Exhibition Day! April 19th

April 22, 2019

NYAC/MCAD exhibit event and prep time, 10 hours. The break down of hours are below.

April, 18th 5 hours. NYAC member Julien and I prepped and screen printed 100 patches for our event. I also taught him how to print for his own group project. He designed a cd cover image for his group project and we decided to print the image onto a shirt for a band shirt look.

NYAC logo patches for everyone that will come to tomorrow’s event!

Julien and I screen printing in my living room the night before the event!

Julien’s CD cover he designed and the NYAC logo design about to be cut into patches!

Day of the event! April 19th, 1pm-5pm. The youth requested Frybread at the event so I decided to make some along with Cedar tea! I went and got groceries for the bread and tea and hand picked flat cedar on my way home. The tea had cedar, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries including maple syrup for sweetener.

My younger brother Julien from the NYAC with the event posters. He hung them at his high school too!

I didn’t get a photo of the bread but here is a google photo. It looked a lot like this! :)

April 19th, 6-8pm at MCAD. The event went great! A lot of people showed up and the collective brought their family too! It was so cool to see all the groups finished pieces and to see more Native representation on campus! I actually met two another Native students that attend MCAD, that makes 5 now! :) They also thought this Art in Community collaboration with Little Earth youth was really great to see and were impressed with everyones work! We definitely want to continue this film over the summer!

NYAC! Top left to right: Thalia, Sofia, myself. Bottom left to right: Brenna, Carissa, Briezy, Heidi and Joe!

Week 12: April 14th-20th

April 22, 2019

Screen Shot 2019-04-20 at 10.29.17 PM.png — NYAC/MCAD

Native Youth Arts Collective

Placement #3: Shadowing with Native Youth Arts Collective.

Location: MCAD, March 17, 4:00-6pm

Last week (3/10/19) I was out sick. This week we showed our edit of the film. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and wanted to see more! It was great to see the entire class react to the film and how proud the collective members faces were! The film changed a few times over the last few weeks and we encountered some difficulties with equipment and some communication but it has been a fun learning experience for everyone. After we screened the film the other groups continued to install their work!

Filming & Editing Sessions

April 22, 2019

Total of 20 hours of filming, picking up equipment, returning equipment, writing release form, meeting with Genevieve and editing footage. Below are the break downs.

March 13th, Indian Center Pow Wow. 5pm-9pm. Myself and two other collective members including my younger brother (from one of the other groups) came and filmed b-roll!

Screen Shot 2019-04-21 at 1.31.18 AM.png

Release form we drafted. We forgot to add email but the interviews we had planned backed out unfortunately so we did not use these..

We met someone from the Native American Women Empowerment Campaign who was really excited for this film! She took our photo and shared in on their facebook to help call for interviews!

March, 30th 5pm-9pm, Augsburg Pow Wow. I met with most of my group at Augsburg to film b-roll and conduct interviews with 3 children. We had a lot of fun hanging out and and it was cool to have other groups members come out and experience their first pow wow! I’ve gotten to know one of the NYAC member from previous sessions but didn’t know the other member before this collaboration. It was cool to be able to all hang out and run around the pow wow together laughing and figuring out what shot we want.

Some of the interview questions the NYAC came up with!

April, 6th 4-7pm, MCAD. I uploaded the footage onto a team drive so everyone has access and can add to it. I was joined by MCAD members to start editing the footage. Unfortunately something came up with the collective members and they couldn’t join. We talked about how it has been too difficult to schedule with community members on top of our own schedules. We messaged the group and we all decided to have audio interviews of the collective members talking about little Earth while using the footage they got, past footage I got of NYAC and found news footage.

April, 13th 11-1pm, MCAD. The NYAC member had to work so they couldn’t meet the MCAD students to go over editing. We looked at the footage and listened to the audio that Jera got of the collective members.

MCAD equipment pick up/drop off, about 2 hours. I didn’t keep track of the times I checked out and returned camera equipment from MCAD or got equipment from the NYAC at Little Earth. I assume it would be about two hours spent driving and equipment prep.

April 12th, 3pm-4pm at MCAD. April 10th I was out sick and some of the students worked on our event poster which looked great! On the 12th I met with Genevieve to edit the event poster because the address and location of gallery space was missing. since we met we decided to create a public Facebook event under the collectives facebook page and started to invite people!

The event poster next to a paining the NYAC made last summer with Rock9 Art Studio! It’s been great seeing more representation of my community on campus!!!

Screen Shot 2019-04-21 at 2.58.47 AM.png

Public Facebook Event

Editing from home, 4 hours. Since our schedules haven’t been lining up, myself and the other MCAD students agreed that it would make sense if Tom cut down the audio, Jera made the credits and I edited the visuals since I have so much past documentation with the collective.

Week 10: April 1-6th

April 22, 2019

Placement #3: Shadowing with Native Youth Arts Collective.

Location: MCAD, April 3rd, 4:00-6pm

Today’s session was a work day. My group looked over footage and discussed what other events and interviews we can film. The MCAD students started editing while the NYAC students brainstormed and continued to produce the film and see what our next move would be. NYAC students wanted to start off with some photos that they’ve taken recently with a brief history and facts of Little Earth and have that continuing between interviews. One NYAC student fell out of the loop and hasn’t been able to attend our sessions or help film but was still paying attention to the facebook messenger. So far it has only been myself and the other two collective member that have been able to go out and film. We plan on attending the Augsburg pow wow next!

Collective members brain storming themes of the film!

Week 9: March 24th-29th

April 22, 2019

Placement #3: Shadowing with Native Youth Arts Collective.

Location: MCAD, March 27th, 4:00-6pm

Last week (3/20/19) was spring break and we didn’t have group so we’ve been communicating a lot through facebook messenger. This week all groups presented their ideas and what mediums they would be working in. We got into groups and prepped our presentation and thought of other events we can go and film. For our project we planned to interview youth from the Little Earth community and let them lead the conversation around drugs, violence, reconnecting to culture and other barriers they see and how they would change it. This film will be a trailer for a larger project that the collective would like to work on over this summer. The class seemed excited about the project!

Myself along with the NYAC Coordinators Heidi and Joe

Week 7 March 10th-16th

April 17, 2019

Screen Shot 2019-04-16 at 6.30.48 AM.png — NYAC/MCAD

Native Youth Arts Collective

Placement #3: Shadowing with Native Youth Arts Collective.

Location: MCAD, March 13 4:00-6pm

This week NYAC and MCAD students took a deeper dive into brainstorming ideas and concepts that revolve around the theme of “place”. Everyone was instructed to write onto sticky notes with their idea then Genevieve, Joe and Heidi organized the notes and that’s how we got split into our groups for this collaboration. Some of the ideas included film, print making and music. We also had a few guest speaker from the Service bureau talk to the NYAC students about what services they can utilize. I was apart of the film group along with Tom, Jera and Lauren (MCAD) and Brenna, Briezy and Carissa (NYAC). We all decided that the NYAC members would get to be the directors of where they want this film to go. The NYAC members decided they wanted to direct a film to combat the negative news that surrounds the Little Earth community and create a film that highlights the positive moments that often gets overlooked.

Screen Shot 2019-04-20 at 10.49.46 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-04-20 at 10.49.55 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-04-20 at 10.50.07 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-04-20 at 10.50.17 PM.png

Week 6 March 3-9

April 1, 2019

Screen Shot 2019-03-10 at 12.50.52 PM.png — NYAC/MCAD

Native Youth Arts Collective

Placement #3: Shadowing with Native Youth Arts Collective.

Location: MCAD, March 6th 4:00-6pm

We arrived on campus and enjoyed a meal together from 4-430pm. Then we met Genevieve’s Art in Community class in the College Center and we all gathered in a circle and introduced ourselves, our pronouns and what we medium we work in. At first some of the youth were a bit nervous but they did a great job introducing themselves! Genevieve asked us all to write down an answer to the question “Where Are We?” and mentioned that there is no right or wrong answer! We shared what that means to us while mentioning that we are on Dakota Land an how some people might now always acknowledge that history. Some other answers ranged from “At MCAD”, “I’m still searching”, “Where my family is” or “Earth”. Shortly after we made small groups filled with both MCAD and NYAC students and wrote down other words that could mean place, again no right or wrong answer! Then we drew a map of the places around where we physically are. It was cool to see the creations of the maps with other groups! Some you can clearly see their artistic style and design in some and others you can see the location acknowledgements that are important to them. At 5:30pm we had Adam Khalil, Native filmmaker from NY come and talk about his work and vision. The class seemed to respond and appreciate his unique vision as a native artist.

When group was done I checked in with my younger brother who is also apart of these sessions because he seemed very out of his comfort zone during group. He mentioned that he was very nervous because there were so many talented older college students and how it took a lot of courage for him to speak so publicly. He also mentioned that he appreciates me staying close to him during group for support but he also appreciates how cool and laid back Joe, Heidi and Genevieve were. He went on saying that this session was the first time that he stated his pronouns to so many people (besides with family/close friends) and how he almost choose not too. My teenage brother, who is Two Spirit (Transgender) and I talk about the importance of pronouns and he has thought me a lot on top of attending MCAD. I’m glad he felt empowered by that experience! I also came to realize that I was a lot more outgoing and goofy because on this day there was so much more representation and conversations that involved or was even lead by native people. I just thought it was really touching to see this continued support that a lot of instructors have shown since I’ve came to MCAD and the changes that these youth are creating by being in spaces like this!

Screen Shot 2019-03-10 at 3.24.37 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-03-10 at 3.24.21 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-03-10 at 3.24.28 PM.png

NYAC Instagram

Check out NYAC on social media for more images on this collaboration and past projects they worked on!

NYAC Facebook

Week 5 February 17- March 2

March 11, 2019

Placement #3: Shadowing with Native Youth Arts Collective.

1st Location: Little Earth, February 27th 4-7pm

Myself and two other practicum students Amabelle and Eleni, will be shadowing with Native Youth Arts Collective from the Little Earth Community. NYAC will be joining the Art in Community class for the next few weeks to collaborate on an arts project with the theme revolving around “Place”.

The first meeting we had was at the Little Earth Community, where they usually meet. When I arrived on location I met up with Joe and Heidi and the youth came in shortly after. We all ate pizza and loosely exchanged names and got to know each other a bit. I’ve worked with NYAC in the past but this group was mostly new faces as well and my younger brother was able to join! Once everyone was done eating we went around the room and shared our names and medium we usually work. After that, Heidi had a few ice breaker games. The first one we would share our go to birthday meal and what’s one gift we would want and why.The next game we were instructed that whoever thinks bad breath is worse go on one side of the room and if you think body order is worse go on the opposite side. We all were caught off guard with the question and all immediately laughed and choose a side. Once we were all situated we had to try and convince the other team why our claims make more sense and try and recruit people! This a odd but hilarious exercise that got us all talking and laughing with each other and it was great to watch the youth debate their claims and even create funny fake scenarios!

Once the ice breakers were finished we went around the room and discussed Art in Community and Ammabelle, Eleni and my shared our own experience as a college student. This was interesting to me because I’ve had amazing and memorable educational experiences as well a few questionable ones. I choose to speak honestly but in a respectful way as one of the few Indigenous students in a predominately white institution. I spoke on a instance with one specific professor who unknowingly inspired myself to become a documentary filmmaker and to work rigorously with community to combat the narratives that they were teaching. I felt that this was important to share my experience in a respectful way that holds people accountable but in a way that doesn’t slander anyones name or an institution. I also shared great experiences I’ve had at MCAD too! This conversation led to briefly talking about the scaffold at the Walker and how it’s important to continue to share our bold statements about the world around us in our own unique way.

Genevieve arrived shortly after our college experience conversation and the students warmed up quickly to her charm! We went though some Art in Community slides and what to prepare and expect with this collaboration. We also went over what we expect from them as young adults and how we can support everyone involved.

Screen Shot 2019-03-10 at 3.29.59 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-03-10 at 3.30.10 PM.png

NYAC Instagram

Check out NYAC on social media for more images on this collaboration and past projects they worked on!

NYAC Facebook

Week 4 February 10-16

March 11, 2019

Screen Printing Workshop

All My Relations Art

Placement #2: All My Relation Arts (AMRA), Screen Printing workshops with the community for the upcoming Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples March.

3rd Location: MN Indians Women’s Resource Center, February 13th 9am-9pm

Myself, local artists, screen printers, community volunteers and Anishinabe Academy staff all met at MN Indians Women’s Resource Center at 9am. We started setting up shop in the gym and began printing the rest of the shirts and bandanas for the march that would be the following day. We printed around 300 bandanas and I honestly lost count of how many shirts we went though! It was nice to have that time to print before the public event at 5pm-8pm and get to know everyone before we really start to get busy! Around 4pm people started to show up for the event, at this point we were still cleaning up and stacking all the dry shirts! Since we still had an hour till the event started and we didn’t want to send them off, we asked them if they’d like to help volunteer, have some snacks and get to know them a bit too! It was great to see community be excited about what we were doing to show up an hour early!

Once 5pm rolled around we began an opening ceremony following a community feast. Some ate and some got started on art making! We had the option to screen print on shirts and posters or make their own banner with paint or collage. Unicorn Riot came and documented this event for the 2nd year in a row and that was great to see the word being spread more about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). It was touching not only to see my identified community to come together but to see more diversity and solidarity within the volunteers and the people who came to this event!

MMIW March

Unicorn Riot: MMIW

Week 3 January 20-26

March 11, 2019

Screen Shot 2019-03-10 at 12.44.31 PM.png — Screen Printing Workshop

All My Relations Art

Placement #2: All My Relation Arts (AMRA), Screen Printing workshops with the community for the upcoming Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples March.

2nd location: American Indian Magnet School, January 24th, 4:30pm-6:30pm.

We went to American Indian Magnet School in St Paul for their Family Involvement Day to screen-print. This session was really exciting to work with younger kids, they were really excited to print and had lots of energy! Because we were working with younger kids and more participants we decided to use just two screen rather than four like at Anishinabe Academy. With screen printing it’s important to work quickly so the ink doesn’t dry within the screens. This helped because when the screens needed to be washed we just quickly replaced them with the extras and continued printing.

It’s always interesting to print with Rory Wakemup because of the workshops he organizes can be within schools, community centers, at parks or during street festivals and we always set up and adjust to different environments. I appreciate this because no matter where we decide to print at we find a way to print efficiently, teach and bring awareness with different communities in the twin cities. The only thing that seems to be an issue is where to clean the screens but we alway manage with what we have available to us.

AIMS Screen-printing workshop for Family Involvement Day

MCAD Alum, Ana Laura Juarez is one of the teaching artists with AMRA

Screen Shot 2019-03-10 at 12.49.54 PM.png

The AIMS art teacher helped to organize this event!

Week 2: January 13-19

March 11, 2019

Screen Shot 2019-03-10 at 12.59.33 PM.png — Beading Workshop

MN museum of American Art

Placement #1: Minnesota Museum of American Art. January 17th, 5pm-8pm.

Second workshop, 1/17/19 5pm-8pm.

The second class was much more relaxed as the participants continued to work on their previous projects. The M moved the room around slightly and large furniture was removed from the room. Because of this I moved my supplies and the chairs around a bit, this did throw off the participants slightly but it was not a major hurdle.

I always learn something new from each experience whether thats seeing how they add their own flare and design to a project. I enjoy teaching because for me it’s a reciprocal engagement of learning and teaching. Participants get to know more about me and my craft but I also get to know these individuals who take time out of their day to to join me which mean s a lot! Also the class suggestions and feedback is helpful!

Screen Shot 2019-03-10 at 12.56.05 PM.png

Here’s what one of the participants came up with!

Week 1 January 6-12

January 29, 2019

Beading Workshop

**Minnesota Museum of American Art**

Placement #1: Minnesota Museum of American Art. January 10th, 5pm-8pm.

Placement #2: Screen Printing workshops with All My Relations Art, 9am-3:30pm.

First Workshop, 1/10/19 5pm-8pm.

I taught a beading workshop at the MMAA, this class was a two part workshop that is held from 6pm-8pm. The class capacity was up to 10 participants and 5 people registered. This class was smaller but I really enjoyed the more intimate class because we were all able to get to know each other and build community.

I introduced myself and shared some of the past classes and projects that I worked on. I also brought different kind of beading examples and provided instructions for the stitches. Half the class had experience beading and the other half were new to the medium. Half way through the workshop a few participants asked If I can teach a slightly easier stitch. This was a good learning experience for me because while continuing to help the rest of the class on the first stitch I would start teaching a new project. Because of this I realized that I should add more than one stitch that is closer to beginner onto the class schedule and one slighter more difficult. Both on the instructions too.

Supplies and examples for the Beading workshop.

NACDI_MMIW screen.png — Screen-printing Workshops

**All My Relations Arts**

Placement #2: All My Relation Arts (AMRA), Screen Printing workshops with the community for the upcoming Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples March.

1st location: Anishinabe Academy, January 11th 9am-3:30pm.

I worked with Rory Wakemup from All My Relations Arts to teach screen-printing workshops for the upcoming Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples March. We printed images that myself and other local artists designed onto shirts and posters for community to wear to the march and keep. I’m also doing a filmmaking residency with AMRA to film all events and make a short doc for future grants, so I will be teaching, printing and filming.

We all met at Anishinabe Academy (my son also attends preschool here) to set up, start documenting and printing. At first I thought there was going to be different classes that planned on stopping by but it was parent volunteers, a few teachers and the principal. I was excited to be working with kids again but because we taught adults we were able to print a few hundred shirts quicker than usual. Some of the volunteers had experience with printing and others this was their first time. I was able to multitask with filming and printing because I didn’t need to record the entire event and after all the volunteers went over the process they were more than willing to take over while I took a few shots of the event. It was also great to come into Anishinabe Academy for another reason other than to help chaperone field trips or drop off/pick up my son. I enjoyed getting to know other parents, teachers and the principal on top of making arts to raise awareness for MMIW!