LadyFestGR returns to Heartside on March 22 & 23!

Eight years ago, Tami Vandenberg and Sarah Scott organized a Women’s Event at the DAAC during Women’s History month and had a blast.  When they heard Jes Kramer wanted to put together a women’s festival last year, they contacted her to see if it made sense to collaborate. “We decided to work together on Ladyfest 2012 and it was fantastic and hugely successful,” Vandenberg says. “The reason I helped make this event happen is to showcase the extremely talented women in our community and beyond, and to give the microphone to voices that we do not hear from often.  From the workshops to the performers to the sponsors to the media, we are hoping to build a strong, confident community of women that can work together and celebrate together and collaborate together.

Ladyfest 2013 will include free workshops, a variety show, vendors and concerts featuring local, regional, and national performers. While all performers and presenters must self-identify as female, anyone is welcome to attend. Proceeds from the event will benefit Our Kitchen Table.

Performances

Jean Grae and Invincible- March 22 @The Pyramid Scheme (late show). Jean Grae rose to prominence in the underground hip-hop scene in NYC and has since built an international fan base. From Detroit, Invincible‘s spitfire wordplay has received acclaim from fans all across the world.

Night Jewel – March 22 @The Pyramid Scheme (early show). Despite its unpolished aesthetic and Ramona Gonzalez’s professed aversion to more conventional ideas about glamour, her music exists in the realm of gauzy fantasy: it is a dream world made reality.

Doctors’ Wives, the Bermudas and Claire Fisher. – March 23 @The Pyramid Scheme.

LadyFest Workshops

Workshops of LadyfestGR 2013 will take place at 3 locations in the Heartside neighborhood near The Pyramid Scheme, where Ladyfest concerts are held. The Bloom Collective’s 5th Annual Empowered Womyn’s Health Workshop will be hosting its workshop series as part of the Ladyfest line-up. OKT will present a gardening workshop, as well.

All workshops are FREE, open to the public and lead by Michigan women. Children are welcome to attend, but must be accompanied by an adult. Some mature content will be expressed/shown in workshops, so do your homework first, loves. Here’s the line-up

HEARTSIDE GALLERY AND STUDIO, 48 S. Division Ave:
12-1:30pm
Let’s Make Books! Bookmaking workshop with Victoria Marcetti and Toni Bal. Learn basic book-stitches and binding techniques, and leave with 2 finished books! Beginner-friendly, and all over 8yrs old welcome!

1:30-2pm
Get yr Tits Outta my Comics- a history of women superheroes, taught by Elyse Wild.
2-3pm
Draw your own Heroine! with Alysha Lach. The group will create our own female superheroes together, then you can draw out a comic using books made in the bookmaking workshop just beforehand!
20 person max per class, so be sure to show up on time!

(106) GALLERY, 106 S. Division Ave:
Women’s Health Workshops
2-2:45pm,
Transhealth Info, Jena Lewis from GVSU (main floor)
2-2:45pm
Legislation and reproductive rights, Dani Vilella from GR NOW (downstairs space)
3-3:45
Menstrual health/sew yr own pads with Rachel Hamilton of Bloom Collective and Mandi Creveling from Our Kitchen Table (main floor)
3-3:45
Basic Sex Ed, fertility, birth control options with Kym d from Planned Parenthood (downstairs space)
4-4:30
Aromatherapy for womyn with Deirdre and Kathy Cunningham from Bloom Collective (main floor)
4:00-4:30pm
Food Gardening in Containers with Mandi Creveling and Roni Van Buren from Our Kitchen Table (downstairs space)
4:30-5pm Yoga Nidra for deep rest and intention with Stelle Marie from The Bloom Collective (downstairs space)
30 per max per class!

THE DAAC, 115 S. Division Ave.
3-4 pm Women in Rock, presented by Shelley Salant
4-5 diy event organizing with marlee grace
5-6pm Media and advertising to girls and women, with Julia Mason from GVSU
40 person max per class!

After the workshops head to the Women’s Potluck from 5:30-6:30pm at Bloom Collective’s new space at 8 Jefferson.

Please visit LadyFestGR.com for a full schedule!