SWAN Day Connecticut, an annual music and arts festival organized by Super SWAN Jennifer Hill, will take place on Saturday, April 17 from 3 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. EST. The free show will be streamed live on the SWAN Day CT Facebook page. This is Jennifer Hill’s 14th annual SWAN event, and this year’s theme is “Love Yourself.”
Portions of the show will be recorded live at the Free Center in Middletown, CT, but since the performers can’t all be in the building at the same time due to social distancing rules, some of the artists will be streaming from other venues.
With her usual upbeat energy, Hill has turned this challenge into an opportunity. She has always wanted to include artists from SWAN events around the world, and this year she will do it through streaming. In February, Hill performed virtually as part of a SWAN Day Kenya event, and now Lydiah Dola from Kenya will return the favor by performing virtually at SWAN Day CT. Shellen Lubin from SWAN Day NY will also perform virtually.
Hill has built a wonderful community of women artists who have come together through her annual SWAN Day CT events. Linalynn Schmelzer, who is performing an original dance piece on finding hope in a time of vulnerability and conflict, said, “SWAN Day CT is an important platform for women artists where we can come together, support each other, and feel the impact of our contributions to our art forms.”
This year’s youngest SWAN Day CT performer, dancer Madelynn Brown said, “As a young feminist, it’s really special to be part of an event where women are sharing what we’re passionate about.”
Earlier this month, Hill worked with photographer Mandi Martini to do a photo shoot featuring some of the SWAN Day CT performers in fabulous SWAN-themed outfits. You can see the photos on the SWAN Day CT Instagram page.
The Connecticut performers this year will be musicians Jennifer Hill and Lisa Lawrence; dancers Linalynn Schmelzer of River Valley Dance Project and Madelynn Brown; burlesque performers Vivienne LaFlamme, Mistress Leona Star and Harley Foxx; and live painter Kerry Kennedy.
In addition to Lydiah Dola of Kenya and Shellen Lubin of New York, the out-of-state performers will be Sunny Gable of Colorado, Gracie Day of Massachusetts, and Nina Martinez of New York. Also, Sarah Gallardo, an advocate for domestic violence awareness from Sarah Speaks Up, will provide words of self-affirmation.
The event will be free but each performer will have a donation link posted when they perform. Hill points out that many performers lost most of their income this year due to pandemic shutdowns, and she is asking audience members to please make gifts if they can.
Hill says, “We are doing this show so that we can bring some joy to our fans, step out of the darkness to perform, and hopefully help some musicians and artists get through the month with the donations that people make while watching them.”
You can make gifts directly to the artists during the show, or you can make tax-deductible gifts to SWAN Day CT at any time through their donations page at Fractured Atlas. All of the money will go to artists who are struggling.
Support Women Artists Now Day Background
For those of you who are new to Support Women Artists Now Day/SWAN Day, it is an annual international holiday which has been celebrated on the last Saturday of March every year since 2008. Since the spirit of the event is more important than the exact date, people hold SWAN events throughout the month of March (Women's History Month) and sometimes in April. There is an overview of SWAN Day here. You can read more about the history of SWAN Day here.
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