TMY Virtual

Haha’atadkam means “one who makes pottery” in the O’odham language. This artform for both ornamental and utilitarian purposes is a lesser known form of the Tohono O’odham people, who are often celebrated for their basketweaking. In this conversation and demonstration, learn about the history and practice of Tohono O’odham pottery and the story each pot has to tell.
Facilitator: BERNARD SIQUIEROS, Tohono O’odham community member
REUBEN NARAJNO, Tohono O’odham potter
KATHLEEN VANCE, Tohono O’odham potter
This event will be broadcast on TMY’s Facebook page and TMY’s YouTube Channel.
About the presenters:
Bernard G. Siquieros is an enrolled member of the Tohono O’odham Nation recently retired as the Curator of Education at Himdag Ki: Hekĭhu, Hemu, Im B I-Ha’ap, the Tohono O’odham Nation’s Cultural Center and Museum. He has also worked as a counselor, researcher, program coordinator, and education administrator on and off the Tohono O’odham Nation. He is an avid photographer and has contributed immensely to the tribe’s photo documentation efforts at Himdag Ki.
Reuben Naranjo is a Tohono O’odham potter who first learned from his grandmother, Mary Neblina Lewis. He later studied with Alicia Bustamente of S-Gogosik, Sonora, Mexico, and Annie Manuel of Hickiwan, Arizona, to make utilitarian terracotta ollas and white clay friendship pots using colored clay slips and paints. For Reuben, being a potter recalls the first O’odham potter our creator, I’itoi heki hu t-wenag, who first created the O’odham from red clay, water sand and fire. Reuben is a 2016 recipient of the Southwest Folklife Alliance Master-Apprentice Award.
Kathleen (Kathy) Vance is of Tohono O’odham and San Carlos Apache lineage and calls the southern Arizona desert home. Although she grew up in Tucson she moved to the main reservation as a teen and began her foundation on the Tohono O’odham Nation. Kathy has been culturally influenced by a community of people who respect and value the Himdag (O’odham lifeways). In 2000, with other womenfolk, Kathy began working with Alicia Bustamante of El Bajio community located in northern Mexico which is historically O’odham country. Alicia was one of the few remaining traditional O’odham potters. With Alicia, Kathy learned the basic fundamentals of the anvil and paddle method. Alicia encouraged Kathy not to give up and reassured her that great potters have humble beginnings and that each setback is actually growth in this tradition. After Alicia unexpectedly passed away, she met Reuben Naranjo who became a resource and mentor to her. For the past 14 years, under his teachings and guidance, she continues to produce utilitarian pottery such as; cooking vessels, water ollas, seed jars, effigy pots and whistles.

Join Naina Bhamidipati and Mari Kaneta for a conversation about gesture as a vehicle for storytelling in dance and the work of upholding a dance tradition outside its cultural homeland. Bhamidipati demonstrates bharathanatyam, a traditional dance from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, accompanied by her brother, Nitish, on the mridangam drum. Kaneta, founder and sensei at Tucson’s Suzuyuki Kai, demonstrates classical Japanese dance forms such as odori and kabuki.

Facilitator: KATE ALEXANDER, TMY Performance Curator

MARI KANETA, Japanese dancer and sensei

NAINA BHAMIDIPATI, Bharathanatyam dancer and drummer

Barbara Eiswerth of Iskashiita Refugee Network and Maria Magliani, a recent asylee from Venezuela, demonstrate Crema de Auyama (cream of squash/pumpkin soup) and Venezuelan arepas. This soup recipe is simple and easy to adapt to other squash or vegetables found in local gardens. Arepas are an omnipresent part of the Venezuelan table and Maria shares her lifelong-honed technique for forming the dough into the Venezuelan staple.

For more information on Iskashiita Refugee Network visit
https://www.iskashitaa.org/

Location: Mission Garden, Tucson
Video: Nate McKowen, UpdraftProductions.com
Music: Grupo Riken

Supported by Arts Foundation of Tucson & Southern Arizona
A Tucson Meet Yourself/Southwest Folklife Alliance production

Tanisha Tucker, Traci Faith Hamilton, and Maria Francisco discuss the harvest and/or preparation of three Tohono O'odham foods, tepary beans, ciolim (cholla buds), and yeast Bread. The family continues a tradition of saguaro fruit harvest and syrup production and also briefly share about prickly pear jelly. The video offers a glimpse into just a few of the traditional foods in the Tucson basin.

Location: Mission Garden, Tucson
Video: Nate McKowen, UpdraftProductions.com
Music: Gertie N the T.O. Boyz

Supported by the Arts Foundation of Tucson & Southern Arizona
A Tucson Meet Yourself/Southwest Folklife Alliance production

Dr. Michael Engs, of Arizona Heritage Tours, brings to the kitchen the lesser-known contributions of African-descent people who first reached the Southwest in 1538 through events related to Spanish exploration, conquest, and settlement. Some came involuntarily as enslaved people, others as free adventurers and entrepreneurs. A second wave came by way of the western expansion of the United States military and left an imprint on the cuisine of the Columbian exchange. Here, Sidney Engs shares a "3 sisters stew," while Rachel Pollack offers information on the global cultural and gastronomic influence of the Columbian exchange.

Location: Mission Garden, Tucson
Video: Nate McKowen, UpdraftProductions.com
Music: Grupo Riken

Supported by Arts Foundation of Tucson & Southern Arizona
A Tucson Meet Yourself/Southwest Folklife Alliance production

Conversants: SELINA MORALES, Folklorist; ROD AMBROSE, Storyteller; BARBEA WILLIAMS, Theater/Dance Artist

Storytelling as manifestation of change in African and African American communities is an ancient and powerful community practice. Listen and learn from a conversation between folklorist Selina Morales and SFA Master Artist; community leader, movement builder and storyteller, Rod Ambrose; and dance/theater artists Barbea Williams about the vital role of traditional knowledge in building a more equitable future.
Facilitator

SELINA MORALES is a Philadelphia-based public folklorist whose work focuses on the intersection of community aesthetics, heritage, and social justice. She is currently working with the Southwest Folklife Alliance on the national Radical Imagination for Racial Justice initiative, coaching community-based researchers to document and interpret racial justice projects in their own ALAANA communities. She directs the Philadelphia Folklore Project and is a faculty member at Goucher College’s Masters in Cultural Sustainability Program, where she teaches ethical and effective cultural partnerships and nonprofit leadership and management. She serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School and on the Advisory Council of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
Panelist 1

Originally from Chicago, ROD AMBROSE is a lifelong storyteller, pulling from the oral traditions of West Africa, where storytellers shared values, legends, and news through song and story. For over 47 years Ambrose has studied, learned, developed, composed, written, acted in and directed plays, and told stories in schools, universities and colleges throughout Arizona. Rod retired from the city of Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department in 2016, 50 years to the day that he officially entered the work force at the Chicago City Parks System. Rod moved to Arizona in 1968 after a dangerous experience of gang banging in Chicago. In Phoenix he came under the mentorship of Mr. Richard E. Harris, the first African American journalist at the Arizona Republic, and Helen K. Mason, the first African American woman to serve as Park Supervisor for the City of Phoenix and also founder of the now-legendary Black Theater Troupe Inc. Rod has served on numerous boards of directors, councils, community task forces and commissions throughout his career. In 1998 the First Offender Program Facilitated by Ambrose was cited by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as a Best Practices model and one of the top programs of its type in the United States. Ambrose established the chairmanship of the South Mountain WORKS Coalition, developed under the auspices of Southwest Behavioral Health to assist with the education and empowerment of the citizens of South Mountain Community Village in the reduction of underage drinking of alcohol and other drugs illegal to children and teens in the area. He served as chairman there from 2010-2015. Ambrose currently serves as Project Manager of the African Diaspora Advisory Council of the state of Arizona. Among his many awards, he is a 2016 recipient of the Southwest Folklife Alliance’s Master-Apprentice Artist Award.
Panelist 2

BARBEA WILLIAMS is an award-winning performer dedicated to sharing ethnic dance, theatre and visual cultural traditions that derive from Africa and the African Diaspora, as an arts educator, performing and visual artist. Currently, Ms. Williams is the co-founder and artistic director of Barbea Williams Performing Company (BWPC), in her 19th year as faculty for the School of Dance at the University of Arizona. She also serves as the managing director for the BWPC Dance and Art Academy, which offers various classes, workshops and residences specializing in African and African Latino cultural expressions. Her performances seek to transfer her audiences to another world rekindling spirits of missed opportunities.

Karen Falkenstrom of Odaiko Sonora and Anne Pollack of Capoeira Mandinga share roles, responsibilities, and ethics of teaching and transmitting traditional practices. Deeply engaged in the practice and teaching of their respective forms, both artists will speak about their personal journeys acquiring and transmitting cultural knowledge.

Facilitator: KATE ALEXANDER, TMY Performance Curator
KAREN FALKENSTROM, Founder/Director, Odaiko Sonora
ANNE POLLACK, Founder/Director, Capoeira Mandinga Tucson
Facilitator

KATE ALEXANDER, TMY Festival Performance Curator
Panelist 1

KAREN FALKENSTROM is the founder and director of Odaiko Sonora, Tucson’s taiko drumming ensemble. A 1.5 generation Korean/Norwegian-American, she has studied with numerous North American taiko masters and travels to Japan annually to study drumming, vocal, and dance traditions that inform North American taiko.
Panelist 3

ANNE POLLACK (Mestra Luar do Sertão) began training capoeira in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1986 with the founder of Capoeira Mandinga, Mestre Marcelo Caveirinha. She has traveled all over Brazil, Europe, and the US to train both Capoeira Regional and Angola. She received her capoeira nickname, Luar do Sertão, “moonlight over the desert outback,” from Mestre Suassuna before she moved to the desert Southwest. In 1996, she founded Capoeira Mandinga Tucson. She has over 20 years of experience teaching capoeira and Brazilian arts to children and adults through the Capoeira Mandinga Tucson Academy, and other schools, colleges, libraries, senior centers, events and festivals. She is a 2019 recipient of the Southwest Folklife Alliance Master-Apprentice Award.

Tucson City of Gastronomy hosts the premiere of a new video by the San Xavier Co-op Farm about the tepary bean, an ancient Tohono O’odham food that continues to thrive in the Sonora Desert due to its cultural significance, drought tolerance, health benefits, and delicious taste. In tandem with the video, farm staff share cultural perspective and modern recipes for White Tepary Bean Hummus and Vegan Red Tepary Bean Brownies.

Mexican weaving and embroidery are integral traditional art forms in Mexico and the Americas, closely tied to indigenous knowledge and resiliency. Join artists, activists, and scholars for a conversations that braids knowledge and experience to explore textiles as a form of cultural resistance, economic autonomy, and women’s collective empowerment.

Facilitator: DR. MICHELLE TELLEZ, University of Arizona Mexican American Studies
LORENA ANDRADE, Director, La Mujer Obrera, El Paso, Texas
NANSI GUEVARA, Textile artist, Brownsville, Texas
MARIA DEL CARMEN PARRA CANO, Owner of Indigena

You can view this event below during and after its premiere. To interact with others during the live streaming, you can watch here:

TMY’s Facebook Videos: https://www.facebook.com/TucsonMeetYourself/videosTMY’s YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/user/tucsonmeetyourself
Facilitator

DR. MICHELLE TELLEZ is an assistant professor in the University of Arizona Department of Mexican American Studies. She writes about transnational community formations, Chicana feminism, and gendered migration for academic journals, books and as public scholarship. A founding member of the Chicana M(other)work collective, the Arizona Son Jarocho Collective, and the Binational Arts Residency project, Dr. Téllez has a long history in grassroots organizing projects and community-based arts and performance. She is co-editor of The Chicana M(other)work Anthology: Porque Sin Madres No Hay Revolución (2019) and the author of Autonomy in the Spaces of Neoliberal Neglect: Las Mujeres de Maclovio Rojas (forthcoming 2021).
Panelist 1

LORENA ANDRADE is the director of La Mujer Obrera (LMO), an organization in El Paso, Texas dedicated to creating communities defined by women. Andrade helped organize the women displaced from the garment industry as a result of the implementation of The North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). As the organization grew Andrade collaborated with committees within the organization to identify, develop, and implement programs grounded in the history of women workers and Mexican indigenous heritage. She also participated in developing the social enterprise side of La Mujer Obrera, Centro Mayapan, which includes: Rayito de Sol Dayacare & Learning Center; Café Mayapan, and LumMetik Trading Co, which focuses on fair trade. In 2011, Andrade became director of LMO, the organization’s programing includes Familiads Unidas del Chamizal, a community organization, Proyecto Verde, Museo Maychen, Tierra es Vida community farm, and annual cultural events.
Panelist 2

NANSI GUEVARA is a designer, artist, and teacher based in Brownsville, Texas. Originally from Laredo, she holds a bachelor’s in Fine Arts in Design from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master’s in Education from Harvard University. She is currently focused on design, education, and community public art to create spaces of resistance and affirmation, and economies of community cultural wealth and support. She is a graphic designer, an illustrator, and a textile/rasquache based public artist. She runs her own freelance design & education practice, Corazón Contento, based out of Brownsville, Texas and is an adjunct lecturer at the School of Art at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Nansi has been awarded residencies, fellowships, and grants from the NEA, Artplace America, Fulbright, a Blade of Grass, NALAC, and most recently SFAI.
Panelist 3

MARIA DEL CARMEN PARRA CANO is mami-preneur of Indigena & Sana Sana Foods. Maria is a Xicana Indigena born in Phoenix and grew up in Barrio Garfield along with her siblings. Maria received her undergraduate degree from Arizona State University, her MBA from Grand Canyon University and a culinary arts degree from Scottsdale Culinary Institute – Le Cordon Bleu. Maria is a mother of four children (2-7 years old). Mother, wife, sister, aunt, community organizer, danzante y mujer de ceremonia as part of the Calpoalli Nahuacalco, she is also co-founder and the Executive Director of the Cihuapactli Collective, Chef at the Healthy Roots Cafe, co-founder MEChA de ASU’s Xicana/o Graduation and board member for the Sagrado Galleria & the Orchard Community Learning Center in South Phoenix. Maria provides postpartum support as a CoMadrita/doula and provides rebozo workshops for use throughout the life cycle.

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In communities throughout North America and in the Celtic regions of Europe, Celtic music supports and enables social dances that serve to bring people together and maintain relationships. In this demonstration, Claire Zucker of Púca and the Wild Ones and a dancer will draw connections between the Celtic traditions they represent. Expect fiddling, dancing, and singing!

Facilitator: KATE ALEXANDER, TMY Performance Curator
Panelists: CLAIRE ZUCKER, Púca and the Wild Ones, and a dancer, DAVE FIRESTINE, Musician and member of the band STEAM, CHRISTINE SOLINSKY, Irish Dancer and ABBIE SORG, Contra Dancer and Caller.

CLAIRE ZUCKER hails from the green woods of eastern Tennessee, and her life circles around family and her love of music and dance. She plays traditional Irish and American Old-time music in sessions, jams, and in various bands, and for 25 years has built community and connected people to music and dance by calling and organizing contradances.

Flowers have a special connection to the Pascua Yaqui and are used in celebrations and memorials. Learn from traditional artists how to make paper flowers and the meaning of these sacred object for to Yaqui/Yoeme people.

Panel co-curated by Daniel Vega, Director Department of Language & Culture. We thank the Pascua Yaqui Tribe Department of Language & Cultural for their partnership!

Facilitators: PASCUALA VALENZUELA, Ms. Pascua Yaqui & LAYLALANAI GOCOBACHI, Junior Miss Pascua Yaqui

Artists: IRENE SANCHEZ & PAULA YUCUPICIO

PASCUALA VALENZUELA, Miss Pascua Yaqui, is the daughter of Simon Valenzeula and Olvera Monte-Valenzuela and comes from the Barrio Libre 39th community. She is currently a freshman at Tohono O’odham Community College studying social work. Her interest include embroidery and crochet.

LAYLALANAI GOCOBACHI, Junior Miss Pascua Yaqui, is the daughter of Jesus Gocobachi and Almarosa Valencia and comes from the Barrio Libre 39th and New Pascua communities. Miss Gocobachi is currently a sophomore at Tucson High School. Her interests include volleyball and digital arts.

IRENE SANCHEZ, a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, is the daughter of Merejildo Valenzuela Hernandez (Jusacamea) Rivera and Nasaria Guillen Rubio Espinoza Rivera. She was raised in Barrio Libre neighborhood, the fourth child of eleven children and now the elder of her father’s generation. She has worked for the Tribe for 37 years and is currently a patient advocate in the Managed Care Health Program. Irene has been a mentor with Strength Building Partners, a Saguaro Girl Scout Council Group Leader for fourteen years, and a member of Voices for Education. A member of the Yaqui Arts Association, she volunteers with the Yoemem Tekia Museum, and other organizations in the Tucson Area. Irene teaches paper flower making and donates flowers to Yaqui ceremonies, fiestas and other occasions, as flowers represent blessings and are dedicated to the Virgin De Guadalupe.

PAULA YUCUPICIO grew up in Old Pascua learning her culture from her parents. She lived in Old Pascua for about 38 years until her mother passed away. "I learned how to make our traditional paper flowers from my mother when I was seven years old. She's the reason I am here. I've been with Tucson Meet Yourself for around 18 years now, in place of my mother señora Ignacia Yucupicio and my aunt Antonia Leon. I believe it's important to share our tradition so other ethnicities can see the beautiful traditions we have. Flowers traditionally have a religious significance for Yaqui people, they are a symbol of God's blessings, a manifestation of good in this world. Flowers are used for many Yaqui purposes, including church fiestas, Yaqui altars, Day of The Dead wreaths and other Yaqui ceremonies."