In honor of Women’s History Month, WKMS presents a variety of special programming on a wide range of topics. Also featured this Women’s History Month is a month-long musical program produced by the women of WKMS.
Friday, March 4
11 a.m.
Femme Fridays: Powerful Ladies
Catie Bates Robertson hosts “Powerful Ladies,” the first of Femme Fridays’ four parts. Featured music includes powerhouses of the 60s and 70s to contemporary artists. Femme Friday honors local ladies and female musicians and is specially produced by the women of WKMS.
Noon
Women of the Civil War
Karen Abbott talks about her book Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, about four courageous women of the Civil War who made history. Then we talk with Lois Leveen about her novel, The Secrets of Mary Bowser, about an African American ex-slave who was a Union spy right inside the Confederate White House.
Friday, March 11
11 a.m.
Femme Fridays: Who We Are
Asia Burnett hosts “Who We Are,” part two of the Femme Fridays series. This episode features musicians around the world and from right here in our western Kentucky backyard. “Who We Are” also celebrates working women and offers perspectives on the female experience within our own communities, including themes like work.
Noon
What’s the Word? Medieval Women
Have you ever thought about what your life would have been like if you had been a woman in the Middle Ages? Typically, we think of the Middle Ages as a time that offered women very few options, but you might be surprised by some of the accomplishments of medieval women. We talk about one of Chaucer’s most famous and feisty characters in The Canterbury Tales, the wife of Bath, religious lifestyles of medieval women with works by the 12th century German nun Hildegard von Bingen, and about women healers in medieval Spain.
Friday, March 18
11 a.m.
Femme Fridays: Decades
Dixie Lynn hosts “Decades,” the third part of the Femme Fridays series. Lynn will travel through time and revisit influential female artists from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. This episode will also include a historical perspective on womanhood over the years.
Noon
Hearing Voices – Her Stories
The Kitchen Sisters go to Tupperware parties. A supermarket checker checks out her life in ZBS’s radio soap “Saratoga Springs.” Jenifir returns “Home From Africa” with all 13 Symptoms of Chronic Peace Corps Withdrawal. Host Dmae Roberts has a collage of and about “Sisters.” In a new syntax of whispers and words, Susan Stone tells the story of “Ruby” and her husbands. And Sonia Sanchez, Tracie Morris, Jill Battson, and Meryn Cadell perform short poems. Music from Tara Key’s Ear & Echo.
Wednesday, March 23
11 a.m.
Photograph 51
While names such as Watson and Crick are now synonymous with the discovery of DNA, Rosalind Franklin remained a marginalized and misunderstood figure…until recently. In Photograph 51, playwright Anna Ziegler and star Miriam Margolyes bring Franklin to life in a story of brilliance, discovery, and the perils of unchecked ambition. The broadcast includes interviews with Franklin biographer Brenda Maddox and Cal Tech biologist Dr. Pamela Bjorkman.
Thursday, March 24
11 am
UpFront Soul
We’ll celebrate Women’s History Month in the first hour with new music from Joy Harjo, plus powerful songs from Mavis Staples, The Pointer Sisters, Solange, and Lauryn Hill, then move into a 60-minute funkdown, kicking off with Japanese funk fromEndrecheri, plus Johnny Guitar Watson, Melvin Van Peebles, and Joan Armatrading.
Friday, March 25
11 a.m.
Femme Fridays: All About Love
Jenni Todd hosts the final installment of Femme Fridays. “All About Love” explores all facets of love in womanhood: romantic, platonic, and self. Featured music includes midcentury classics and contemporary hits. This episode will also feature perspectives of women in the community about love.
Noon
Witness: Women’s History Month
Remarkable stories of women’s history, told by the women who were there. Selected from the BBC’s Witness History program, we hear moving, inspiring, and even outrageous stories about a few of the most important women in living memory. How women in the North of England took to the streets in the late 1970s to protest against a serial killer; Sandra Day O’Connor: America’s first female Supreme Court justice; China’s ‘Kingdom of Women;’ ‘Jane,’ the underground abortion network; American writer Ursula Le Guin, and Dr. Ruth Westheimer: the woman who got America talking about sex.
Tune into WKMS’ special programming on-air, online at WKMS.org, or ask your smart speaker to “play WKMS.”
