5 Plain Questions

Rosy Simas is citizen of the Seneca Nation of Indians. She is a transdisiplinary artist and founder and Artistic Director of Rosy Simas Danse.

Active since 1992, her projects merge decolonized physical movement with mixed media, sound and objects for stage and installations.

I had first become associated with Ms. Simas from an exhibition here at the Plains in 2019. Her work was unlike any of the other artists in the space, where her performance video, We Wait In The Darkness, with these beautiful maps and overlays on them filling a wall in the exhibition.

Her work combines themes of personal and collective identity with family, matriarchy, sovereignty, equality, and healing.

Thoughtful in her responses, and relatable experiences makes this interview so interesting.

Check out the following websites:

Website: https://www.rosysimas.com/

Rosy Simas Danse Website: https://rosysimasdanse.com/

All My Relations (A Place of Rest) website: http://www.allmyrelationsarts.com/yodoishendahgwageh/

Native Arts and Cultures Foundation website:

https://www.nativeartsandcultures.org/rosy-simas-2

John Little, PhD (Standing Rock Dakota), is a scholar, historian, filmmaker, and mentor. His presentations and research focus on Native student retention and success in higher education, decolonizing work in the university, cultural appropriation and Native American-themed mascots, Lakota and Dakota music, and Native American Vietnam veterans, looking at the fact that Native Americans serve in the military at a higher per-capita rate than any other ethnic group in the United States.

Dr. Little received his PhD in History from the University of Minnesota and is passionate about changing the way history is written about Native peoples. He is currently the Director of Native Recruitment and Alumni Engagement at the University of South Dakota. Previously, he was the Director of the 7th Gen Summer Program, a Native American college readiness program for high school graduates in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

He is the co-director, alongside his brother Kenn, of the 2017 award-winning film, “More Than A Word.” The documentary goes inside the movement to change the name of the Washington R*dskins football team as well as what’s at stake in contemporary debates about cultural appropriation and Native American-themed mascots.

You can reach him at: [email protected]

More Than A Word film: http://morethanawordfilm.com/

Watch the trailer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A86QFzzp7s8

We're off this week but we want to thank everyone for the amazing and overwhelming response to our 5 Scary Questions podcast from last week. This encourages us to keep going and creating great content that you all keep coming back for. Our podcast family is growing and we are looking forward to what is coming next. See you next week!

Join us this week as we celebrate the Halloween season with true life scary stories from our past guests from the 5 Plain Questions podcast. We have a collection of different stories, all very scary and all very true. We thank Dwayne Wilcox, Roy Taylor, Falcon Gott, Vanessa Short Bull, Matt Barse, Gerald Cournoyer, and Arik Williams for sharing these intense and very real experiences.

Subscribe to AV's Black Coffee Show:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQPtGj_bhe2HRhHiqRtWgkQ

Follow on Instagram!

Dwayne Wilcox:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/dwayne.wilcox.505/

https://www.morningstargallery.com/gallery-artists/dwayne-wilcox-bio

Matt Barse:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/lowdownent/

https://www.lowdown-entertainment.com/

Falcon Gott:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/___fal_con___/

https://www.falcongott.com/

Vanessa Short Bull:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/vanessashortbull/

Gerald Cournoyer:

https://geraldcournoyer.artspan.com/thumbnail_list.php?mgd_id=14442

Roy Taylor:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/indigeneity_rising/

https://www.kfai.org/personality/roy-taylor/

Roy Taylor (Pawnee, Choctaw) is with White Eagle Arts, Entertainment & Media out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is host of Indigeneity Rising on KFAI Fresh Air Community Radio 90.3 FM.

He is a:

Stage, Film, Commercial Actor

Performance Storyteller

Voice Over Narrator

Spoken Word Artist

Emcee, Moderator, Host

Radio Broadcast Journalist

Public Speaker, Presenter

Spokesman, Representative, Advocate

Humorist, Comedian

Playwright, Screenwriter...he does it all!

Over 25 years experience in public, non-profit, government work at the local, national and global level. Graduate of the amazing University of Oklahoma. Married, two adult children and two school age grandchildren.

Find KFAI online:

https://www.kfai.org/program/indigeneity-rising/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/indigeneityrising/

Melanie Yazzie is Professor of Art Practices and Head of Printmaking at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. Her works belong to many collections such as: the Denver Art Museum, Anchorage Museum of History & Art, the Art Museum of Missoula, the Institute of American Indian Arts, the Kennedy Museum of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and in countries such as, New Zealand, France, Russia, Canada, Estonia, Northern Ireland, Korea, China, United Kingdom, and Australia. She is known for organizing print exchange projects that connect communities across the world. She makes prints, sculptures, paintings, does surface design and jewelry design. She has been represented by the Glenn Green Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico since 1994.

Reflecting on the recent Wokiksuye remembrance of Robert Penn by the Dahl Art Center, Joe Williams is calling art Indigenous storytellers to start telling and representing their own stories such as Robert Penn's.

We messed up last week. We uploaded the unedited clip for the episode instead of the episode that was produced. Since we don't have an intern to blame and fire, and Joe would mean no staff would be on the podcast we will have to just offer our apologies for the mix-up. Please enjoy this redux episode of Keith Braveheart on Oscar Howe.

I want to introduce you to Angela Two Stars. She received her BFA in drawing from Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids Michigan. Angela is a Dakota from the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate on the Lake Traverse Reservation in Sisseton South Dakota.

She currently lives in St. Paul Minnesota and the first Indigenous artist to install work at the Minneapolis Sculpture in conjunction with the Walker Art Center. Her work will be an interactive space where you can move through the space and see and hear Dakota words in it’s Native place.

This work will be open to the public on October 9th of 2021. I encourage you to make a trip to this location and see this amazing piece. Who knows, you just may see me there as well.

Let’s jump into this interview with Angela.

website:

http://www.angelatwostars.com/

Mary V. Bordeaux (Sicangu Lakota) is the co-founder and creative director of Racing Magpie, a collaborative space with a Native art gallery and artist studios in Mnilúzahaŋ Otȟúŋwah (Rapid City, SD). She received her bachelor’s degree from the Institute of American Indian Arts and MFA from the University of the Arts, both degrees are in museum studies with an emphasis in exhibition design and planning. Mary is currently a doctoral candidate at Saint Mary’s University, exploring Lakota women’s leadership. Mary has held curatorial positions with The Heritage Center at Red Cloud Indian School and The Indian Museum of North America at Crazy Horse Memorial.

Racing Magpie website:

https://www.racingmagpie.com/

First Peoples Fund Website:

https://www.firstpeoplesfund.org/