Kristen Ellis-Henderson

Kristen Ellis-Henderson is a guitarist, songwriter and founding member of the popular all female rock band Antigone Rising. She is also the author of a memoir, Times Two: Two Women in Love and the Happy Family They Made (Free Press/Simon & Schuster) and maintains a blog, Hangin' With Hendo, where she voices opinions simply by telling her own personal stories on politically charged issues like same-sex adoption and marriage equality. She and her wife, Sarah Kate Ellis-Henderson, are vocal advocates on LGBT issues, especially marriage and family equality.

In 2005 Antigone Rising signed a major label record deal with Jason Flom at Lava Records/Atlantic Records, and on May 11, 2005, their major label debut, From the Ground Up, was released in conjunction with Starbucks Hear Music label. The first single, "Don't Look Back," was co-written with Rob Thomas from Matchbox Twenty. The band has toured with the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, the Allman Brothers, Rob Thomas, the Bangles, the Dave Matthews Band and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, to name a few.

In 2012 the United States government invited Antigone Rising to travel to Israel and the West Bank/Palestine to act as cultural ambassadors. The band toured the region extensively, performing in remote villages and schools during the day as part of an outreach program, and doing large concerts at night in nightclubs and theaters.

The band is currently signed to the distribution division of Joan Jett's Blackheart Records label, where they released a full-length CD in 2011 titled 23 Red. The band's current single, "That Was the Whiskey," was released March 19, 2013, and is currently available for download on iTunes.