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Meet Our Speaker: “We Still Live Here” (Nov. 20 – DCJCC)

Rose Powhatan

Rose Powhatan is co-founder/director of the Powhatan Museum of Indigenous Arts and Culture. She is descended from the Pamunkey (mother) and Tauxenent (father) Indian Tribes of Virginia. Ms. Powhatan also works as an artist/historian/storyteller.

Rose Powhatan is a mixed-media artist, educator and cultural practitioner. She earned her honors undergraduate and graduate degrees in studio arts, art history and education from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and completed graduate studies at University of London (in the UK). As a visual artist, Ms. Powhatan has created paintings, murals, installations, prints, and totem poles- all infused with culturally-based Eastern Woodlands symbolism. She is also a storyteller whose film work includes her appearances in “The New World”, the HBO mini-series “John Adams”, and Jamestown Settlement’s “1607:A Nation Takes Root”.

Ms. Powhatan’s work as an educator and curriculum writer includes her having taught studio arts, theatre and humanities courses in the United States and the United Kingdom for over 25 years, in addition to her authorship of new courses and instructional materials. Her creative writing consists of autobiographical and historical material, as well as staged plays.

Numerous awards have been presented to Ms. Powhatan in recognition of her diverse achievements in the arts, education and community service. Select board memberships include the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the Nation’s Capital, the Intertribal Women’s Circle, and ATLATL National Native Arts Network (the nation’s premiere Native American arts organization).

Ms. Powhatan is also a former Cafritz Foundation and Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Fellow, whose membership in the British Fulbright Scholars Association underscores her support for promoting positive international solidarity. She is the Assistant Chief of the Tauxenent Nation of Fairfax County and the tribe’s 2007 co-founder.

(photo – above) 2005: Rose Powhatan with her contemporary Eastern Algonquin totem. The sculpture, made from wood, vines, clay and adorned with wild turkey feathers, honors her ancestor Keziah Powhatan. Keziah Powhatan was the leader of a Northern Virginia Indian band of Tauxenents (Dogues) whose “hostile actions” led to the removal of the first Fairfax County courthouse at Tyson’s Corner, VA in 1752 (she claimed ownership of the land). The D.A.R. plaque (right) was erected to record the incident (near Chain Bridge Road and Courthouse Road in Fairfax County).

WHEN: Sunday, November 20 at 3 PM
WHERE: Washington, DC Jewish Community Center, 1529 16th Street, NW
Register

This is a Women and Girls Lead event, a media initiative of ITVS. Girl Scouts (GSCNC) can earn patch points by attending a “We Still Live Here” Community Cinema event. Sign-in sheets will be available at the venue.

Community Cinema [DC] partners with All Roads Film Festival for “Grab”

Josie

Grab, a new documentary by Billy Luther (“Miss Navajo“) will have a FREE screening followed by a Q&A with the director Thursday, September 15 at 12 noon at National Geographic Live! (1600 M Street, NW) as part of the All Roads Film Festival.

“Grab” is an intimate portrait of the little-documented Grab Day in the villages of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, who annually throw water and food items from the rooftop of a home to people standing below. A community-wide prayer of abundance, thanks, and renewal, Grab Day exists at the intersection of traditional Native and contemporary Western cultures. Luther’s film follows three families as they prepare for the annual event, chronicling their lives leading up to this day. The film was selected for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

A photo exhibit GRAB: The People, Land, and Tradition of Laguna Pueblo will be on display in the National Geographic Grosvenor Gallery during the All Roads Film Festival (September 14 – 18, 2011) and through FotoWeek DC.

Wednesday, September 14 from noon to 4 PM, Laguna Pueblo pottery maker Josie Seymour, featured in the movie, will be in the National Geographic courtyard making and painting some of her Laguna Pueblo pottery. She will give a short talk about the tradition of Laguna Pueblo pottery making at select times (TBA) while she works. Later, between 4:30-5:00, All Roads will re-enact a Laguna Pueblo traditional Grab Day throw. This is also a free event and open to the general public.

The tradition of a Grab Day throw for the Laguna people stems from core cultural values of generosity and giving so the people live and practice reciprocity, redistribution, and respect. With many Laguna people being named for saints and along with the arrival of a saint’s feast day, families of those named for the saint practice these values by honoring that named relative with a Grab Day (throw). Food and gifts are shared among the community with boxes of instant macaroni and cheese, ramen noodles, and canned soup thrown from adobe-pueblo rooftops, as well as more traditional items such as handmade pottery and sacred offerings of water. No matter what is thrown, hands reach to the sky and clamor for the gifts. The offerings represent hope and blessings, and the honor of catching something completes the circle of redistribution and reciprocity that has existed within the pueblo villages since time immemorial.

Billy Luther studied film at Hampshire College and worked for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian Film and Video Center. A past honoree of Film Independent’s Project: Involve, Luther was recently selected for the 2006 Sundance Ford Fellowship, CPB/PBS Producers Academy at WGBH and Tribeca Institute’s All Access Program with his feature documentary MISS NAVAJO, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and won Michael Moore’s 2007 Special Founders Prize. He is in development on the documentaries Grab, The Untitled Indian Marching Band Project and Nanobah Becker’s narrative Full. Luther belongs to the Navajo, Hopi and Laguna Pueblo Tribes.

The National Geographic All Roads Film Project showcases compelling films and photography exhibits from indigenous artists. These individuals from around the world offer fresh perspectives through innovative storytelling. Enjoy this year’s festival-more than forty stori es that shape our world. Find out more about the festival and purchase tickets for events at this link: http://events.nationalgeographic.com/events/event-series/all-roads-film-festival-washington-dc/ or call 202-857-7700.

Speakers for June 5 screening of “Two Spirits” (updated)

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED: Audio (MP3) of Two Spirits Q&A (June 5 2011) recorded at the Washington DCJCC June 5, 2011. Click on link or the Streampad banner below.
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The first Community Cinema [DC] screening of TWO SPIRITS is Sunday, June 5 at 3 PM at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center (1529 16th Street, NW). We’re happy to host two guest speakers to be part of the Q&A:

JAMIE CURTIS, Senior Field and Policy Coordinator, PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays)
Jamie Curtis is responsible for working with chapters in the eastern part of the United States. She also works on PFLAG’s outreach to communities of faith. Prior to serving as a Field and Policy Coordinator, Jamie was the Field and Policy Associate helping to manage chapter services. Before coming to PFLAG, Jamie gained experience by working with underprivileged youth in Washington, D.C. Jamie graduated from American University with a bachelor’s degree in international relations. Jamie hails from Auburn, New York.

MARLON FIXICO, Organizing Member of the Two-Spirit Society of Washington, DC
Marlon Fixico is an organizing member of the Two-Spirit Society of Washington, DC. He is an enrolled member of the Southern Cheyenne Nation of Oklahoma and direct descendant of peace chief Blackkettle. He also descendant of Seminole spiritual leaders from his father’s side. He is a graduate of Haskell Indian Nations University. He has served on the organizing committee for the annual Tulsa Two-Spirit Gatherings and is a public speaker, a massage therapist, life coach, and spiritual mentor to many men and women in recovery from various addictions. A long time resident of Washington , DC , he is originally from Oklahoma and worked with and served on the boards of several native organizations both local and national.

Special thanks to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian and the Two-Spirit Society of Washington, DC.

Community partner for TWO SPIRITS:

Special Screening of “Lost Sparrow”

The Independent Television Service (ITVS) invites you to a screening of the documentary Lost Sparrow to mark the film’s national broadcast premiere on the PBS series Independent Lens November 16 (check local listings). A discussion with filmmaker Chris Billing will follow the screening.

WHEN/WHERE:

Monday, November 15, 2010 at 7 pm
Letelier Theater, 3251 Prospect Street NW, Washington DC 20007

On June 27, 1978, a 44-car Conrail freight train struck and killed two Crow Indian brothers near the town of Little Falls, New York – a day after Bobby, 13, and Tyler, 11, had disappeared. Without warning, the two boys had run away from the white, Baptist family that had adopted them and their biological sisters seven years earlier, spiriting them from a troubled Montana reservation family to an idyllic Victorian castle across the country. Lost Sparrow recounts award-winning filmmaker Chris Billing’s investigation, three decades later, into the dark family secret that prompted his own adopted brothers to flee.

While this screening is free and open to the public, donations are welcome at the door or after the screening. All proceeds will go to our co-hosting organizations Docs in Progress and the National Children’s Alliance.

Official website for Lost Sparrow: www.lostsparrowmovie.com

ITVS film site: http://www.itvs.org/films/lost-sparrow

Meet Our Speaker: “We Still Live Here” (Nov. 20 – DCJCC)

Community Cinema [DC] partners with All Roads Film Festival for “Grab”

Speakers for June 5 screening of “Two Spirits” (updated)

Special Screening of “Lost Sparrow”

STRONG!

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