What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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interaction of the greater community of Turtle Island," Defoe says. The glitterized event will include a performance by a "fabulous" drag queen, Lady Shug from the north land of lakes, who will also act as an emcee; Tony Enos, a Two Spirit LGBT performer; and hoop dancers from New Mexico. "What we're doing is decolonizing what may feel and look like a traditional Powwow by creating a fluidity," Defoe says. "All genders and sex orientation and vast experience are welcomed into the historically genderized roles." The Powwow started by looking at the cultural landscape of the four corners area and wanting to bring a snapshot of the location and the people who inhabit it, says Jamelyn Ebelacker (Santa Clara Pueblo), a creative producer and facilitator. Albuquerque is home to the largest Indigenous gathering and Powwow in North America. "It brings people from all over America and the world, every tribe in the U.S … such a beautiful mix of culture and peoples … but with the same values and traditions and practices," she says. Vendors with bead work, pottery and other art forms will be with them, which is one way to support their community, says Amanda Nita Luke, a producer and stage manager. Changing contemporary performance Director of Live in America Carra Martinez says she saw in the U.S. a sort of circuit for performance artists, a general path of typical venues around the country that artists could take once they get into the network. Creating Live in America was by its nature a way to give more artists performance spaces and resources without placing outside expectations on their work. "If you're a person from a community and do not know how to enter that system, it's a challenge to have your community concept of performance outside of your community," Martinez says. "We wanted to think about what performances look like outside of New York and Los Angeles and outside of these established festival systems and performance spaces." In Fusebox's first attempt to build the festival, Martinez says the team worked for six months before realizing that they were following a more traditional festival formula. They completely scrapped everything and started again, this time with a mind toward taking care of communities and inviting their members in a way that's both translatable and welcoming. We thought about "what does that teach us about who we are in this idea of America, and to learn [about] one another better and take care of them better," Martinez says. "Those were the wishes and hopes for what this project would become." What made the difference in the second round of building the festival was to identify facilitators, leadership teams from each of the regions the festival highlights, so that they can define what art means to their area rather than it coming from the top down. They worked with the teams over the course of four years, allowing them to select programming, set budgets, influence the way contracts were written and make other decisions with no preconceived notions of how any of it would go. Doing it that way made the festival more accessible for artists, while making tickets free of charge is in the hopes of making it more accessible to the audience. "The whole ethos of Live in America is finding paths to art making and creativity in nonformal ways, because those in the community may not have formal ways of training into art," Martinez says. "This festival celebrates those kind of community-based pathways into it." The Rodeo of the Ozarks would like to thank the following sponsors: F U R N I T E U R S AM ' S HARPS H O M E T O W N F R E S H For tickets go to www.rodeooftheozarks.org 877-92-RODEO (877-927-6336) Parsons stadium 1423 E Emma Ave Downtown Springdale Gates oPen at 6 Pm rodeo starts at 7:30 Pm Rodeo Parade on Saturday, June 25 th at 3 pm June 22 Nd -25 th 2022 77 t h a n n u a l One of the Top 5 Largest Outdoor Rodeos in the country! • All children's tickets for June 22 nd & 23 rd - $10 each • Pre-Rodeo Mutton Busting at 6:30 pm • Susan G. Komen Pink Night on Thursday, June 23 rd Wear your pink! Sponsored by Packaging Specialties 4 WHAT'S UP! JUNE 5-11, 2022 Festival Continued From Page 3 A performance artist in San Juan, Puerto Rico, appears in this photo by Erika P. Rodriguez, courtesy of Live in America/Fusebox. Puerto Rico will be featured June 10 during the Momentary's Live in America festival. (Courtesy Photo) BENTONVILLE