CLEWISTON, FL – “Honoring Our Youth” is the theme for the second annual Indigenous Arts and Music Festival (IAMF), set for February 2-3 on the Big Cypress Seminole Indian reservation. The event will take place at the Junior Cypress Entertainment Complex from 9:30am to 6:00pm on both days.
IAMF will showcase engaging Indigenous speakers and performers from across the U.S. and Canada. The two-day event will feature musical performances by One Way Sky, Testify, Chebon Tiger, Under Exile, Supaman, the Capybaras, and Sage Cornelius, among others. Daily Native song and dance performances will be by Ashaa Takook Bird Song and Dance Group, Youth Apache Crown Dancers, and the “Power of Dance” Dance and Song Troupe.
Choke Cherry Creek, an Indigenous owned business featuring contemporary Apsáalooke designs, will host a fashion show on Saturday, Feb. 3. Angela Howe-Parrish, owner of Choke Cherry Creek is a beadwork artist, sewist and fashion designer. By creating contemporary Indigenous fashion, her goal is to utilize the platform of fashion design to occupy spaces where there is a need for representation of Indigenous people. Howe-Parrish has been invited to showcase her array of clothing in various places including RES 2022 Las Vegas, New York Fashion Week, the Runway Cultural Series in Denver, and Paris Indigenous Fashion Week.
A panel discussion on Friday, Feb. 2 will feature Sterlin Harjo, an award winning filmmaker from Holdenville, OK. Now based in Tulsa, Harjo is the co-creator and showrunner of Reservation Dogs, a comedy series following four Indigenous teenage friends living on a reservation in Oklahoma. After its first season, Reservation Dogs won a 2022 Peabody award, 2022 Television Academy Honors award, 2022 Independent Spirit Award for Best Comedy Series, was an American Film Institute Awards Honoree, and won Best Breakthrough Series under 40 minutes at the 2021 Gotham Awards.
Admission to the event is free. Other offerings will include Native food, art, crafts, and a carnival.