New Orleans festivals celebrate everything from food to music to art – things from our culture that make us stand out. Our festivals also celebrate people, and in November, LadyFest New Orleans will celebrate the women of New Orleans by giving female artists an event where they can showcase their talents. According to their Web site, LadyFest is a “non-profit, music, spoken word and arts festival organized by local women of all identities to showcase, celebrate and encourage the music, poetry, film, art and activism of women in New Orleans and to benefit local organizations that support women.” The festival will be held at several venues in New Orleans and feature performers such as Charmaine Neville, Ingrid Lucia and Lynn Drury.
LadyFest New Orleans will coincide with LadyFests occuring all over America and in Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Fance, Australia, and New Zealand. The first LadyFest took place in August 2000 at Olympia, Washington, and it featured performances by bands, authors, and spoken word artists along with workshops, panels and dance parties. With this being one of the most successful feminist collaborations ever, the organizers encouraged women everywhere to start their own LadyFests, and now there are several around the world.
According to the festival’s mission statement, LadyFest is meant to perpetuate self-empowerment. “We have created an annual festival where women can perform with other women (and men) in a safe, dominantly female-friendly, non-corporate environment.” The organizers also feel that “providing a venue for women artists counters the obstacles and discrimination that women often face, including sexism, homophobia and racism.” Of course, the festival invites women and men of all ages, races, and backgrounds.
LadyFest starts today and continue until Sunday, November 7 at venues around the city. For more information, visit LadyFestNewOrleans.org.
Wednesday, November 3
GOSPEL GLORIFICATION
St Anna’s Episcopal Church (1313 Esplanade Ave.)
6 p.m Worship Service in the Church
7:30 p.m. Music performances in the Parish Hall
Danielle Wilson & the Truth
N*Harmone’
Thursday, November 4
BMC (504 Esplanade Avenue)
6 p.m. Zena Moses
7 p.m. Wendy Darling
8 p.m. Meschiya Lake
9 p.m. Jayna Morgan
10 p.m. Jenn Howard
Friday, November 5
Sweet Lorraine’s Jazz Club (1931 St. Claude Ave.)
6 p.m. Kat Walker
7 p.m. Amy Trail
8 p.m Miss Sophie Lee
9 p.m. Holley Bentdsen and Amasa Miller
10 p.m. Charmaine Neville
11 p.m. Michaela Harrison
Saturday, November 6
POETRY POWER DAY
Lost Love Lounge (2529 Dauphine St.)
12 p.m. Lady Baby Miss
1 p.m. Megan Harris
1:15 p.m. Laura Anne Baselar Brown
1:30 p.m. Melinda Palacio
1:45 p.m. Laura Mattingly
2 p.m. Heather Tammany
2:15 p.m. Sunday Angleton
2:30 p.m. Laurie Wiliams
2:45 p.m. Melanie Leavitt
3 p.m. Biljana Obradovic
3:15 p.m. David Leonard & Roselyn Lionhart (Music & Poetry)
3:45 p.m. Katheryn Krotzer Laborde
4 p.m. Robin Kemp
4:15 p.m. Beverly Rainbolt
4:30 p.m. pm Gina Ferrara
4:45 p.m. Liz Garcia
5 p.m. Monica Miller
5:30 p.m. Neti Vann & Hannah Kreiger-Benson, with a introductory poem by Esme Vaandager
Saturday, November 6
Blue Nile (532 Frenchmen St.)
6 p.m. Beth Patterson
7 p.m. Lil Red and Big Bad
8 p.m. Ingrid Lucia
9 p.m. Susan Cowsill
10 p.m. Mary Lasseigne
11 p.m. Lynn Drury
Sunday, November 7
Ashe Cultural Arts Center (1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.)
1 p.m. Nattie
2 p.m. Margie Perez
3 p.m. MaryFlynn’s Prohibition Blues
4 p.m. Monica MacIntyre
5 p.m. Zion Trinity
Zeitgeist Multi Disciplinary Arts Center (1618 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard)
8 – 9 p.m. Films by Autumn Leonard & Jocelyn Marquis
