2021 NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

Special thanks to the Native American Heritage Month Planning Taskforce 2021: Kevin Dimatulac, Hazel Ramos, Priscilla Rubio, and Erica Burgos

11/30/2021: A GATHERING TO EXPLORE HOW DO WE THINK AND TALK ABOUT INDIGENOUS AMERICANS

A GATHERING TO EXPLORE HOW DO WE THINK AND TALK ABOUT INDIGENOUS AMERICANS

A GATHERING TO EXPLORE HOW DO WE THINK AND TALK ABOUT INDIGENOUS AMERICANS

PRESENTER: Professor Roger Bowerman, Professor of Ethnic Studies and History

Over 200 tribes lived rich and complex lives in North America before the European invasions of the 16th and 17th centuries. Why, then, are the original inhabitants typically appear as only a footnote in United States history? The tragedy of the Trail of Tears is sometimes mentioned, but the story – as is typical – focuses on the actions of the aggressor, not the response of the oppressed. This is the eternal question in Native American studies: how to place indigenous peoples at the center of their own experience. So, join this gathering moderated Roger Bowerman, and let’s share ideas, questions, goals and understandings regarding the experience of the First People.

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

5:00pm-6:00pm

Cultural Diversity Zoom

THESE PROGRAMS ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY CULTURAL DIVERSITY, GCC HISTORY AND ETHNIC STUDIES DEPARTMENTS, AND SPONSORED BY STUDENT EQUITY AND ACHIEVEMENT.

11/16/2021: INDIGENEITY AND BLACKNESS IN HIP-HOP

INDIGENEITY AND BLACKNESS IN HIP-HOP 

INDIGENEITY AND BLACKNESS IN HIP-HOP

Presenter: Kyle T. Mays (Saginaw Anishinaabe)

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

5:00pm-6:00pm

Cultural Diversity Zoom

Expressive culture has always been an important part of the social, political, and economic lives of Indigenous people. More recently, Indigenous people have blended expressive cultures with hip hop culture, creating new sounds, aesthetics, movements, and ways of being Indigenous.

Meeting at the nexus of hip hop studies, Indigenous studies, and critical ethnic studies, this event will demonstrate how Indigenous people use hip hop culture to assert their sovereignty and challenge settler colonialism.

In addition, this event will trace the idea of authenticity; that is, the common notion that, by engaging in a Black culture, Indigenous people are losing their “traditions.” Indigenous hip hop artists navigate the muddy waters of the “politics of authenticity” by creating art that is not bound by narrow conceptions of what it means to be Indigenous; instead, they flip the notion of “tradition” and create alternative visions of what being Indigenous means today, and what that might look like going forward.

Presenter Biography: KYLE T. MAYS (he/his) is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies, American Indian Studies, and History at UCLA. He is a transdisciplinary scholar of urban history and studies, Afro-Indigenous Studies, and contemporary popular culture. He is the author of Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in Indigenous North America (SUNY Press, 2018). He teaches courses on Afro-Indigenous history, popular culture, and urban studies. He works with students interested in comparative race and indigeneity, popular and expressive culture, and urban histories and contemporary experiences in the city.

THIS EVENT IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND GCC HISTORY DEPARTMENT AND SPONSORED BY STUDENT EQUITY AND ACHIEVEMENT.