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Music

Chelsea Manning Loves Drum and Bass, Continues Being Cool

The former military analyst also DJs.
Photo of Chelsea Manning by Tim Travers Hawkins.

Chelsea Manning is a head. The former intelligence analyst who was detained by the US government for seven years for whistleblowing, tweeted yesterday that she's been listening to drum and bass since 2001. She also said that she's a fan of trip-hop, classic house, and trance, and can DJ.

Manning's revelation of her musical preferences was met with glee by members of the dance music community, with the Black Madonna tweeting: ".@xychelsea is a junglist and everything is goooooooood." Brooklyn-based online radio station The Lot also offered her a slot on one of their shows.

Manning responded to say that the offer was "tempting" but that she doesn't have all her gear and she's "way out of practice." To which Twitter users were quick to offer to set up a crowdfunding campaign to help raise money for new gear, but she politely declined. "I've got my mixers, synths cables and stuff, I'm mostly good—thank you very much," she said.

In 2013, Manning was convicted of violating the Espionage Act after disclosing military documents to WikiLeaks and sentenced to 35 years in prison. She was put in solitary confinement and the treatment she received while in prison was later deemed "cruel and inhumane" by a UN investigator.

In one of Barack Obama's final acts as President, he commuted Manning's sentencing and she was released on May 17, 2017.