Arts and Entertainment at the 2024 Gila River Festival
Check out the variety of arts and entertainment activities offered at the
Gila River Festival, September 26 - 29, 2024
Sidy Samb with Afroflamenco, hosted by WNMU Cultural Affairs
Thursday, September 26th, 7:00 pm, The Gardens at Light Hall, Free
Sidy Samb is an acclaimed Senegalese musician who has made his home in Spain for decades and is a founding member of celebrated flamenco-fusion hitmakers Mártires del Compás. His latest solo project, Afroflamenco reconnects Flamenco to its African roots, exploring the subtle connections and unique divergences between the iconic sounds of his two homelands. Afroflamenco draws on griot tradition and Roma virtuosity, to create a new, music-fueled, cross-cultural encounter. With lyrics sung in Wolof, Lingala, Bambara, Pulaar, French, English, and Spanish, it’s a simmering polyglot of languages, rhythms and ideas; brimming over with passionate performances at the intersection of African and Iberian traditions.
Sacred Rhythms: A Celebration of Apache Dance
Saturday, September 28th, 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm, Gough Park, Free
Join us for a celebration of Nde (Apache) Culture, History and Lifeways through dance to honor Nde benah (Apache Land) and the Hooli (The Origin - Gila River Headwaters.) Cha'Bii'Tu Apache Crown Dancers from the White Mountain Apache Tribe and the Chiricahua Apache Nation will lead the evening's celebration.
Please bring a lawn chair.
Recuerdos de Nuestra Gila Photo Gallery with The Semilla Project
Friday, Sept. 27, 4:00 - 6:00 pm, WNMU Global Resource Center Lobby
Recuerdos de Nuestra Gila Photo Gallery is a meaningful project that captures the voices of our communities and the impact the Gila has had on their identity, culture, and practices. Through this project we gathered a total of 20 multigenerational storytellers who shared stories from different parts of their lives, the interactions that brought their family closer, and what strengthened their relationship with the land while reflecting on the importance of protecting these places for future generations. We invite you to share this space with us as we display the photos alongside each storyteller to embrace our lived experiences and find connection.
Semilla means seed; The Semilla Project was started in 2021 as a seed of radical healing by and for BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) with programming designed to center the voices of the BIPOC activists who form the backbone of the intersectional social and climate justice movements.
The Gila River Project: Water is Power with L&J Ranch
Thursday, Sept. 26th through Sunday, September 29th, Seedboat Center for the Arts, 214 West Yankie St.
OPENING - Thursday, Sept 26: 12:00 pm - 5:30 pm;
Friday, Sept 27: 10:00 am-5:00 pm; Saturday, Sept 28: 10:00 am-5:00 pm;
Sunday, Sept 29: 11:00 am-4:00 pm
The Gila River Project investigates one of America’s most expansive ecosystems. Named as America’s most endangered river in 2019, it persists despite the severe threats of climate change, the demands of ranching, agriculture and mining, and the impacts of recreational and residential development. Exploratory expeditions took place via an Airstream trailer that served as a mobile laboratory/studio. Location-based research considered the politics, history, culture, and resource management in 9 regions along the river, from its origin in the Gila Wilderness to its junction with the Colorado River. A custom designed medallion was installed at significant site-specific locations that represented the focus in each region. The Gila River Project aspires to illuminate the relationships that define what can be referred to as ‘eco-plasticity,’ the inherent characteristics that enable continuous change in response to physical, cultural, and biologic elements.
The L&J Ranch is an art + research venture that explores the relationship between ‘place’ and the life it enables. Joel Slayton is an artist with expertise using media technology to explore complex systems and networks. Lisa Johanson is a clinical research scientist studying motor control and neural plasticity. Through their collaboration, Joel and Lisa are developing a series of artworks that probe the relationship between land-use and sense-of-place.
Opening for The Gila River Project: Water is Power
Thursday, Sept. 26th 12:00 pm - 5:30 pm, Seedboat Center for the Arts, 214 West Yankie St.
With brews provided by Open Space Brewing
Exhibit Tour - starts at 1pm
Music by Colt Stragoon starting at 3pm.
Join us at the Seedboat Gallery Thursday September 26th for the opening of the special exhibition of the L&J Ranch Gila River Project, the brain child of Artist Joel Slayton and clinical research scientist Lisa Johanson. Come and explore the exhibit and discover themes of history, politics, and resource management through an hour long guided tour beginning at 1pm. Relax with a beer provided by Open Space Brewing in the beautiful SeedBoat Gallery Courtyard. Then stick around for music from local band Colt Stragoon, a 3-piece folk and bluegrass band beginning at 3pm.
COLT STRAGOON is a 3-piece folk and bluegrass band comprised of wayward members Soren Knudsen (Lead Vocals, guitar, banjo), Bridget Downey (Backup Vocals, Fiddle), and Liam Evans (Spoons). Illinois, Montana and New Jersey are the individual youthful roots of the band, but transcontinental travel and hobo oddity may be the prime influence of this collective. The members had various longstanding connections to each other predating COLT STRAGOON. These formed through traveling, the American busking scene, and Silver City, New Mexico - where the band officially formed in 2024.