Showing posts with label NAISA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NAISA. Show all posts

5.07.2010

May (NAISA) and June (SuperFly), 2010

So we are into May already! Wow, time has kinda of snuck by me and the Native American Indigenous Studies Association conference is closely upon us. In just over a week I head to Tucson for the conference and a meeting with a few scholars, most importantly a meeting with Dr. Philip Deloria to discuss the American Studies PhD Program at the University of Michigan as well as with Dr. Vince Diaz, it'll be nice to see Vince again. I will also get to meet with Dr. Joanna Hearne from the University of Missouri, busy time. I need to remember to schedule sometime with the sun! I think I'll have plenty of time on the 19th since I'm getting in at around noon. Currently, I am working on my presentation for the conference as well as getting some new video works in the fire for my upcoming exhibit at the Museum for Contemporary Native Art in Santa Fe in August.

Next month will be my fourth year returning to mentor at Longhouse Media/Native Lens SuperFly program, this is hands down my favorite event ever. I'd take this over winning awards any day. I think the youth are the ones that make this event special for me, they amaze me every year. It will be a busy upcoming three weeks, but I look forward to it all and am excited at the prospects.

That is what's on the plate for the next month, aside from my daily grind! See you in Tucson and Seattle, Lummi Country!

3.28.2010

RoundUP, NAISA, NAICA, FLAB MAG, Athens International Film + Video Festival, and Terrance Houle

As any day starts out this one has been no exception. The click of my dog's nails on the hardwood floors woke me from sleep. My dog likes to sneak in my bedroom and check to see if I'm awake. Sometimes, I greet him and welcome the day, other times I just cringe to know it's time to wake up. Thankfully, I knew a fresh pot of coffee was just minutes away from being brewed. That would definitely lessen the impact of an early rise on Sunday morning.

So the near future has been plaguing most of my waking minutes. The uncertainty of it mostly, and the somewhat seemingly directionless wandering of my days. I have the Native American Indigenous Studies Conference (NAISA) to attend in Tucson at the end of May, which I recently found out I was presented to NAISA as an affiliate of Native American Indigenous Cinema and Arts Organization (NAICA), which I am, but NAICA has somewhat shape-shifted into the more encompassing FLAB MAG and now I see my future assignment for FLAB being coverage of NAISA. Too much usage of acronyms in one paragraph, time to move on. Needless to say, I am excited for this opportunity.

At the end of April, I am fortunate to have been accepted into the 2010 Athens International Film and Video Festival, which is 37+ years old. This festival is in Athens, OH a sleepy, quaint, little town snug in the hills of south-central Ohio. It is also home to Ohio University. I am ecstatic to attend this festival, and to be honest, I usually don't get excited, but I am feeling a little excitement already. I normally reserve my excitement a couples days prior to an event. I have three short pieces in the festival: The Mechanics of Being NDN, The Ecstasy of Indigeneity Or the Passion of Billy Jack, and Technical Difficulties: a Fraud and a Fake. The last two pieces subvert famous "representations" on Un-Indians in American media, whereas the first piece comments on the objectified Native, literally. These three pieces originated from a past exhibit entitled, Round-Up, at the Urban Shaman Gallery in Winnipeg, MB Canada in October 2009. Round-Up is traveling to Santa Fe, NM August 1st, 2010 - January 1st, 2011 at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts thanks to curator, Ryan Rice. I am already excited for this too.

Lately life has taken on the quiet hum of the mundane. Somewhere the routine infiltrated my life and pushed out creativity. It seems to have been a silent coup, no warning, no stirrings of unrest just the slow realization that something different is at the helm. Fortunately, friend and fellow artist, Terrance Houle has been able to talk me down from the ledges I find myself climbing, even as he himself has been enduring a change in his life. I am fortunate to have been asked to take part in one of his upcoming exhibits. In the fall, Terrance and I will be heading to Germany to collaborate on a video piece together and currently I am in pre-production on a feature length documentary that will utilize Terrance as the interviewer. Stay tuned.