Conversation with Filmmaker Sterlin Harjo

Writer/Director Sterlin Harjo belongs to the Seminole and Creek Nations, and is a native of Holdenville, Oklahoma. In this episode of Broken Boxes we hear about Sterlin's journey to becoming a filmmaker and he shares memories of growing up in rural Oklahoma as 'that weird artist kid'. Sterlin also talks about being a founding member of renown Native comedy group the 1491s and reflects on the beginning project that catapulted the group to what it is today. Sterlin also talks about Standing Rock as an Indigenous led global movement and we get his perspective regarding the film works that have come since. Sterlin also offers his insight for existing in a world consumed by social media and offers advice on how to approach creating film work through today's accessible media platforms.

1491s: Sterlin Harjo, Dallas Goldtooth, Ryan RedCorn and Bobby Wilson (Gilcrease 2016)

Here is the conversation with Sterlin Harjo:

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Music featured on this episode by artists John Moreland, Lauren Barth and Silver Jackson.

More about the artist:

Sterlin Harjo belongs to the Seminole and Creek Nations, and is a native of Holdenville, Oklahoma. Interested from an early age in visual art and film, Harjo studied painting at the University of Oklahoma before writing his first feature-length script. Since then Harjo was a participant in the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program. In 2004, Sundance Institute selected Harjo to receive an Annenberg Fellowship, which provided extended support over a two-year period to facilitate the creation of his feature project. In 2006 Harjo was in the inaugural class of United States Artists award recipients. He was also the youngest recipient.

Sterlin Harjo completed a year of development on his feature film script FOUR SHEETS TO THE WIND through the Sundance Institute’s Filmmaker Labs where he worked under the guidance of industry veterans such as Robert Redford, Stanley Tucci, Joan Tewkesbury, Susan Shilliday, Frank Pierson, Walter Mosley, and Antonia Bird. Sterlin’s project was one of 12 projects chosen from a pool of almost 2,500 based on the uniqueness of his voice, the originality of his story and the promise of this feature film offering something poignant to American cinema.

Harjo’s short film GOOD NIGHT IRENE premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 05 and has went on to play festivals around the world. The short film has garnered Harjo awards including Special Jury Recognition at the Aspen Shorts Festival and Best Oklahoma Film at the Dead Center film festival in Oklahoma City.

In 2007 Harjo’s first feature film, FOUR SHEETS TO THE WIND, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film garnered warm responses from both audience’s and critics. Tamara Podemski won a Special Jury Prize for outstanding performance for her role in the film as Miri Smallhill. Podemski was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her performance.

Harjo’s film BARKING WATER had a successful premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and it screened as a part of the highly acclaimed New Directors/New Film series in New York City. Barking Water was the only American film that played in the Venice Days section of the 2009 Venice Film Festival.

Harjo’s first documentary THIS MAY BE THE LAST TIME premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

Harjo’s film Mekko premiered at The Los Angeles Film Festival in 2015. Mekko also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Stockholm International Film Festival. It won best film at the ImagineNative Film Festival in Toronto.

Harjo is a founding member of the all Native comedy group the 1491s.

STERLIN HARJO writer/director

This conversation was hosted by Ginger Dunnill of Broken Boxes Podcast

Conversation with Artist and Filmmaker Jess X Snow

In this episode we get into conversation with queer Asian-American artist, filmmaker and poet JESS X SNOW. She speaks on her migration story and how imposed borders have shaped her art and perspective on place. She touches on how her work has allowed for collaborations with a global community of artists and activists and she speaks on balancing work as a freelance artist with self care and making space to focus on projects that are important to her personal artistic growth. It is an honor to share this conversation to celebrate Broken Boxes Podcast 3 years of programming!

Unbroken By Bars is a public art and storytelling project that brings the love previously incarcerated mothers of color share with their children out from behind the bars and into public space. JESS X SNOW. 

Here is the conversation with JESS X SNOW:

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Music featured on this episode by Kayla Briët

This conversation was hosted by Ginger Dunnill of Broken Boxes Podcast

More about the artist:

JESS X SNOW is a queer Asian-American artist, filmmaker and poet. After the Cultural Revolution, her parents immigrated from Nanchang, China to Canada, which she shortly left at the age of 7 to migrate to the US with her mother. After the splitting of her parents, she developed a stutter which she overcame through her discovery of art, poetry and film. 

The Artwork of JESS X CHEN has appeared in the The LA Times, NBC Asian America, The Huffington Post, The UN Human Rights Council and on indoor and outdoor walls in Manhattan and throughout the US. Her films have screened at the Asian Cinevision Diversity Screening at the New York Times. Her poetry has taken her to stages such as TEDx CUNY, the US Institute for Peace, backyards, universities and rooftops nation wide, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net Anthology. She is a member of the Justseeds Artists Co-operative and a teaching artist who has worked with previously incarcerated families, migrant and indigenous youth communities to speak their truth and transcend trauma with art. She holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and is a recipient of a grant from The Canada Council For The Arts. She recently wrote and provided creative direction for Migration Is Natural, a short animation with Adobe Project 1324, about her experience of creating home in her art after the hardships of her family's migration. 

Through film, mural-making, poetry and youth art education, she is working toward a future where migrant and indigenous youth of color see themselves whole and heroic, on the big screen and the city walls & then grow up to create their own.

“Jess X. Chen leaves us with much work to do but also with a spirit at once fierce and tender, and undefeatable, the optimism of finitude, and the comfort of the stardust that we will someday become.” — Chad Shomura, Political Theorist

On Location: The Art of Indigenous Resistance: Inspiring the protection of Mother Earth

Broken Boxes had the honor to be present for the opening of The Art Of Indigenous Resistance exhibition, which took place on March 13th 2017 at Self Help Graphics and Art in Los Angeles, CA. The opening featured artwork from over 100 Indigenous artists from across the globe. The opening reception featured live performances from Wake Self, Lyla June, Raye Zaragoza and Supaman. In this episode we hear about the exhibition from curator, or caretaker of the art, Kim Smith and then dive into onsite interviews with artists, organizers and performers who were onsite during the opening celebrations.

Listen to reflections on The Art Of Indigenous Resistance:

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Music featured on this episode by: Raye Zaragoza, Wake Self and Lyla June

More About The Exhibition:

The Art Of Indigenous Resistance: Inspiring the protection of Mother Earth is an exhibition featuring the work of leading artists and activist collectives from across the globe whose work creates awareness in the social, economic, environmental and political issues that impact the health and resilience of Indigenous people. Through art and healing self-expression, the exhibition seeks to spark a dialogue on humanity’s interconnectedness with Mother Earth and support systematic change by highlighting Indigenous practices and community powered solutions. This exhibition honors the vanguards of environmental justice and promotes solidarity with Indigenous people in the fight to save our sacred planet.

Lyla June performing live at Self Help Graphics and Art in L.A. for The Art Of Indigenous Resistance. 2017

"¡RESISTE!" Mural by Nanibah Chacon in conjunction with The Art of Indigenous Resistance exhibition at Self Help Graphics Los Angeles, CA. 2017

Conversation with Composer and Artist Raven Chacon

Originally from the Navajo Nation, Raven Chacon is a composer of chamber music, a performer of experimental noise music, and an installation artist. He performs regularly as a solo artist as well as with numerous ensembles in the Southwest and beyond. He is also a member of the Indigenous art collective Postcommodity, with who he recently premiered the 2-mile long land art/border intervention, Repellent Fence. 

Just one week after the election results in the United States, I had the honor to sit down with composer and artist Raven Chacon and talk about his practice. In this episode Raven speaks about the origins of his work and how he came to experience making sound. We hear about his involvement with Postcommodity, an interdisciplinary arts collective comprised of Raven Chacon, Cristóbal Martínez, and Kade L. Twist and we also hear about his work teaching youth through the Native American Composer Apprentice Project. Raven shares his varying experiences in creating chamber music and experimental noise and reflects on the ‘dues' that must be paid by artists along the way. He also addresses ideas around identity and the Indigenous artist, what the role of the artist is, and the opportunity the artist has to remain mysterious. Raven reminds us to think critically and to take time to seek the truth.

Here is the conversation with Raven Chacon:

Subscribe to Broken Boxes Podcast on iTunes HERE to stream and download this episode

This conversation was hosted by Ginger Dunnill of Broken Boxes Podcast

All music featured on this episode composed by and courtesy of the artist Raven Chacon

More about the artist:

Raven Chacon’s work explores sounds of acoustic handmade instruments overdriven through electric systems and the direct and indirect audio feedback responses from their interactions. Current and recent collaborators include Kronos Quartet, Laura Ortman, ETHEL String Quartet, Bob Bellerue, John Dieterich, OVO, William Fowler Collins, Ruby Kato Attwood, Jeremy Barnes, Chatter Ensemble, Robert Henke, and The Living Earth Show. He also runs the Sicksicksick Distro label showcasing music from the Southwest U.S..

As a educator, Chacon has served as composer-in-residence for the Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP), teaching string quartet composition to hundreds of American Indian high-school students living on reservations in the Southwest U.S. Under his instruction, this project was awarded the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in 2011.

He has a MFA from the California Institute of the Arts where he was a student of James Tenney, Michael Pisaro, and Wadada Leo Smith. He has served on the Music and Native American Studies faculties at the University of New Mexico and as a visiting artist in the New Media Art & Performance program at Long Island University. Chacon has presented his work in different contexts at Vancouver Art Gallery, ABC No Rio, REDCAT, Musée d’art Contemporain de Montréal, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Chaco Canyon, Ende Tymes Festival, 18th Biennale of Sydney, and The Kennedy Center among other traditional and non-traditional venues.

Chacon lives and works in Albuquerque, NM.

Learn more about the work of Raven Chacon on his website: www.spiderwebsinthesky.com

On Location: Peñasco Theater Youth Podcast Workshop

The Peñasco Theatre is a crucial community and performance space located in Northern New Mexico. Last year Broken Boxes was invited to host a podcast workshop with young people from throughout the area who participated in an annual week-long summer arts intensive. This episode is from the podcast workshop themed 'The Alternative Archive' and presents a collection of stories, poems, teen led interviews, and reflections. This podcast episode also features introduction information about the space and teen camp and self guided interviews by and between artists/educators Freyr A. Marie and India Davis who were project leaders for the intensive. Special thanks to Rebekah Tarin, Alessandra Ogren and the entire Peñasco Theatre Collective for all the important work you continue to do!

Here is the content recorded through the youth podcast workshop:

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More about the Peñasco Theatre Collective summer arts intensive:

The Peñasco Theatre Collective hosts a week-long summer interdisciplinary arts intensive for teens.  2016 was the 3rd year of this overnight workshop comprised of 8 multi-ethnic Northern New Mexico teens ages 13 – 16.  The intent of the process oriented intensive was to provide opportunities for self-discovery, storytelling, skill building, dialogue and empowerment through visual arts, embroidery, zine making, aerial arts, body mapping, examining archetypes and podcasting. Under the guidance of Collective artivists and their collaborators, participants looked at the ways art can inspire, direct and inform movements for community empowerment and transformation. Multi-disciplinary exercises served to create community through deconstructing differences, finding commonalities, and developing tools to translate their ideas and emotions into creative action. 

More about the Peñasco Theatre Collective:

"For the past 16 years artists and performers working through the Peñasco Theatre have dedicated their time, creative energies and unique visions to community building, collective empowerment and social transformation through the arts.

The Peñasco Theatre Collective is committed to lateralized, non-hierarchical leadership centering Xicanx, Indigenous, and queer people of color.  We are committed to creating alternative systems of organizing and ways that actively fight against the capitalist white supremacist system that is at war with the planet and the people attempting to thrive in harmony with it.  We strive to be a true collective that supports and sustains the artists/activists that are part of it, and to be a resource and a refuge for the broader community.

We are humbled by and in awe of all the many powerful movements standing together to shift the narrative – despite the sacrifice, the backlash, and the  uncertainty.  Art has played a vital roll in every social movement on the planet.  Artists are the architects of that collective vision.  And youth artists in particular possess the courage to question, challenge and innovative."