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Women Take The Lead Saturday On WOMR
WOMR DJs Pandora Peoples, left, and Dinah Mellin took the lead in organizing the station’s annual International Women’s Day programming, which will air March 8. COURTESY PHOTO
ORLEANS – International Women’s Day is a time for women’s voices and perspectives to be heard. On March 8, listeners can hear some of those local voices on WOMR.
The community radio station, which is located in Provincetown and has a second transmitter in Orleans, will host a full day’s worth of women-centric programming in honor of the international holiday, which has been recognized and celebrated around the globe since the early 1900s.
From 6 a.m. to midnight, listeners can tune in live online or through the station's mobile app to listen to a variety of programming, from music of different genres and eras to interviews and discussions on women’s issues.
“It’s a platform,” said Dianh Mellin, who has hosted “The Fiddle and The Harp” on the station since 1999. “It’s a whole day just for supporting women.”
WOMR has been airing specialized programming in honor of International Women’s Day since 2013, said Orleans resident Mellin, who this year co-organized the annual program alongside fellow DJ Pandora Peoples.
“We formed this little committee and decided we’d talk to the programming committee and see if we could make it a real special day and take over the airwaves, us women DJs,” Mellin said, explaining how the station came to annually recognize the holiday on air.
“It was kismet,” said Peoples, who has been a host and DJ with the station since 2013. Along with Mellin and herself, Denya LeVine, April Baxter and the late Canary Burton and Diana Fabbri were also instrumental in creating the annual day of programming, Peoples said.
This year, Peoples ran point on marketing the event, while Mellin was charged with organizing the programming.
"So I was the one who was herding cats,” Mellin said. “‘Can you do five o’clock? No, I can’t. Alright, you get two o’clock.’”
This year’s schedule promises a variety of different programming courtesy of 19 different hosts, Peoples said. Those include oldies and opera music to shows about motherhood and the contributions of women to Irish music.
“Sometimes it’s like a roundtable,” Mellin said. “Somebody will have different people sit around and chat about a certain subject. Sometimes it’s just women musicians being played on the air. There’s a bunch of different stuff going on. There’s stuff for the gay community. There’s going to be a transgender presence, some recognition of that.”
Peoples, meanwhile, will host “Stories, Poetry and Music on Womanhood.”
“I asked a bunch of women, including trans women, to share their thoughts on gender, sexual and cultural identity and their experience of womanhood,” she said. “There's an emotional immediacy and intimacy that you hear in people's voices when they tell their own stories.”
Later in the evening, Mellin will present a conversation on braille and music between guests Debra Greenblatt and Stephanie Pieck. Greenblatt, a fiddle player, worked with Pieck, who is blind, on translating sheet music into braille. The books are now part of the Library of Congress, she said.
“I saw that email come through in the fall and thought ‘I have to talk to these ladies.’ Like ‘What? Reading music with braille? How do you do that?’” said Mellin.
Peoples in an email likened International Women’s Day at the station as “Girls Night Out, but all day long.” The camaraderie between the organizers and the station’s DJs reminded her of her time in her girls dormitory as a freshman in boarding school.
“My sisters were fearless and challenging our teachers in healthy ways,” she said. “It felt like a sisterhood. It was about as free of pettiness, jealousy or competition as you could get. I've found that camaraderie in the DJs of WOMR.”
International Women’s Day is also an opportunity for “creating a space for women to celebrate women,” Peoples said. She said the holiday carries added weight and resonance in the current political climate, and offers women a chance to stand together against sexism, racism and other societal injustices.
“We're keeping the door open for women around the world who face inequities, violence, and other hardships to find ways to rebel against oppression,” she said. “Here in the U.S. our reproductive rights have been eroded in many states. It's not the time for complacency.”
Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com
The community radio station, which is located in Provincetown and has a second transmitter in Orleans, will host a full day’s worth of women-centric programming in honor of the international holiday, which has been recognized and celebrated around the globe since the early 1900s.
From 6 a.m. to midnight, listeners can tune in live online or through the station's mobile app to listen to a variety of programming, from music of different genres and eras to interviews and discussions on women’s issues.
“It’s a platform,” said Dianh Mellin, who has hosted “The Fiddle and The Harp” on the station since 1999. “It’s a whole day just for supporting women.”
WOMR has been airing specialized programming in honor of International Women’s Day since 2013, said Orleans resident Mellin, who this year co-organized the annual program alongside fellow DJ Pandora Peoples.
“We formed this little committee and decided we’d talk to the programming committee and see if we could make it a real special day and take over the airwaves, us women DJs,” Mellin said, explaining how the station came to annually recognize the holiday on air.
“It was kismet,” said Peoples, who has been a host and DJ with the station since 2013. Along with Mellin and herself, Denya LeVine, April Baxter and the late Canary Burton and Diana Fabbri were also instrumental in creating the annual day of programming, Peoples said.
This year, Peoples ran point on marketing the event, while Mellin was charged with organizing the programming.
"So I was the one who was herding cats,” Mellin said. “‘Can you do five o’clock? No, I can’t. Alright, you get two o’clock.’”
This year’s schedule promises a variety of different programming courtesy of 19 different hosts, Peoples said. Those include oldies and opera music to shows about motherhood and the contributions of women to Irish music.
“Sometimes it’s like a roundtable,” Mellin said. “Somebody will have different people sit around and chat about a certain subject. Sometimes it’s just women musicians being played on the air. There’s a bunch of different stuff going on. There’s stuff for the gay community. There’s going to be a transgender presence, some recognition of that.”
Peoples, meanwhile, will host “Stories, Poetry and Music on Womanhood.”
“I asked a bunch of women, including trans women, to share their thoughts on gender, sexual and cultural identity and their experience of womanhood,” she said. “There's an emotional immediacy and intimacy that you hear in people's voices when they tell their own stories.”
Later in the evening, Mellin will present a conversation on braille and music between guests Debra Greenblatt and Stephanie Pieck. Greenblatt, a fiddle player, worked with Pieck, who is blind, on translating sheet music into braille. The books are now part of the Library of Congress, she said.
“I saw that email come through in the fall and thought ‘I have to talk to these ladies.’ Like ‘What? Reading music with braille? How do you do that?’” said Mellin.
Peoples in an email likened International Women’s Day at the station as “Girls Night Out, but all day long.” The camaraderie between the organizers and the station’s DJs reminded her of her time in her girls dormitory as a freshman in boarding school.
“My sisters were fearless and challenging our teachers in healthy ways,” she said. “It felt like a sisterhood. It was about as free of pettiness, jealousy or competition as you could get. I've found that camaraderie in the DJs of WOMR.”
International Women’s Day is also an opportunity for “creating a space for women to celebrate women,” Peoples said. She said the holiday carries added weight and resonance in the current political climate, and offers women a chance to stand together against sexism, racism and other societal injustices.
“We're keeping the door open for women around the world who face inequities, violence, and other hardships to find ways to rebel against oppression,” she said. “Here in the U.S. our reproductive rights have been eroded in many states. It's not the time for complacency.”
Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com
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