Multi-act show kickstarts Women's History Month

Local radio station WFHB‘s Women Rule kickoff party Thursday night honored April, Women’s History Month, as well as the station’s 20th anniversary.

The event kicked off at 8 p.m. at The Back Door and featured an evening of girl-power entertainment, including music, stand-up comedy and hula hoop routines performed by women.

Singer-songwriter Maria Sarah started the show with original songs including “Wayfaring Stranger” and “Indiana,” which are featured on her new EP.

Hula hoop troupe the Hudsucker Posse performed routines featuring fluorescent and light-up hula hoops choreographed to hip hop instrumentals.

Jenna Epkey, an Indianapolis-area singer and winner of the 2012 Blooming-Tunes songwriting competition, performed new songs while her husband, Tony, provided backup guitar.

Other acts included all-girl rock group The Vallures and comedians Allie Vollmer and Melinda Kashner.

Cathi Nortion, a WFHB volunteer who helped organize the event, said it was important to have a wide variety of local talent perform as WFHB prides itself on presenting a varied cross-section of local music.

“Bloomington is so lucky to have the wonderful performers it does, and so many are generous with their art,” she said. “Everyone was quickly on-board with the show and eager to participate. It’s rewarding to see that.”

Kashner said she was interested in performing at the event primarily because of the message the event was representing.

“In comedy, there are a lot of ladies-night showcases,” Kashner said. “I’m not a huge fan of categorizing comedy by schtick in this way because it suggests an inherent similarity among all female comics which of course isn’t true, just as it’s not the case for male comics. However, this event is something I’m excited to be a part of because it is a celebration of women first and foremost.”

Following the two-hour set of performers, a WFHB-sponsored dance party lasted from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m. Norton said the purpose of the evening was to honor the work of the station as well as the work of area women.

“The goal of the evening is to celebrate what our volunteers, dreamers and community friends have done — taken a dream and built a station from it,” Norton said. “That is the focus of our concert really, to allude to how difficult it can sometimes be heard in our world today, both as women and citizens in general, and demonstrate the artful variety of ways we’ve done it.”