• Kahish

Humboldt's got some strong women, some fierce women, some powerful women, some outrageous women, but even so, our badass women don't always get the recognition that they're due. Trinidad musician Maria Bartlett noticed that lack of recognition in our music scene, and so she did something about it.

Bartlett launched a monthly women-only performance series at the Westhaven Center for the Arts that concludes this weekend with a Saturday night performance and a Sunday workshop.

The seeds were sown when Bartlett noticed that an event up at Moonstone was a real sausage fest — men doing sound and men doing music. So she conceived the Women's Music Night series as safe space for women musicians to come together, perform and honor those who have passed on.

The series launched in 2012, featuring all ages, all performance levels and all genres. For its final evening, local women perform all-original material in a variety of styles. Expect to hear Kahish (she goes by one name, like Madonna), Josephine Johnson, Eileen Hemphill-Haley and Sarah Torres.

The next day, Kahish will host a three-hour workshop for songwriters of all levels at the Westhaven Center. Kahish is a certified hypnotherapist with over 40 years of songwriting experience, so she's practiced in the art of putting people at ease and facilitating creativity. She can practically write songs while unconscious.

The Women in Music finale at the Westhaven Center for the Arts is this Saturday, May 18, at 7 p.m., and admission is $5 to $10 on a sliding scale. Kahish's songwriting workshop is Sunday, May 19, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and admission is $10. Call 677-9493 or 637-5382 for more information, or visit www.kahishsworld.com.