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Stjukshon: An Indigenous Reading Series
w/Kristiana Kahakauwila, Jody Thompson, Stephanie Cortes, & John Bird

Saturday, September 14
7 p.m.
$5 Suggested Donation

The word “Stjukshon” is one of the ways that the Northern Piman term for Tucson can be written. It translates to “Spring at the foot of a black mountain.” Curated by Blackfeet tribal member, Bill Wetzel, Stjukshon is a reading series that seeks to celebrate the work of indigenous writers and artists working in a variety of creative mediums.

Join us for a night of stories, literature, music and performance art featuring exciting young fiction author, Kristiana Kahakauwila, talented poet and prose writer, Jody Thompson and a collaboration between performance artist, Stephanie Cortes and traditional singer & drummer, John Bird. Materials from the artists will be available for purchase and signing after the event. Refreshments will be served.

Kristiana Kahakauwila, a native Hawaiian, was raised in Southern California. She earned a bachelor's degree in comparative literature and creative writing from Princeton University and a master in fine arts from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She has worked as a writer and editor at Highlights for Children, Wine Spectator, and Cigar Aficionado, as well as a volunteer firefighter and wine steward. At present, she is an assistant professor of creative writing at Western Washington University. Her first book, This is Paradise, a collection of short stories about Hawai`i, earned Kristiana recognition as a Barnes & Noble Discover Award Finalist and a Target Emerging Author. 

 

 

 

Jody Thompson is the Managing Editor at Cairn Press and will complete her undergraduate studies in English at the University of Arizona Honors College. She was awarded the 2011 Martindale Literary Award and has had prose and poetry appear in multiple publications most recently in the Chicago-based online journal, Literary Orphans & Persona, the literary journal published annually from the University of Arizona for the past 35 years. She is a Citizen of The Cherokee Nation.

 

 

Stephanie Cortes is a co-founder, co-owner, and artistic director for Orbital Evolution, LLC and Cirque Roots Studio and Productions, LLC.  Modern hoop dance has been her primary performance art, however her excitement and interests have led to a grassroots expansion of skills, including aerial hoop, fire dance, stilt dance, and acrobatics. Although, Stephanie grew up in Long Island, NY, she has always felt a strong connection to her family in Oregon and Montana.  Her family lives on the Blackfeet Reservation near Glacier National Park.  She draws inspiration from nature and her family, exemplified in her recent production "Feather" that debuted at the Tucson Museum of Art. Her fascination with nature led her to study physics & astronomy in college and graduate school, where she left with a Master’s in Astronomy from The University of Arizona in Tucson. During graduate school, Stephanie began exploring modern hoop dance, ultimately changing her concentration from astronomy to performance art.  The simple and elegant purpose achieved by providing entertainment via artistic expression and the body has grounded her in her own self, community, and the present moment instead of somewhere in the cosmos.

John Bird is Amskapi Pikuni aka Blackfeet from Montana, born and raised on the Blackfeet Reservation. He has a M.Ed. Degree in Mental Health Counseling. He also spent a lot of time studying with elders, which he considers to be just as valuable, or more so than the M.Ed. He has been doing community and organizational development work for the past 30 years with Indian tribes and organization, state and federal government projects, nonprofit agencies, and major Fortune 500 corporations. He lives in Tucson but migrates to his cabin in the summer on St. Mary Lake at the base of Glacier National Park. His life revolves around family, which currently includes two grandchildren, 11 and 6, as the major focus.