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SWAN Day Festival to Premiere in Rhode Island

SWAN (Support Women Artists Now) Day is a new international holiday that celebrates women artists. This new event will take place annually on the last Saturday of March, designated by Congress as Women’s History Month. The first SWAN Day will take place on Saturday, March 29, 2008. As a symbol of international solidarity, there will be events featuring women artists all over the world.

SWAN Day RI, a day-long festival featuring women from a wide variety of disciplines, will be held at the Artists’ Exchange in Cranston, RI. Artisans will have booths to showcase their work, while performing artists will be heard and seen throughout the day. Scheduled performances include folk, jazz and classical musicians, spoken word, and screenings from fearless femmes in film.

This grass-roots festival is being spearheaded by Toni Pennacchia of MergingArts Productions and Anne’s Cordial, a Providence-based band, whose members are Erin Reed Ferenbaugh, Eva Kendrick, and Natalie Markward. After searching for a venue for the event, the organizers have teamed up with the Artists’ Exchange in Cranston a non-profit arts collaborative that offers classes and events for adults and children in a variety of disciplines.

Performers hail from near and far, including New Hampshire’s award-winning composer/pianist Deborah Wyndham, who has performed live on NPR; Bonnie Milner and Deirdre Murtha from the Johnson Girls, a lively group from New York that performs traditional sea chanties; and Connecticut’s songwriter-pianist Porter Singer, a Brown University alum.

New and familiar faces to the Providence music scene are also on tap, such as Kim Lamothe, Anne’s Cordial, Annikki Dawn, Meghan Yates, and Allysen Callery, whose CD Hopey was in the Top Picks list of the Providence Phoenix for 2007. From Boston, there is American short story folk singer-songwriter, Thea Hopkins, whose song “Jesus Is on the Wire” was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary; singer-songwriter Jennifer Greer; and experimental pianist Sharon Crumrine with Betty Widerski on electric violin.

Other performances include the a cappella quartet Anthology, the feminist chorus RI Raging Grannies; poetry by Laurie Robertson-Lorant; Linda Stetson who plays the Lakota courting flute; composer/cellist Elizabeth J.K. Erickson, and the omnipresent Ellen Santaniello, a Providence vocalist who has appeared locally and internationally with ensembles such as Oni Wytars, Los Tiempos Passados, Zorgina, and the Boston Camerata.

There will be two blocks of film shorts showcasing filmmakers from California to Ireland. They are a mix of fun, sexy and melancholy shorts—documentary and narrative, live and animated--from two to fifteen minutes. The second segment will close with Signe Baume from NYC, creator of many wild and experimental animations, a Sundance Film Festival alum. The first block of films is for all ages, the second is for mature audiences due to adult content (think Vagina Monologues).

Artisans include Diana Brennan, a photographer and printmaker, Jyll Ethier-Mullen of the whimsical online shop Sickfeet, Maeve Donohue Gonville who specializes in Asian-inspired prints, Amber Bettez of Silver Tides Jewelry, and textile artist Leanne Tremblay. There will also be a booth showcasing the art and craft talents of the Providence Roller Derby Girls, showing another side of these normally rough and tumble girls.

By focusing attention on the work of women artists, SWAN Day RI supports the long-term goal of SWAN Day--to inspire communities around the world to find new ways to recognize and support women artists as a basic element of civic planning (www.swanday.org).

SAMPLE OF ARTISANS’ WORKS (Scroll over picture for the artist’s name)

SWAN DAY RI PERFORMERS SCHEDULE:

11-11:15 Welcome & RI Raging Grannies (in lobby)

11:15-11:40 Deborah Wyndham, piano (in lobby)

11:45-12:30 Film Segment 1, “Fun Films” (Rating G/PG): Featuring shorts by Ellen Lake (CA) and Lyn Elliot (PA)

12:30-2:00 Local singer-songwriters: Allysen Callery, Annikki Dawn, Meghan Yates, Kim Lamothe

2:00-2:20 Laurie Robertson-Lorant, poet

2:20-2:30 Anthology, premiere of Eva Kendrick composition Eve Songs

2:30-2:50 Anthology, a cappella quartet

2:50-3:15 Bonnie Milner and Deirdre Murtha of the Johnson Girls, sea chanteys

3:15-4:00 DJ Madameb spins records from an all female collection

4:00-4:15 Linda Stetson, Lakota courting flute

4:15-4:30 Break

4:30-4:50 Elizabeth J.K. Erickson, composer-cellist

4:50-5:15 Ellen Santaniello, a cappella folk vocalist

5:30-6:45 Singer-songwriter slot 2: Porter Singer, pianist Sharon Crumrine with electric violinist Betty Widerski, Jennifer Greer

6:45-7 Break

7-7:45 Film Segment Two, “Freaky Films” (Rating: PG-13/R): Fran Apprich (Ireland), Aideen McCarthy (Ireland), Kari Jo Skogquist (MN), Signe Baumane (NYC/Latvia)

7:45-8 Break

8-8:30 Anne’s Cordial, trio with vocals, keyboard, harp, and guitar

8:30-9 Raffle and announcements

9-9:30 Thea Hopkins, short story folk singer

Children’s Hours with Princess Miss Michelle: Puppets, Games, and Music

Downstairs interactive space

Children four and under must be accompanied by an adult

11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

4 p.m. – 5 p.m.

*Schedule subject to change.

*All events in black box theatre unless otherwise indicated.