10 years later...

The Maggie Rogers Foundation is dedicated to bringing arts and music education to students of all backgrounds, while continuing my on-going effort to support the health and wellbeing of women.

24 March 2026

Hi hi —

Writing to you from New York City where spring is just threatening to peek through the sludge. Unbelievably, this past weekend marked 10 years since the video of me playing “Alaska” for Pharrell in my NYU classroom first made its way onto the internet. Kind of hard to believe…especially with the jump-skip-time-hop of the pandemic, it feels more like 5 than 10, but here we are. If you’ve been here since the beginning, thanks for being along for this wild ride. It’s a funny and special thing to have your life changed by folks you’ll never meet, but I’m so grateful that video brought me to you.

My life changed forever that day, and in an effort to give students a comparable opportunity, I’ve started The Maggie Rogers Foundation as a philanthropic platform. The Maggie Rogers Foundation is dedicated to bringing arts and music education to students of all backgrounds, while continuing my on-going effort to support the health and wellbeing of women of all identities in communities across the country — because creativity and care go hand in hand. The foundation will have many pursuits, but it feels fitting that our debut initiative will be The Maggie Rogers Endowed Scholarship Fund at NYU, which will offer financial aid to students pursuing degrees in music production.

There’s so much to reflect on from the last 10 years. I remember how scared I was, how quickly my life was changing. In a weird way, I think this video really cemented my sense of spirituality. It crept in through the window of the unexplainable and out of control. I had to surrender to the tidal wave of change overtaking my life, have a little faith it was all for the best, and let the current carry me downstream. This anniversary has me in my feelings (and in my camera roll), so I imagine I’ll be sharing a bit more in the coming weeks as it all sinks in and I process a little.

Looking ahead to the weekend, I’ll be heading to Minneapolis with two of my nearest and dearests, Joan Baez and Jane Fonda. The three of us will be joined by Bernie Sanders, Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, and a few other surprise speakers. In the midst of the daily nausea I wake up feeling when I see the headlines of hatred, fascism, war, greed, you-name-it-grab-bag-of-evil…there’s really nowhere else I’d rather be than in Minnesota standing up to this big orange moron. You can find more info about Saturday’s No Kings event in Minneapolis here and find a No Kings event in your city here. See you there!

And here’s to the next 10 years… Thanks for doing this with me. Over and over again.

Yours,

Maggie