We offer gratitude for people who participated last year, and we look forward to an improved festival in the future.
Thank you, 2018 IPDF Sponsors!
2018 Artists
Karen Savage-Blue (featured artist)
Painter
Karen Savage-Blue is a painter artist currently residing in Duluth, Minnesota. She has attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and received a Bachelor's Degree in Art Education K-12 from the University of Minnesota Duluth and a Masters in Education from the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.
Her work has been featured in many state, regional, and national exhibitions, as well as in local and national publications. Karen’s paintings explore themes of internal reflection, identifying with nature, and exposing transitions from human to natural forms.
Angela Two Stars
Public Artist
Growing up on a Native American Indian reservation influenced Angela’s identity as an artist and as a person. After living off the reservation for over ten years, Angela’s return in 2013 until 2015 allowed her to reconnect with her culture and language. These connections were the catalyst for her current work that incorporates the Dakota Language as a means of bringing awareness to the plight of Indigenous languages and the importance of language revitalization.
Angela received her BFA from Kendall College of Art and Design where she studied drawing and printmaking. She currently lives in East Lansing, Michigan.
Brian Dow
Painter
Brian Dow is a painter and a citizen of the Red Lake Nation. Originally from Ponemah, Minnesota. He has always identified as an artist and began pursuing a career in January 2014.
Through painting, he initiates community conversations about culture. Dow’s passion to be a visual artist is grounded by his desire to strengthen an intercultural awareness of the Ojibwe people. Through visual story-telling, usually by individual commission paintings, he communicates the intentional continuity of Ojibwe culture and it’s life-ways.
http://nativebusiness.directory/item/brian-k-dow-visual-art/
Indigenous Roots
Dance
Indigenous Roots Cultural Center is a collective of artists and organizations dedicated to building, supporting and cultivating opportunities for Indigenous peoples and communities of color through cultural arts and activism. This community based multidisciplinary, multigenerational, multicultural center for Native-Indigenous/POC communities in Saint Paul, uniquely presents the many faces and creative expressions blossoming in the cultural scene of Dayton’s Bluff on the East Side.
Workshop: Sat. Oct. 6: 3:00pm
From traditional Mexica Aztec dance to contemporary hip-hop and breakdance, participants will have the opportunity to learn dances step by step as well as meet visual artists who will share stories of their artwork and inspiration.
Performance: Sun. Oct. 7: 3:00pm - 4:00
Juliana Pederson
Multimedia
Juliana Pederson is a Colombian-American artist with strong ties to Colombia and Ecuador. She is a multimedia artist with specialties that range from ceramics, printmaking, papermaking, bookmaking, and painting.
Keith Braveheart
Painter
Keith BraveHeart, Oglala Lakota, received his BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts and MFA from the University of South Dakota. A painter and educator, Keith is dedicated to community-based art.
Marisa Martinez
Jeweler
Marisa loves to play off her rich cultural indigenous and Mexican heritage to create collages of personal adornment. In her jewelry, she works mostly in silver and semiprecious stones but also loves working with, gold, and copper and brass.
Million Artist Movement
Painting, Photography, Quilts
The Million Artist Movement (MAM) is a collective of Black-Brown-and-Radical Artist Revolutionaries and Activists established in 2014. MAM is a global vision that believes in the role of Art in the campaign to dismantle oppressive racist systems against Black, Brown, Indigenous and disenfranchised peoples.
Workshop: Sun. Oct. 7: 12:00pm
Million Artist Movement - Quilt making workshop (for Hiawatha encampment residents) Singing with Jayanthi Kyle, Native Lives Matter Chalkboard Prompt for the community to write on/add to throughout the day.
Native Youth Arts Collective
Painting, Screen-Printing
Native youth arts collective is a group of native teens and young adults that are interested in a variety of artistic mediums, and the intersections of art and community.
Workshop: Sun. Oct. 7: 1:20 pm
Participants will have an opportunity to create a piece of artwork on paper, to be added to a large circular calendar, in collage form. Prompts will be available to spark discussion and creativity. The individual pieces will be mounted to a large wooden panel, and the finished piece will present a collaborative narrative about time, events, and memory. Members of NYAC will be available to talk with community members and assist with their individual collage pieces. The activity will be suitable for all ages.
Wakemup Productions
Painting, Screen-Printing
Workshop: Sat. Oct. 6, and Sun. & Oct. 7: All Day
Wakemup Productions will be working with Natives Against Heroin to paint a banner and screen print on fabric for the Franklin Hiawatha Camp. Donations for Blank shirts and volunteers that know how to screen print are welcome.
Performance:
Smart Wars: "D-Day for the Dragon": Sat. Oct 6
12:00 pm - 12:20pm
Wakemup Productions will be performing with Center School and Dakota Wicohan Lower Sioux Community Center Youth along with Natives Against Heroin to battle a heroin dragon in a Smart Wars performance this year.
Al Gross, Deanna Rea StandingCloud
"The Art of Indigenous Inspiration"
Spoken Word Interactive Performance
Workshop: Sun. Oct. 7: 4:00 - 5:00 pm
Join us for an interactive session by practicing your best Indigenous skills to bring about inspiration in your life. Think about what inspires you and be ready to laugh and share with those around you in celebration of Indigenous People's Day. Best Indian lip pointing contest of Minneapolis is just the beginning. Your hosts, Alan Gross of the Leech Lake Nation and Deanna StandingCloud of the Red Lake Nation are excited to discover what inspires us the most as Indigenous people.
2018 Performances
SUPAMAN
Performances: Sat. Oct. 6: 5:30pm & Sun. Oct. 7: 12pm
As a member of the “Apsaalooke Nation”, Supaman makes his home on the Crow reservation in Montana. “Supaman” Is Christian Takes Gun Parrish, a Native American dancer and innovative hip-hop artist who has dedicated his life to empowering and spreading a message of hope, pride, and resilience through his original art form.
Recipient of the 2017 MTV VMA award for “Best Fight Against the System”! He is also a Nammy “Native American Music Award” winner, “North American Indigenous Image Award winner, and 7 “Tunney Award winner. He was awarded The Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Award in Canada for best video and was voted MTV’s new Artist of the Week! His 2018 nominations brought him home awards for Best Hip Hop Album and Best Producer for the Indigenous Music Awards.
Workshop: Sat. Oct. 6: 11:00am
Supaman will be teaching the art of sound looping pertaining to the Indigenous sounds mixed with hip-hop beatboxing.
Tall Paul
Performance: Sat. Oct. 6: 12:30pm
Tall Paul (Anishinaabe), raised in south Minneapolis, graduated from South High, with ties to the Leech Lake reservation. Tutors kids at the Anishinaabe Academy through the American Indian Math Project.
“My big thing is being able to express myself. Everyone should be able to do that if they want, and however, they want."
Sat. Oct. 6: Workshop: (for all ages): 4:20pm
Tall Paul will teach participants basic song structure and rhyme schemes in hip-hop. They will also have the freedom to “write stories and so on without the requirements to rhyme.” Participants will be able to share their stories/songs at the end of the exercise.
https://tallpaul612.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TallPaul612/
Annie Humphrey
Sat. Oct. 6: 1:30pm
Growing up on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in Northern Minnesota, Annie lived in a home filled with voices made of thunder and nothing could stop it. Her parents were brilliant people individually. Her father, a singer, and musician and her mother an artist and poet. Together they made sadness. Each of her parents taught Annie the beautiful things they knew. They showed her that she carried their gifts in her hands too. This is how creating art and music came about for her. This is what saved her. This is how she lives now.
Things my dad taught me:
skin a deer, set net, clean fish, make maple syrup, harvest wild rice, play basketball, ride a motorcycle, go without if you can't afford it, play guitar
Things my mom taught me:
draw, paint, sew, write, laugh, wonder, forgive
Annie has 4 children and 2 grandsons. She has a handsome, Indian, horseman husband. They inspire her spirit and her art.
Rob Fairbanks (AKA Rez Reporter)
Performance: Sat. Oct. 6: 3:00pm
Born in Minneapolis, proud Leech Lake member, Rob Fairbanks was exclusively known as “The Rez Reporter” currently residing in Cass Lake, Minnesota, started doing “Rez Reports” via Facebook page, “Rez Reporter” and through the YouTube channel, “Rob Fairbanks Channel” (2013).
2014 The Rez Reporter began his stand-up comedy career. He has worked and opened with a number of other successful Native American comedians such as; Williams and Ree, JR Redwater, Tatanka Means, Ryan McMahon, Jim Ruel, Tonia Jo Hall, Stuart Perkins, Jon Roberts, Tito Ybarra and even Dennis Gaxiola of BET. Also, in 2014 The Rez Reporter and Tito Ybarra hosted a Public Access Channel TV show called "The Rob & Tito Show" on the Upstream Channel.
Rob exploded on to the comedy scene with his rezzy style of reporting in his Rez Reporter Weather Reports. After catching the attention of Indian Country Today and Tens of Thousands of dedicated fans Rob has kept himself busy traveling the country and performing comedy and filling every seat in the house. In his “How to be a Rez Reporter” presentation Rob shares a personal story of triumph over peer pressure and temptations in his journey to becoming The Rez Reporter we all enjoy.Workshop: Sat. Oct. 6: 12:30pm
The Rez Reporter will be holding a Joke/Skit writing workshop, explaining the structure of writing a joke, different styles of comedy, and the creative process of comedy. The Rez Reporter will share how he breaks down his creative process and how it is applied to social media. Participants will be able to create skits and jokes collaborate in a group video to potentially be used for the Rez Report's social media.
Jackie Bird
Sat. Oct. 6: 4:30pm
(Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota) Singer, hoop dance performer, inspirational speaker, fancy shawl dancer, designer, and artist.
Jackie Bird was born in St. Paul, MN to Gordon and JoAnne Bird. Gordon Bird, her father, is a musician who was inducted into the South Dakota Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. JoAnne Bird, her mother, is an Artist was also inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame for “Artist of the Year.” Being that her parents were successful in the arts, it’s no wonder that Jackie followed in their footsteps. She spent most of her childhood in Pipestone, MN where she attended elementary and middle school. She graduated in 1985 from Flandreau Indian School.
In all of her performances, Jackie has been praised for her ability to get her audience involved with her contemporary and traditional music, songs and dances. Woven throughout Jackie’s performance are the intricacies and belief of her Native American culture.
With the aid of her puppet “Wild Flower”, Jackie is able to tell stories and sing songs from her culture.
Pretendians
Performance: Sun. Oct. 7: 1:30pm
Pretendians is a Native rock band based in Minneapolis. Many of our songs have societal/political influence and views from a modern Indigenous perspective.
Workshop: Sun. Oct. 7: 2:40pm
tobacco-free will be hosting an interactive musical workshop of all ages (up to 6 individuals) to create a song to perform publicly. Participants will learn how to play instruments like shakers, hand drums, and guitars. Pretendians goal is to give and share with others ways to express what it means to be a proud, modern Indigenous person today, and how to share that to others who feel silenced.
Sam Mitchell, Rosy Simas Danse
Workshops: Sat. Oct. 6: 1:40pm & 5:40pm
Sam Aros Mitchell’s research focuses on the transformative work of First Nations and Native American dance and theatre artists, who continue to break boundaries, connect land to the body, and bring Native communities to a place of healing. Sam is an enrolled member with the Texas Band of Yaqui Indians. He is currently in his fourth year of a PhD program at UC San Diego. Sam has an MFA in Dance Theatre from UC San Diego, and a BFA in dance from UC Santa Barbara. Sam has danced in contemporary dance companies and has toured nationally and internationally for 25 years. He continues to work, teach and learn, within his Yaqui community, with Native American and First Nation communities and within the contemporary dance community.
Workshops: Sat. Oct. 6: 1:40pm & 5:40pm
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts presents Rosy Simas Danse Company member, Sam Mitchell (Yaqui), along with his son, Max Mitchell (both based in San Diego, California), who will co-teach and co-facilitate this mini-workshop. Rosy Simas will develop and share a choreographic score with Sam and Max.
Designed to create a prosperous, multi-generational, collaborative, choreographic dialogue between professional dancers, community dancers, children and adults, this event works to foster the diverse communities that exist within Minneapolis. By celebrating multi-generations, we will share the threads of memories, stories and knowledge, weaving together elements of vitality, inventiveness and empathy for this workshop.
The work will continue to grow through continued conversations, check-ins and online rehearsals, culminating in a multi-generational, procession on the Native Cultural Corridor on Franklin Avenue in June 2019, as part of the Weave project by Rosy Simas Danse.
Crystal Norcross
Performance: Sat. Oct. 6: 11:00am
Crystal will be doing a small hoop dance exhibition. After her performance, she will teach a few hoop dance moves to the community with one hoop and our dancers will dance.
Crystal is from Saint Paul but enrolled at Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. She has been hoop dancing for 10+ years and now teaching at Indigenous Roots.
