Ladyfest New Orleans

Women on the March

dianat — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:19:56 +0000

YeMaYa, a new walking parade for women only

In 2010, school librarian and perennial parader Ann Marie Coviello started Ladies Make Parades, a project centered around writing a piece exploring the women in New Orleans’ walking-parade culture. But as she began meeting women through the project, she realized her interest didn’t lie in documentation.

”What I really wanted to do was put on a parade,” she says. “That’s what I do. Writers write — I parade.”

Co-founder of the 6t’9 Social Aid & Pleasure Club and one of the founders of the Box of Wine walking parade, Coviello decided to step out on her own and create the women-only walking parade YeMaYa. The parade makes its debut Saturday, Nov. 5, in conjunction with Ladyfest New Orleans.

Now in its fifth year, organizers of Ladyfest — the nonprofit festival showcasing female musicians and artists — hoped to include a nighttime parade in its slate of events. What they needed was a veteran parade organizer to pull it off.

“I’ve marched in a zillion parades but never organized one. Ann Marie was a total dynamo and came to the rescue,” says Roselyn Lionheart, founder of Ladyfest New Orleans and one-half of the music group David & Roselyn. “I’m thrilled at this idea. It just fits so perfectly with the Ladyfest consciousness.”

More than 25 women’s parading groups will march in YeMaYa, named after the motherly Yoruban sea goddness said to protect women, children and the ocean.

“It was really in my heart to say ‘What would it be like if it was all women?’” Coviello says. “I’m a feminist, and there’s that idea of a women’s place and a women’s space. What would that feel like if it was on the street?”

Another YeMaYa organizer is Beth Manley, founding member of the Cameltoe Lady Steppers, one of the city’s first women’s marching groups and likely the inspiration for the subsequent proliferation of similar organizations.

“I’ve really enjoyed attending the meetings and getting caught up with a bunch of really extraordinarily amazing women who are powerful and really go-getters in their own particular areas,” Manley says.

The parade begins at Buffa’s Bar & Restaurant on Esplanade Avenue and ends with a party at The Maison on Frenchmen Street. The Cameltoe Lady Steppers, Lady Buckjumpers, the Pussyfooters, the Bearded Oysters, the Sirens of New Orleans and others will join the parade; women from New Orleans Ladies Arm Wrestling will provide “parade management and security,” and a “a group of radical doulas with a choir singing songs to Yameya” will participate. Bands include The Local Skank, Skin ‘n’ Bones Gang and Mo’Lasses. Women from some of the stores where paraders find their costumes and accoutrements will ride on a carriage in the procession.

“The chance to honor those women means a lot, because we really couldn’t parade without them,” Coviello says. “What would we do without our false eyelashes, our 15-inch plumes, our fabulous lace and our super-microfine glitter?”

Although paraders are women, with the exception of some “essential men” allowed to participate, Coviello says men are certainly invited to watch.

“We hope that a lot of wonderful men will come out and wave and cheer us on and see 500 of New Orleans most beautiful women walking down the street together in fabulous costumes,” she says.

YeMaYa Parade

6 p.m. Nov. 5

Starts at Buffa’s (1101 Esplanade Ave.) and ends at The Maison (508 Frenchmen St.)

Source: Gambit Weekly
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/women-on-the-march/Content?oid=1902267

Celebrating Women in the Arts

dianat — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:09:21 +0000

LadyFest New Orleans

5^th Anniversary Celebrating Women in the Arts November 2 – 6, 2011

The City of New Orleans honors LadyFest New Orleans with a Proclamation for their 5^th Anniversary Celebrating New Orleans Women in the Arts on the steps of City Hall, 3:30 pm, Wednesday, November 2, 2011. A Second-Line parade rolls at 4 pm to St. Anna’s Episcopal Church, 1313 Esplanade for a Mass on “Women in the Bible” followed by dinner and a concert featuring Hazel and the Delta Ramblers and the Hannah KB Band.

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, dance, poetry, film, art and activism of women in New Orleans and to benefit local organizations that support women.

LadyFest New Orleans’ 5-day event thrills with different delights daily: seminars and art at the New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St. Claude Avenue; pairing musicians, artists, poets and film at various venues. Thursday, The Blue Trees, Sweet Jones, Lips and the Trips and Gaynielle “Queen G”Neville’s Ladies of New Orleans, et al jam at the Maison, 504 Frenchmen Street, and on Friday, Anais St. John, Olivia Greene, Estelle Campagne, Erica Falls, Sharon Martin & Betty Shirley’s Jazz reigns at Sweet Lorraine’s 1931 St. Claude.

Saturday features Poetry and Book Signing by poets Valentine Pierce, Lee Grue, Omaira Falcon and Gina Fararra at the Maple Street Book Store in the New Orleans Healing Center from 11 am until 2 pm, with more poets downstairs in Café Istanbul from 1 to 6 pm.

Saturday night, LadyFest marches thru the city Parading from Buffa’s Bar at 1001 Esplanade, through the Treme ending on Frenchmen at the Maison when the YeMaYa Ladies Parade’s 2^nd Line revelry arrives around 8pm with Mo’Lasses. Zena Moses & Rue Fiya shine at 9 pm.

If you prefer to head straight to Frenchmen, Kelcy Mae’s music begins at the Maison at 7 pm and you may catch the dance performances UpStairs at the Blue Nile from 6 to 10 pm.

Sunday, the festival closes with film from 3 pm to 6 pm; then there’s swinging and singing in Café Istanbul from 3 pm until midnight with Romy Kaye, Patrice Fisher, Michaela Harrison, Gina Forsythe, Kelly Love Jones and the Honey Pots.

Local musician, poet and activist, Roselyn Lionhart spearheads the committee of women volunteers working together to create exciting entertainment. For more information, or to schedule interviews with artists, poets and musicians, contact Roselyn at 504-949-3001.

For complete schedules and more information, please check our LadyFest New Orleans Facebook Page and visit our website www.LadyFestNewOrleans.org. We are a Louisiana Non-profit Corporation with 501c3 status under the aegis of the BackBeat Foundation.

Glinda Mantle
LadyFest New Orleans
LadyFest New Orleans on Facebook

Thank you

dianat — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:39:00 +0000

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Welcome to Ladyfest New Orleans

dianat — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:11:35 +0000

November 1-6, 2011

LadyFest New Orleans is a non-profit music, spoken word and arts festival organized by women of all identities to showcase women in New Orleans and to benefit local organizations that support women.