As local creators and vendors line the city square for the Bloomington Handmade Market, sellers and customers alike can enjoy the sounds of live local and international talent performing on the Granfalloon Second Stage.
The performance on June 8 at 100 W. Kirkwood Ave. includes Kaia Kater, Girls Rock Bloomington and its founder and director Amy Oelsner. Other performances are yet to be announced, but it will begin at 11 a.m. and last until 4 p.m.
Kaia Kater
A Grenadian-Canadian artist from Montréal, Québec, Kaia Kater released her first EP titled “Old Soul” in 2013 after she had just graduated high school. Kater takes her inspirations from the Canadian folk music scene, Appalachia, as well as her father’s experiences growing up in Grenada before becoming a Canadian refugee. She earned a nomination for the 2019 Juno Contemporary Roots Album of the Year award and appeared in an NPR Tiny Desk Concert. Kater released her newest album, “Strange Medicine,” in May and began her 2024 spring tour in Savannah, Georgia in April.
Kater has also gained acclaim for her work as a film and television songwriter and composer. Creating music for CBC, BBC Music and Rolling Stone, Kater’s music has been featured in the film “My Dead Friend Zoe” and the BET+ original series “The Porter,” among other movies and shows.
Kater is performing in partnership with Bloomington Roots, a local nonprofit bringing acoustic roots, indie, rock, jazz and classical acts from around the nation to Bloomington through performances at various theaters, bars, parks and festivals.
Kater’s performance will begin at 2 p.m.
Girls Rock Bloomington and Amy O
Girls Rock Bloomington is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization which aims to build confidence and community for girls, trans and nonbinary youth ages 8-14 through music. Girls Rock Bloomington aims to act as a tool of self-expression for its young members through workshops, after-school programs, music lessons, open mic nights and summer camp where all instruments and basic gear are provided.
The band “The Sera-Tones," formed by Girls Rock campers, will be performing in the Granfalloon showcase with Amy Oelsner, the founder and director of Girls Rock Bloomington and winner of the 2020 Indiana Governor’s Arts Emerging Artist Award. Oelsner has more than 15 years of experience working in children’s music programs and tours nationally with her own bands, Amy O and Brenda’s Friend.
The Girls Rock showcase will begin at 3 p.m.
