DWELLINGS

Hi there,

Our names are Mara Penatzer and Cait Simpson and we hope you will join us in building what we feel is an extremely needed event in this beautiful valley.  Dwellings is a one-day, interdisciplinary music and poetry festival taking place at The Northampton Center for The Arts on Saturday, October 12th. 

The two of us are creative partners. We work together in our band The Greys  as well as in another project called Dirty Words . As local femme artists in this scene, we have noticed a few things that we love about the culture that surrounds us- and we have also noticed some things we would love to change.

This event will feature performances from local and featured touring poets and musicians, offerings from local artists, workshops for artists and audiences, a panel discussion on ethical treatment of artists, an open mic, a community yoga class, and a space to encourage discussion on representation and ethics in the local art and music community. This event will be a celebration of vulnerability, strength, and change.

We believe that this event responds to a need for more ethical, intentional, and inclusive booking and performance practices in our local performing arts community. We also hope with this event to build community between artists from underrepresented groups, and to create an engaging and thought-provoking experience for audiences.

Not only do we look forward to spending this day with you, but this event will serve as a launch for the non-profit we have been working on together of the same name. The non-profit will aim to fund compositions by female artists, provide financial aid for artist retreats, provide trainings for safe venue practices and ethical artist business relations, support young or upcoming artists, and more.

Your donation, no matter the size, helps us work towards these goals.

Thank you,
Cait & Mara