Friends and supporters of The Senator Theatre, located at 5904 York Road, host events such as this month’s WAMMFest to attract audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

Towson University’s Electronic and Media Film (EMF) Department presents the third annual WAMMFest to celebrate and encourage women and minorities working in the creative and technical production of audio, video, film and script. Middle School, high school, college and university students, and media professionals submit these short works to compete for “WAMMY Prizes.”Assistant Professor in the Department of EMF at Towson University, Elsa Lankford states, “We encourage women and minorities to get into media making by screening their best works and offering incentives to have them continue their work.”

To honor the spirit of WAMMFest, a woman or minority must be in a key creative role in the chosen audio, video, film or script piece, or be the main focus in the subject matter.

Lecturer in the EMF department, Jennifer Lackey, says she notices an increase in both awareness of the event and participants this year. “We have received perhaps three times as many entries as the past two years. It's been wonderful to have so many outstanding pieces to choose from,” Lackey says.

This year is the first year Towson University has opened the contest to media professionals. “We received more student entries overall but it was still very balanced and we'll have a great program,” said Lackey.

WAMMFest’s featured guest artists are Peabody-award winning radio producers The Kitchen Sisters. The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva are NPR documentary producers who have created more than 200 stories for public broadcast about the lives, histories, art and rituals of people who have shaped diverse cultural heritage.

WAMM Fest will start Saturday, March 27th. From 2:30-7:00 p.m. will be screenings of student and professional audio & video winning submissions. Afterwards will be a reception following with presentation by The Kitchen Sisters. Admission is 5 dollars for guests and free for students.

“We have said since the beginning that WAMMFest will run until it's no longer necessary, when everybody's voice can be heard and seen in audio, video, and film,” Lankford says. Lankford also hopes that hosting WAMMFest at the Senator will allow the community and surrounding colleges to play a part in WAMMFest.

For any questions about WAMMFest 2010, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .