turned away for lack of funds. “We try to ensure the artists we showcase reflect the vibrancy and diversity of San Diego’s music scene,” White says. That commitment has expanded as the organization has formalized into a nonprofit, launching initiatives like a Pre-Show Pantry Jam, an Artist Access Network, and a Community Resource Hub designed to remove barriers for both artists and audiences.
For White, the work is also deeply personal. As a queer songwriter with a history of religious trauma, she is intentional about the significance of hosting LGBTQ+ artists inside a church space. “I’ve experienced the abuse many religious institutions inflict on their communities,” she says, “not only toward queer people, but in the ways they teach shame and exclusion.” Songwriter Sanctuary, in contrast, is about reclaiming that setting as something else entirely—a place where artists and audiences can show up fully, without fear, and be received with care.
As Pride approaches, White is preparing for a moment she once only imagined from the sidelines: marching in the parade with her wife and daughter. “My family is the personification of the love our community works so hard to protect,” she says. And in that image—family, music, community, and visibility all moving forward together—the meaning of the award finds its clearest expression.