WEATHER UPDATE: Yes, it’s been raining! The 2023 Native Voices Poetry Festival is all INSIDE.
Discover and explore the joy of our Southern California Native American cultures and celebrate the Native voice in all the arts on March 11, 2023, 10 am to 4 pm, Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, CA 92220.
The Festival welcomes you with FREE, FAMILY-FRIENDLY performances, exhibits, and special attractions. All are welcome!
The Festival theme is Ayaqaych: Gathering Mountain. After all this rain it will be interesting to see how much snow remains on Ayaqaych, San Jacinto Peak. The Serrano name Ayaqaych means “Gathering Mountain,” and as Ernest Siva explains, “This is where our people would go to gather and process foods and medicine. People of spiritual power would also go there to learn their songs.”
SPECIAL EVENT: In our Gathering Hall: Join artist Gloria “Toti” Bell and some young Banning artists in painting a mural of Ayaqaych.
Native Voices Poetry Festival 2023 program:
GATHERING HALL, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning
Call to the Festival: Dragonfly Wind Flute Ensemble
(will also perform throughout the day).
10 am OPENING BLESSING led by Elder Kim Marcus AND WELCOMING SONG from Ernest Siva, Center President; with Shaliyah Ben, director of Idyllwild Arts Native American Arts Center, the Festival’s major sponsor; Juan Delgado & Pat Murkland, Festival co-chairs; and introducing our exhibitors.
10:15 Reading: Dorothy Ramon (Serrano) by Ernest Siva & Carolyn Horsman.
10:25 BREAK ... (exhibitors open in room 111 at 10:30 am.)
10:30 BIRDS: Mountain Cahuilla Bird Singers (Bill Madrigal)
10:55 BREAK
11:15 Poem shared by Elder Lorene Sisquoc (Dragonfly Award honoree) of Mother Earth Clan
11:25-11:55 SONGS and STORIES
Noon DANCE: Young S.A.M.O.A. dance group of San Bernardino
12:30 pm HOOP DANCING: Nanabah Kadenehii (Navajo)
BREAK
1 p.m. GATHERING HALL (Times are estimates, breaks as needed)
1 pm Traditional Cahuilla Bird Singers (Kim Marcus, 2021 Dragonfly Award honoree)
Kim Marcus and Ernest Siva
Painiktem Bird Singers (Eli Andreas)
approx. 2 pm: STORIES by Kat High, 2019 Dragonfly Award honoree.
SONGS & STORIES continue, Kim Marcus, emcee
approx 3 pm FAMILY FUN: Coyote play with San Manuel Education Dept.
approx 3:30 pm Readings: Dorothy Ramon (Serrano) by Ernest Siva & Carolyn Horsman
approx 3:45 pm DRAGONFLY SONG, Ernest Siva
Exhibits in Room 111,
111 N. San Gorgonio Ave.
(just a couple doors down from the Gathering Hall)
Open 10:40-4 pm NATIVE PLANT DISCOVERY AREA: Mother Earth Clan & Friends, Morongo Cultural Dept. and Kat High. Native plants as tools, medicines, and foods. Taste original California cuisine!
BOOK NOOK: Inlandia Institute, LITTLE FREE LIBRARY with Friends of Banning Library & Banning Library.
VISIT WITH: Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, San Manuel Band Education Department, California Indian Nations College, Idyllwild Arts Academy, Gilman Historic Ranch, Riverside Arts Council.
Morongo Reservation School ART EXHIBIT!
Make dragonfly badges with Gilman Ranch!
SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS, 17 W. Hays
11 am-noon: Celebrate Native Languages
A language panel will share how Serrano and Cahuilla languages are experiencing revitalization at San Manuel and Morongo reservations.
SPECIAL ATTRACTION: Screening throughout the afternoon of Saging the Wild, a short documentary film on white sage produced by Rose Ramirez (Dragonfly Award honoree), Deborah Small, and the California Native Plant Society, followed by Q&A with filmmaker Rose Ramirez. Special exhibit. Sage plants courtesy of California Native Plant Society.
NOTE: Festival Creative Workshops are postponed for better weather!
Thank you to all who join us in saving and sharing Native American cultures!
Food!
Super Subs: across the street at 112 N. San Gorgonio Ave.
Food Truck: Q &A Tacos de Birria
Candy store: La Carreta Dulceria, 89 N. San Gorgonio Ave.
Coffee shop: A short walk to Jitterz, 42 W. Ramsey St.
MORE INFORMATION.
This year Dorothy Ramon Learning Center is honored to partner with the new Idyllwild Arts Native American Arts Center, also our major sponsor, to bring our family-friendly Festival to you. We also thank California State University, San Bernardino, Social Sciences, Public History, and English departments for their support. We are deeply grateful for all our volunteers from Cal State University, San Bernardino, and from throughout the region.
Thanks to all for helping us keep the Festival FREE.
And thanks to you, the 501c3 nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, led by Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), is in its 20th year of saving and sharing Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.
P.S. Our newsletter is FREE. Please like and subscribe to News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, and thank you from Center leaders Ernest and June Siva, and Editor Pat Murkland. We value your ideas: Please EMAIL. March 10, 2023.