Festival MC and UW alumna Christa Bell makes a few announcements before the panel discussion. Photo by Christopher Duclos.

Children ran from their parents with glee and students took opportunities to learn as members of the community gathered for the 3^rd annual Women Who Rock Festival on Saturday, March 9.  The event not only celebrates female cultural icons in music, art and literature, but provided a fun day out for people of all ages.

For the past three years, University of Washington faculty members Angelica Macklin, Sonnet Retman and Michelle Habell-Pallan have volunteered to proudly put on this event to celebrate iconic women in American and international cultures. The event took up all three floors of the International District’s Washington Hall, creating a positive atmosphere that the whole family could enjoy. Labeled as an “un-conference” due to its many unconventional activities that took place, the festival was free and open to all ages.

“The un-conference sessions successfully brought people together to dialog and embody archiving for community-building in many forms,” said Macklin. This included a film festival, discussion panel and performances including an open mic.

The un-conference also featured Japanese artist/actress Nobuko Miyamoto. Miyamoto was a highlight to the festival in a keynote performance. According to Macklin, “Nobuko Miyamoto’s keynote was profound, life-changing, and reinforced the importance of recording the life-stories of people who have carved out pathways for generations to follow.”  Throughout the day, Miyamoto also taught workshops for young children, giving the gift of her stories for inspiration.

This year the event focused on the launch of the Women Who Rock Oral History Archive. 

UW Gender and Women’s studies PhD student Monica De La Torre was one of the many volunteers helping make the event a success.  For the past three years, De La Torre has helped put on the event as a co-organizer and collaborator on the Women Who Rock community’s planning committee. “It’s outstanding to see all sorts of scholars, activists, musicians and people of different races come together to celebrate the awesome work of women in history. It’s really fulfilling and energizing, even though the event is a lot of work to put on every year,” she said, while serving red velvet cake at the festival.

The event was also an opportunity for young media-makers to cover for experience. One of the groups was What’s Good 206, a youth media mentoring and production organization. Austin Williams, a junior in the Department of Communication, spent his Saturday filming a documentary for the group as their Executive Producer. “Covering this event has been a pleasure for What’s Good 206. We’ve learned so much about a lot of the women who have contributed to the music scene in Seattle,” he said. “This is what drives our [media organization], just getting the opportunity to cover these community-based projects.”

The festival also attracted nonprofits to the event.” Pinay sa Seattle, a Filipino nonprofit organization, served traditional Filipino food while advertising their cause against various issues for women’s rights in the Philippines. “It’s great to come together with other organizations that are working toward the same thing, even if it’s not all about Filipino women,” said Carly Farria, a representative for Pinay sa Seattle. “I think it’s really beneficial for the community to feel this sense of female empowerment that comes with experiencing an event like this.”

The event was put on thanks to dozens of volunteers, including the Women Who Rock organizing committee. To get involved with next year’s festival, those interested are encouraged to contact the organizing committee on the Women Who Rock Community website. Help is needed in many small ways including finding performers, maintaining the website and more.

Professors Michelle Habell-Pallan and Sonnet Retman also plan on offering a 200/300 level course in the spring of 2014 that covers many of the people and information from the Women Who Rock History archive. The class will be offered jointly by the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies (GWSS) and American Ethnic Studies (AES) departments.

By CHRIS DUCLOS