Songwriters NL are presenting Women Words & Music, a showcase of fifteen women songwriters from Newfoundland and Labrador at the LSPU Hall on Friday March 10th. Tickets are $30 and available at the LSPU Hall Box Office.

The performers include Katie Baggs, Jacinda Beals, Janet Cull, Diana Daly, Sarah Harris, Kellie Loder, Sandy May, Jenina McGillivray, Kelly McMichael, Melanie O’Brien, Mara Pellerin, Jill Porter, Colleen Power, and Kira Sheppard.

Songwriters NL is a new network for musicians; it aims to strengthen the province’s songwriting community by helping people connect to share resources and information.

Women Words & Music is the organization’s first event, it will be hosted by Andrea Monro, a pillar of Newfoundland’s songwriting community and a founding member of Songwriters NL.

“The group is going to have opportunities for people to present their songs and receive feedback and it will host workshops, all stuff that is going to promote more art and creativity in the province” Monro explained.

Monro says this is a particularly exciting time for Newfoundland and Labrador’s singer-songwriter scene. She believes that right now there is more diversity of style in the scene than there has been in a long time.

“Some of the women involved are really branching out and doing their own thing, from rock n’ roll to harp music, to blues and soul” Monro said.

Monro says that as a woman songwriter, she often has to steal moments between working and taking care of her children to write.

“You find these quiet moments in between and you sit down and write what you can, you don’t always have the luxury of sitting down and devoting a whole day to it.”

Monro describes her songwriting processing as beginning with a feeling that she wants to examine creatively. Although she starts by exploring an emotion, her work is political. Those feelings are often responses to the current political climate and things she has heard in the news.

“Song writing is such a good channel for self-expression and for social commentary… Right now there’s so much going on politically, it’s not hard to hear that and feel like you have something to say about it” Monro said.

Monro hopes Women Words & Music will be inspiring for both the audience and the performers. She explained that hearing good songs and hearing other musicians talk about their creative process makes her eager to hone her craft and write new music.

“I’m really happy that we’re taking the time to get such an amazing group of women together and providing a venue for them to talk about the process a little bit and share their songs.”