2nd SHIFT Concert: The Folk Collective “Folk & Femme in Full Bloom”
featuring ALMA VATYA, Naomi Westwater, Pamela Means, and Photocomfort
Tickets $25
Folk & Femme: In Full Bloom is a celebration of the Divine Feminine—a journey through the many layers of womanhood, sisterhood, and feminine energy. This show dares to move beyond the physical definitions and roles that patriarchy has long used to confine femininity. Instead, it reclaims and redefines what it means to embody the feminine—not as a set of limitations, but as a boundless source of power and possibility.
While nurturing is often seen as the cornerstone of femininity, it is just one piece of a greater whole. This evening, we explore the often overlooked and undervalued aspects of the feminine—resilience, sensuality, creativity, intuition, and adaptability—that shape and enrich our experiences.
Featuring captivating performances by Naomi Westwater, Pamela Means, ALMA VATYA, and Photocomfort, this event highlights the voices and stories of cis women, transgender women, non-binary individuals, and all who embody the essence of the Divine Feminine.
In celebration of Women’s History Month, we invite you to join this vibrant conversation and reflect on what it means to be feminine in full bloom. Together, let us create a space where femininity is celebrated in all its complexity, beauty, and strength.
ALMA VATYA is a twenty-one-year-old guitarist, singer, and banjo player who performs American vernacular music inspired and informed by a lifelong exploration of pre-war country blues, ballads, and spirituals. ALMA grew up in the high desert of Bisbee, Arizona. Her love for country blues began when a neighbor gave her a small handmade fretless banjo along with cassettes of Mance Lipscomb and Mississippi Fred McDowell. Her polyrhythmic guitar and banjo stylings and nuanced vocals have been honed through hundreds of performances to national and international audiences.
Naomi Westwater (she/they) is a queer, Black-multiracial singer-songwriter and producer from Massachusetts. They weave in and out of Folk music, flirting with rock and jazz. Naomi holds a Master of Music in Contemporary Performance and Production from Berklee College of Music. She was nominated for a 2021 Boston Music Award for Best Singer-Songwriter. Naomi’s 2021 EP Feelings was featured in Under The Radar, WBUR, Vanyaland, WGBH, Allston Pudding, and The Bluegrass Situation.
Pamela Means is an Easthampton MA-based Out(spoken), Biracial, independent artist whose “kamikaze guitar style” and punchy provocative songs have worn a hole in two of her acoustic guitars. With razor wit, an engaging presence, elegant poetry, irresistible charm, plus jokes, Pamela Means’s “stark, defiant songs” (New York Times) set the status quo and the stage afire.
Photocomfort is the platform for Boston-based artist Justine Bowe’s careful, expansive pop. Photocomfort is the distillation of the exacting songwriting, production and performance craftsmanship she lends to other recording projects like Hex Girlfriend, Anjimile, and Cliff Notez. She borrows as much from 90s radio heroes like Alanis Morissette and Dido as from Joanna Newsom or Radiohead. Huge vocal hooks soar over nimble arrangements, presenting the self-doubt and isolation born from the pursuit of “the dream” of being an artist as harrowing, irresistible and irresistibly catchy.
