The Festival is a four-day musical and cultural extravaganza that incorporates all facets of women’s lives. It’s a jam-packed long weekend where choices for things to do range from workshops, concerts, comedy, theatre presentations, a marketplace, newly released films and videos, a live auction, spirituality series, writer’s series, animal lovers series, and much, much more!
Most Festival attendees are women, although men can and do attend. Attendees come from all walks of life and cultures, cutting across ethnic, racial, sexual, age, and ability boundaries.
2011 Performers:
1. Ann Reed
Ann has been a touring musician for more than 30 years and has gotten to know a bit about the geography of the United States and Canada.
2. Anna Vogelzang
Anna, unavoidably soulful singer/songwriter and newly-transplanted Midwesterner sings the best kind of songs, the ones about feelings.
3. C.C. Carter
C.C. is a Chicagoan with national prominence on the performance poetry scene. Her first book, Body Language, a collection of poetry, was nominated for a 2003 Lambda Literary Award. She is the winner of a host of poetry slams including winning the Fifth Annual Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Competition and the First Annual Behind Our Masks Poetry Slam.
4. Chris Pureka
Chris is a breath of fresh air in an age of fleeting success and temporary notions. She is an artist of substance, armed with a sharp eye for oft-missed details and an emotional intelligence that can switch from withering to compelling with a subtle inflection.
5. Deidre McCalla
Deidre came of age in the fiery blaze of NYC's folk heyday - a time when Greenwich Village clubs were filled with the likes of Dylan, Baez, and Ochs; a time when Motown ruled the top of the charts and the streets of America screamed with anger and civil unrest.
6. Marga Gomez
Marga is a native New Yorker who makes San Francisco her home and identifies as a bicoastal Gemini. As the daughter of a Cuban comedian and Puerto Rican dancer Marga made her stage debut in New York at age 7 and was hooked ever since. Her long and colorful career includes achievements in comedy, theater, film and television and was profiled in the 2005 documentary “Laughing Matters.”
7. ZRAZY (Musical Group)
Irish vocalist Maria Walsh and UK saxophonist/pianist Carole Nelson, formed Zrazy in 1992, winning the Hot Press Irish Music Critics Award for Best New Band the following year. Their first two CDs, Give it All Up and Permanent Happiness, were pure pop/dance delights, integrating Celtic lyricism, poetic sensibility and traditional instruments with funky loops and techno grooves. In 1999 they released their third album Private Wars. Recorded in Ireland with their jazz quintet and released on their own ALFI label, it was a stunning collection of eleven original jazz songs.
FESTIVAL WORKSHOPS
1. Lesbian Sexuality Workshop
Glenda Corwin, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist will present a workshop at NWMF. Dr. Corwin is the author of Sexual Intimacy For Women: A Guide For Same Sex Couples, released in Spring 2010.
Most of us know about hot, romantic, falling-in-love sex—but what about long-term sexual intimacy? Women who remain long-term lovers understand how “24-Hour Foreplay” brings emotional connection, sensual awareness, and erotic imagination together. “Lesbian bed death,” or a thriving sex life? You decide—this workshop will show you the skills you need to increase sexual desire and pleasure.
2. NWMF Drumming Intensive Workshops
Basic hand drum workshop with Rani [Djembe, Ashiko, Dunun, and bells] [2 hrs] Friday/Saturday
-Intermediate hand drum workshop with Wahru [Djembe, Ashiko, Dunun, clave, and bells] [2 hrs] Friday/Saturday.
-Drum Chorus practice with Wahru and assistants....Advanced hand drumming and West African Rhythms with Nurudafina Pili Abena, a historian and drum elder.
Nuru
-Friday: Djembe, Ashiko, Dunun & bells. [2hrs]
-In addition to a quick review of necessary basic techniques this workshop will concentrate on advanced hand techniques and specific African drum rhythms. This workshop will include more than drumming--
Spirituality Workshops
-Design Your Personal Croning Ritual - Ruth Barrett
-Singing The Women's Wheel of the Year - Ruth Barrett
-Awakening the Warrior-Carol McCollum
-Clearing Emotional and Spiritual Clutter with EFT-Nano Boye Nagel
-Come Discover Mayan Goddess Ix Chel !-Peggy Patty
-Crop Circles I-Lynnie Levy & Mary Pierce
-Crop Circle II-Lynnie Levy & Mary Pierce
-Emotional Freedom to Live an Authentic Life-Nano Boye Nagel
-Ensuring the Future-Daña Adler, Laura Keefe, Mildred Olsen
-Guardian Archetypes-Jade River, Lynnie Levy
Hidden Hystory: the Board Game"-Susan Grossman
For more information on camping, lodging and tickets, please click below on "WOMEN'S FESTIVAL WEBSITE"...
