IndigenousWays Wisdom Circle May 2020

Wednesdays at 6pm MDT • Thursdays at 12pm NZST / 10am AEST ​ ​ ​ ​ Visit www.Zoom.us/j/349953798 to join the meeting. ​ ​

NOTE: ASL interpreters are available at all virtual events.

Wednesday, May 6th - Beata Tsosie-Peña

Beata Tsosie-Peña is from Santa Clara Pueblo and El Rito, NM. She is a mother, poet, seed keeper, and is certified in Infant ​ Massage, as a Developmental Specialist, an Educator, a Full-Spectrum Doula, and in Indigenous Sustainable Design (permaculture). She is a Green For All Fellow and has served on several local community boards over the years. She is currently on the steering committee for the Traditional Native American Farmers Association and Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute's Board of Directors. She is also serving on the NM Governor's Task Force on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women as a Pueblo representative. The realities of living next to a nuclear weapons complex has called her into environmental health and justice work with the non-profit organization, Tewa Women United for over a decade. As part of her work with TWU, she is currently managing the creation of the Española Healing Foods Oasis demonstration garden project and Española Healing Foods Seed Library.

Wednesday, May 13th - Madi Sato

Madi Sato is a singer of Japanese Ainu and Irish heritage who gathers and shares traditional chants from diverse cultures ​ and creates original songs in nature. She had a twenty-year career as a songwriter and performer and is a lifelong dancer versed in an array of traditions and styles.

Madi is devoted to raising women's voices for the benefit of our Earth Mother and her sacred Waters.

Wednesday, May 20th - Teresa Candelaria

Teresa Candelaria is a Yaqui woman who was born in East Los Angeles. Her entire family lived on the same block. Her ​ family was Matriarchal so she was always in the company of strong women. She never knew her grandfathers. Teresa has lived through many different work situations in her life from driving a truck delivering food to working with people with disabilities. She was the manager of the Forensic Interviewing Program at Solace Crisis Treatment Center where she interviewed children from ages 3 to 17 years, creating a safe place for them to tell their stories of their abuse or witnessed a violent crime. She is now retired and is presently on the board of IndigenousWays.

Teresa is a Sundancer, was part of an azteca dance group and has been a sweat lodge leader. She loves her partner, birds, her dog, the cat, the parakeets, chickens and the plants. She really loves to swim.

Wednesday, May 27th - Terry Vinson

Terry Vinson is Native American, French, and Mexican and grew up profoundly deaf. She graduated from the ​ School for the Deaf and attended the Santa Fe Community College and the College of Santa Fe and received her BA degree. She has taught ASL at the Santa Fe Community College for 25 years and teaches at the Santa Prep and the New Mexico School for the Deaf for staff, families and friends, and offers private ASL tutor sessions.

Terry envisions hearing and deaf communities bridging their communication gaps so they/we may all learn from one another and work together in a good way. Our evening with Terry will be filled with an introduction into Deaf Culture and fundamental instruction into American Sign Language.

IndigenousWays Virtual Concert Series May 2020

Fridays at 6pm MDT • Sundays at 12pm NZST / 10am AEST Visit www.Zoom.us/j/243823800 to join the meeting. ​ ​

NOTE: ASL interpreters are available at all virtual events.

Friday, May 1st - Mimi Gonzalez

Mimi Gonzalez has rocked the mic at prides and protests, cruises and festivals since before being gay was spelled with ​ three letters. She welcomes everyone in the acronym of GLBTEtc through the politics of radical inclusion. Her life-long agitation and activism is expressed in print through LGBTQ and diversity and inclusion magazines and as a nationally touring stand-up comic.

She's been called "one of the funniest comics in NYC” according to Backstage Magazine and Provincetown Magazine said she's "Funny, sexy, sharp, positive…Mimi Gonzalez is a comic, life-affirming force.”

In 2018, she earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College in Oakland, California, starting the path of another lifelong dream. Mimi Gonzalez-Barillas values each individual voice and the instinct to express ourselves - recognizing writing as a prescriptive and immediate form. Since 2014, she participates in, facilitates and conducts writing workshops. Yes, that was a mixed tense sentence.

Websites: http://www.MimiGonzalez.com • https://www.facebook.com/MimiGonzalezComic ​ ​ ​

Friday, May 8th - Joanne Shenandoah

Joanne Shenandoah is Native America's most celebrated musicians and lecturer. She carries beauty in her soul and voice ​ but also through her interactions with diverse communities around the world. She provides strength and passion for the people that is found in the likes of iconic philosophers and wisdom-keepers. Holding a Grammy and 45 plus music awards, plus an Emmy nomination, she is an Ambassador of peace, human and earth rights, capturing the hearts of audiences all over the world. Her philanthropic efforts have included works with organizations for earth and human rights specifically women and children. In addition, she is a founding member of the Hiawatha Institute for Traditional Knowledge, a non-profit educational organization whose aim is to provide all with ancient knowledge of her ancestors.

Website: http://www.joanneshenandoah.com ​

Friday, May 15th - Larry Mitchell

Larry Mitchell is a Grammy award-winning producer, engineer and performer who has toured the world playing guitar with ​ well-known artists including Tracy Chapman, Billy Squier, Ric Ocasek and Miguel Bosé. In his original compositions, Larry skillfully weaves guitar textures that showcase his virtuosity as a solo artist and ensemble player.

As an artist, he has released 9 solo records and won a San Diego Music Award for best pop jazz artist. As a producer-engineer, Larry has won 26 Awards in various categories from pop, adult contemporary, rap, rock, country and Native American. He won a Grammy Award for producing, engineering and performing on "Totemic Flute Chants” by artist Johnny Whitehorse, who is better known as Robert Mirabal of .

Website: https://www.larrymitchell.com ​

Friday, May 22nd - SONiA

One of the world's most successful LGBT singer songwriters, SONiA disappear fear (born Sonia Rutstein) is loved for her ​ ​ beautiful voice and songs that illuminate truth passionately delivered. Born in Baltimore and cruising relentlessly across the USA in the early 90s, SONiA has grown to be loved around the world. To see her is to believe her.

SONiA disappear fear released her highly anticipated 19th CD By My Silence in January 2019. Currently, SDF has 18 award winning CDs including first round Grammy entries. "Her songs are a vivid celebration of the human spirit in all its infinite manifestations", writes Don Kening-Chicago Daily Herald, "her music has a singular sound that makes labeling and categorizing a waste of time."

Website: https://www.soniadisappearfear.com ​

Friday, May 29th - Crys Matthews

Ask about the new generation of social justice music-makers and Crys Matthews will be mentioned. A prolific lyricist, ​ ​ Matthews blends Americana, folk, jazz, blues, bluegrass and funk into a bold, complex performance steeped in traditional melodies punctuated by honest, original lyrics. "While each and every day, on each and every media platform, we're reminded of the division, alienation, marginalization, and divisiveness rampant in our country (and our world), we're not often enough met with people like Matthews," said Justin Hiltner of Bluegrass Situation, "who exist as reminders of what beauty ​ ​ can occur when we bridge those divides.” Her two 2017 releases, a full-length album called The Imagineers, a selection of thoughtful songs about love and life, and an EP called Battle Hymn for an Army of Lovers, which tackles social justice themes helped earn Matthews high praise like that from Hiltner as well as the title of 2017 NewSong Music and Performance Competition grand prize winner.

Website: https://crysmatthews.com ​