BEV BOWERS:  POST RETIREMENT - DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, WRITER AND MORE!

Bev Bowers’ early life help prepare her for a great life after retirement!  Several years after graduating from Amelia High School, Ms. Bowers found a home at Grailville in Loveland, Ohio.  Ms. Bowers spoke fondly of her years at Grailville; “They taught us women and only women, how to live independently.  We worked on the farm. The women of Grail built their own spiritual center and held services there.  The five years I spent there were some of the most important years of my life, because of all the wonderful women I met there.  I would meet ambassadors from around the world, and incredible artist journeyed there to be rejuvenated!”

After Grailville, Ms. Bowers started college at Mt. St. Joseph, then worked 10 years for Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company as an underwriter then Operation Manager for Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. “I hurt my back at work, and while I was off I started my own business in vending machines called Gooch-Henke Corporation which I ran for 25 years and retired in 2005.”

Then she started to live her dream… “I always loved movies and film, so I started taking classes in filmmaking.  To graduate you had to do a short program.  So, I decided I would do a TV music program.  The first musician I called on was Tracy Walker! At that time, women’s bands didn’t get the publicity as did the men. You could read about bands in City-Beat.  All those articles written, and nothing about women, nothing!”  She paused, “So, I started a non-profit group that supported women in the arts.  Helping them find new venues, helping them branch out starting with my little TV show on PBS.  Women’s Way of Ohio and Kentucky was born then.”   Soon after, she produced three movies, the most popular being, ‘Hot Flash Saffire the Uppity Blues Women’.   “The first year Women’s Way did 38 concerts at the Monmouth Theatre in Newport, Kentucky, which is now the Falcon Theater.”

Woman’s Way of Ohio and Kentucky has come a long way in a short time and led by Ms. Bowers vision and determination that female artists need to be heard and seen!  She is a natural promoter to new and old artists as they emerge or pass through Cincinnati.

What’s up and coming for Ms. Bowers’ this year?  “We are celebrating 10 years in Cincinnati for Women’s Way!  We are attentively planning another Christmas show at the Aronoff Center on December 4.  We will be bringing back the theatrical performance ‘The Breeze’ this fall.  The last Friday of June through September, we will be sponsoring several musical groups and festivities at the Centennial Barn “Raising the Roof Summer Music Series".  And for the first time, the Blues Society is honoring us by flying our logo from the stage! Friday, August 7 is our night on the Showcase Stage with musical guests the Kelly Richey Band and the Chicago Women in the Blues Revue!”  Not a bad year planned for a retired woman!