Winners of an April 7 band competition will open the show.

	Fanny

Toshi Reagon has been named to present pioneering all-female rock group Fanny with the ROCKRGRL Women of Valor Award, Friday, April 20, at the Berklee Performance Center, located at 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston. Tickets are $15 and the show begins at 8:15 p.m. For ticket information, please call 617 747-2261, or visit www.berkleebpc.com. Berklee and ROCKRGRL are pleased to welcome WMBR 88.1 FM's Lost & Found as a media sponsor. Fanny, the first all-female band to release a full-length album on a major label, signed with Warner Brothers' Reprise Records in 1969. The group released five albums on the label by 1973, influencing the Runaways, The Go Go's and countless female musicians across generations. Learn more by reading about the Berklee–ROCKRGRL collaboration.

ROCKRGRL founder Carla DeSantis will MC the event, introducing speakers, performers, and a slide show and video chronicling the band's history. Fanny will accept the award, following a performance by founding members June Millington, Jean Millington, and Alice de Buhr, marking the first Fanny appearance in over 30 years. Other live performances include sets by the Millington sisters' current group Slammin' Babes, with Jean's son Lee Madeloni; a student group from the Berklee Women Musicians Network playing classic Fanny songs; and the winner of Berklee's Battle of the All-Female Bands, to be named on April 7 [please read on for information about the Battle].

The award will be presented to Fanny by genre-bending guitarist Toshi Reagon, who has worked with June Millington. Reagon, the daughter of Sweet Honey in the Rock co-founder Bernice Johnson Reagon, has released six acclaimed albums–most recently on Righteous Babe Records–and has played with artists including Elvis Costello, Nona Hendryx, Pete Seeger, and Ani DiFranco. Guests to speak about Fanny's importance include 18-year-old singer/songwriter and Velour Records artist Sonya Kitchell, who attended Millington's Rock n' Roll Summer Camp for Girls; and journalist Deborah Frost, who has written for the Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Spin, New York Times, and Entertainment Weekly. Frost also conceived and wrote the chapter on Fanny in Rolling Stone's Book of Women in Rock.

Berklee Battle of the All-Female Bands

The lineup has been announced for the final round of Berklee's Battle of the All-Female Bands, Saturday, April 7, 1:00 p.m., at the Middle East Upstairs. Through the judges' decision, and votes from an audience numbering 350 over two nights, Zili Misik, Smoke Animals, Cliché, Burn Chesca Burn, and Aurora advanced from the first round. The Middle East is located at 472 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA. The show is all-ages and tickets are $5/$3 for students. Please call 617 864-3278 for more information, or visit www.mideastclub.com.

Zili Misik

The Battle winner's set at the ROCKRGRL Women of Valor Award evening will also serve as a showcase for the Verge College Music Conference, giving the band the opportunity to be booked by college talent buyers from across the country. Other prizes include a Luna electric guitar, six hours of Berklee studio time, a First Act acoustic guitar, one-year Sonicbids memberships, and a consultation with publicist Public Emily. Berklee Assistant Director of Admissions Jessica Yoakum MC's the show, and judges include Boston Metro Entertainment Editor Pat Healy, NEMO Conference & Festival Director Kristin Bredimus, WZLX 100.7 FM DJ Anngelle Wood, and Lizzie Borden of the Lizzie Borden Band.

Carla DeSantis founded ROCKRGRL in 1994 as a serious, intelligent alternative to rock magazines that talked to women musicians about everything but their music. She published the magazine for over 10 years, covering artists like Aimee Mann, Sleater-Kinney, Marianne Faithful, Joan Jett, Liz Phair, The Donnas, and the Indigo Girls to name a few, and in that time produced several events, including two large ROCKRGRL conferences in Seattle, with the goal of promoting, encouraging, and celebrating women's achievements in the music industry.