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Rulan Tangen, Dancing Earth Audio Pharmacy Prescriptions Collective Seeds & Soul Dancing Earth Dancing Earth Seeds & Soul Audio Pharmacy Dancing Earth Audio Pharmacy Audio Pharmacy Seeds and Soul

By Dancing Earth and Audio Pharmacy Prescriptions

This project will only be funded if at least $15,000 is donated by Monday, May 4, 11:59pm.

This year, in honor of Indigenous Peoples Day (October 11, 2015), DANCING EARTH is teaming up with AUDIOPHARMACY PRESCRIPTIONS COLLECTIVE to bring the Bay Area’s first, SEEDS & SOUL, an indigenous-led, women-led project harnessing the power of music, performance, arts, nourishing food, as well as respectful cultural and knowledge exchanges to strengthen bridges among Indigenous peoples of the Bay Area—rural and urban; local and diasporic.

donateWe’re calling on our communities to help bring the dream for this festival to life!

The Vision: To Produce an Indigenous Cultural Exchange and Festival By the People and For the People!

Imagine a beautiful Bay Area, outdoor space…like Joaquin Miller Park & Amphitheater in Oakland…

Now IMAGINE that space animated with incredible ART, MUSIC, and PERFORMANCES!…A day full of  TALKING CIRCLES, WORKSHOPS, FOOD, and more…

What is the SEEDS & SOUL  Festival?
We are asking for your financial support to produce a community festival, with donation-based admission. This festival brings together the arts, food, performance, and indigenous culture & knowledge exchange in the Bay Area.  SEEDS & SOUL dares to celebrate the DIVERSITY of indigenous identities, to provide a platform for critical dialogue, UNITY and alliance-building among communities, and to strengthen RESILIENCE in our communities in these times of rapid social and environmental change.

Rulan Tangen, Dancing Earth

THE LOCATION
Our desired locations include Joaquin Miller Park & Lake Merrit Park in Oakland.  We are open to other venue opportunities that can hold the sacred space for our intentions, but in the mean time, the SEEDS & SOUL team will focus on bringing the festival to these locations.

PROPOSED DATE
We intend for SEEDS & SOUL : Indigenous Cultural Exchange and Festival to be held on Indigenous People’s Day, Sunday, October 11, 2015. Originating in the bay area, this holiday highlights the multiple practices of resilience and resistance that Native peoples’ manifest, especially in art, activism and performance.  October 11, is also the day following Berkeley’s annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day Pow Wow, and the day prior to the yearly Indigenous Peoples’ Sunrise Gathering on Alcatraz. To top it off, October is also Filipino American History and Heritage Month, so it’s a lively month for celebrating the rich cultural diversity of many indigenous disasporas!

The festival will enliven and INDIGENIZE the outdoor and indoor spaces of a special location by animating the area with Indigenous intention, rooted in honoring of the original peoples of the Bay Area, as well as incorporating intertribal philosophies about relationships and treaty making as an example of reciprocal agreements and responsibilities in caring for (rather than just inhabiting and using) space and place.  The gathering will invite audience and community participation in a range of activites, including dance, movement, music, and spoken word.  SEEDS & SOUL will also include a lineup of local, independent musicians, DJs and performers on the festival grounds during the day. In addition, there will be community-facilitated and engaged panels and workshops, Indigenous arts, and community vendors on site.

The festival will culminate with performances produced by Dancing Earth: Indigenous Contemporary Dance Creations and Audiopharmacy Prescriptions.  Because Dancing Earth’s methodologies ask performers to draw upon their surroundings as inspiration for movement and intention, the site itself becomes incorporated into these performances. Audiopharmacy Prescriptions will also organize to create an organic-interactive art installation based on the themes of the festival.

SEEDS & SOUL is dedicated to providing a creative, inclusive, and welcoming environment for Native and non-native audiences. We will promote these goals through centering activities that invite active participant engagement. The festival is a model for how art, dance, and music provide the tools for community resilience and social change. Education and artistic expressions at the festival will raise awareness about issues that affect Native and non-native peoples, such as environmental sustainability. Indigenous knowledge and histories will be shared respectfully and on their own terms.

NEED MORE REASONS TO SUPPORT SEEDS & SOUL?

  • SEEDS & SOUL IS A CELEBRATION of creative living through music, art, performance, and food!
  • SEEDS & SOUL BRIDGES DIVERSE INDIGENOUS IDENTITIES AND COMMUNITIES to support a resilient future for our sacred planet!
  • SEEDS & SOUL promotes INDIGENOUS RESILIENCE by inviting Indigenous culture-carriers, as well as social-justice and environmental activists, to share their already-developed responses to environmental catastrophes. Their strategies can serve as models for the communities working in the arts, health/wellness, and the food industry/foodways.
  • SEEDS & SOUL IS ABOUT DECOLONIZATION!  We invite all those who are are journeying to understand and overcome the violence that colonization continues to have on the psyche and spirit of indigenous peoples.  For us, decolonization is inseparable from the critical work of cultural and societal change, healing, and the seeding of hope and renewal—a critical/careful journey towards empowered indigeneity.  While holding respectful space for the first peoples of the Bay Area, all of the festival activities will aim to deepen our connectedness to ourselves, each other, our ancestors, and Mama Earth.

MORE than a festival, it’s a MOVEMENT! 

WHO IS BEHIND THIS CAMPAIGN?
SEEDS & SOUL
is a organized and led by a group of inspired and Indigenous women (and allies), dedicated and courageous everyday people whose paths have crossed to support indigenous cultures and cultivate feminine wisdom. We believe these are pivotal elements for revolutionary community resilience and social change.

WHO WE ARE
Rulan Tangen
(Metis) – Founding Artistic Director of Dancing Earth Creations. Rulan’s dance background spans professional ballet, modern, opera, circus, television, and film productions throughout the world, as well as being a proud traditional powwow dancer. She dedicates her life to evolving an eco-cultural form of dance, through community-involved workshops and performance that cultivate and inspire leadership in the next generation of Indigenous artists.

Joana “love/speak” Cruz – Operations Manager of the Audiopharmacy Prescriptions.  Joana Cruz immigrated to the United States from the Philippines in the 1980s her father, mother and little brother during a time when hip-hop culture was inspiring empowerment, inspiration and self-expression to youth nation-wide.  Since then, Joana has been inspired by the arts, and how it has engaged and empowered diverse POC and immigrant communities all over the world.  In 2008, inspired by the artistry and consciousness of the Audiopharmacy Collective, she left the non-profit world and became Audiopharmacy’s Operations Manager, helping develop the organization and build its capacity.  Today, with over 15 years of experience working with various arts communities, 10 years of public administration, and over 6 years in operations management, Joana has successfully managed projects in the music, arts, community healing and fashion industries. Throughout her career, she has developed relationships with international and domestic organizations, organized international tours, and has managed multiple staff in executing album production and merchandise development projects.

Javier Fresquez – Dancing Earth Company Member and Admin. Originally from El Paso, Texas, Javier traces his mixed ancestry to the Piru and Tigua Pueblo peoples of southern New Mexico, and various peoples in Europe.  Javier has coordinated Dancing Earth’s summer dance intensives, and three of their full-scale shows. He recently served as Powwow Committee Secretary for the the 4th annual BAAITS Two-Spirit powwow held at Cow Palace.

WHAT BRINGS US TOGETHER
The Indigenous Women’s leaders of Dancing Earth and Audiopharmacy Prescriptions are brought together by:

  • mutual love and respect for each other as women, sisters, and leaders within our communities. We recognize that within this multi-heritage spectrum, we each have lives, practices, and social positionalities that range from “traditional” to “progressive/modern.” As we come together to produce and, finally, experience this festival, we will consciously enact, hold space for, and reflect upon a wide range of ideas surrounding female leadership, roles, and strengths.
  • the desire to raise the level of consciousness and collective action around taking care of our Mother Earth, her precious resources and her peoples.
  • the power of the arts to inspire and illicit transformative change and critical practices (abstract thinking, critical analysis, focus, collaboration, creativity, and accountability) to improve our daily lives and strengthen our communities.
  • producing creative works and events that are focused on utility for indigenous people; but will also provide access and benefits to non-Native people as well.
  • Both Dancing Earth and Audiopharmacy Prescriptions each have national and internationally for their performances and event production.  This heart-based collaborationbrings our forces together in a powerful new way!

COMMUNITIES COLLABORATING are the KEY to making a dream like SEEDS & SOUL come to LIFE!

To learn more about the leadership structure we envision or about the different levels of engagement available, click here. Contact us via email if you’re interested in collaborating: SeedsAndSoul@gmail.com. To see a list of other potential SEEDS & SOUL Partners and a possible schedule click here.

Now it’s time to take ACTION! Help us reach our $25K Campaign GOAL! We have a NEW MINIMUM GOAL — $15,000

During an informational benefit dinner, we got a huge wave of encouragement and support from our communities to go for a more ambitious/lively festival.  The $15K would cover the basic costs of an awesome venue, festival production costs, sound, stage materials & construction, and festival coordinators. It would also bring the festival to life with community artists and a wide range of activities! Please donate what you can!

With the People’s Match Fund, we’ve got serious People Power!

The People’s Match Fund is matching your donation dollar-for-dollar until the funds run out. That means that the first $700 donated to the campaign will be doubled, bringing us to $1,400 raised!

Enthusiastic community support and our People’s Match Fund are the reasons why we raised our minimum goal from $9,000 to the new minimum goal — $15,000! To REALLY feel the power and end the festival day with a full Audiopharmacy and Dancing Earth production, we’ve got to reach our STRETCH GOAL — $25,000!

Spread The Word About This Festival Campaign!

  • Tell your families and friends about SEEDS & SOUL!  Share the inspiration of this collective dream!
  • To get updates and see our upcoming work,  and please invite friends do the same. Click our FB links here: Dancing Earth | Audiopharmacy
  • Post the link to this page on your Social Media Accounts.
  • Email organizations that vibe with SEEDS & SOUL and individuals who might be interested in contributing to Indigenous arts or projects that promote diverse, unified, and resilient communities, and positive social change.
  • Be an ambassador for this campaign! Email us if you’d like a packet with more info and helpful materials to spread the word: SeedsAndSoul@gmail.com

There are many ways to contribute!

We greatly appreciate support in the form of service and in-kind donations, volunteering, media editing, office supplies, PR and Marketing, transporation, tech support, artistic supplies (incl. fabric for costuming), sewing skills, heirloom seeds, a bicycle-powered sound system, and creative gifts from inventive types.

No donation is too small! Every dollar helps us reach our $25K Campaign GOAL!

Donate

For more information and to donate, visit Seeds & Soul.


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