A Party Goin’ On Right Here: Celebration of Women Artists

Time for a pop-culture reference: It’s been over a decade since 1996 when the Spice Girls dominated pop music and spread the message of “girl-power,” a message couched in a third wave of feminism. Those little girls who have grown up with that legacy have since become women, and plenty of them have become musicians in their own right. Girl power, or the notion that women and girls are as powerful and valuable as men in all realms of society, is a notion that for my generation, was ubiquitous in our childhoods. Thanks to the encouragement of those who grew up in less supportive times, our girls today are kicking butt and making names for themselves.

In our own community, we have seen a great wealth of talent emerge in the last decade. It’s thanks to the legacy of that message that the likes of Brenda Weiler, Margot Wagner, Lucy Black, and Angie Stevens unabashedly pursue their music. It’s thanks to that message that the next generation of girls have heroes to look up to and to inspire the pursuit of their own passions.

It’s also this message that Deb Jenkins, Fargo’s own caterer/writer/musician/renaissance woman extraordinaire, seeks to pass on each year with her brainchild A Celebration of Women and their Music. For the sake of her own daughter, and for the daughters of our community, Deb really wanted to support and inspire women and girls to pursue their passions. “I have a daughter, and 11 years ago when I decided to do this, I wanted to show her that women could do anything they wanted to do, and one of the things that a lot of the women that I know in my life, in my circle, is music.”

For Deb, and the women who came together 11 years ago to make this happen, A Celebration of Women and Their Music is really a community effort; an exhibition of local talent and a night of mutual support for those who are dedicated to art and music in the region. Nita Velo, a featured musician this year and a woman who has been devoted to this event since the very beginning, says “what I get from the Celebration of Women and Their Music is a sense of camaraderie and support that I have found through the group of women and the performers that continually come. This event is basically just strengthening and it’s all for the good. People give from their souls and use their talents to give back to the community and to help others. I really want to be a part of that show until I am six feet underground.”

Perhaps most importantly, the event doesn’t exclusively support music. The show itself is actually a fundraiser for an award endowment fund established with the F-M Area Foundation. Each year, more and more young women from high-schools all over the state apply for a variety of awards for visual, literary, and performance arts as well as music. “The list [of applicants] was extensive this year, of how far away young women applied for the awards this year, places I’ve never even heard of, which was very cool.”

This year’s winner of “the big one”, as Deb calls the $500 Mary Ellen Thompson Award, is Hannah Christianson, a senior from Shanley High School in Fargo. Students from Fergus Falls and Valley City have also received awards this year. For the community, and the region, supporting these young women by giving out those awards is really a boost of encouragement, a gentle push in the direction of the pursuit of passion. In turn, these women give back to their community by enriching the culture that we have here.

For Deb, this enrichment is a priority, along with encouraging of the both men and women who make their homes here to support and be inspired by the arts. Ultimately, she hopes that “anybody that’s in that audience, even if it’s one person, walks away with confidence and being proud of the community that these people would take the time to come to the show and just have this empowerment for one night”. For Nita, the goal is similar. She adds, “I want to see [those that attend] find new beginnings. Not just women, but anyone. It includes all ages, there is no color, and it encapsulates all generations. I hope that it will strengthen bonds and inspire hope in our younger generations coming up, that they may pursue these talents. Just to give them hope and to try to encourage that.”