NACF Fellows Perform at the 2019 APAP|NYC Conference

Three Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) Fellows performed at the annual APAP (Association of Performing Arts Professionals) conference this January in New York. The gathering drew members of the arts community from around the globe, and offered events open to the public. It was a rare opportunity for Native artists to showcase their work to the conference of 3,000 attendees from more than 29 countries.

Opportunities like these leverage the voices of Native artists – in front of national and international arts brokers – to address issues of Native aesthetics, identity, visibility, narrative change and social justice through their practices, representing their respective communities and the issues which affect us all globally. With support from NACF, our fellows Christopher Morgan, Allison Warden and Anthony Hudson performed twice to rapt audiences, addressing issues around identity, global warming and indigenous sovereignty. All three artists are the first Fellows selected for Western Arts Alliance’s Native Launchpad, which offers professional development opportunities to indigenous artists.

The Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) is a national service, membership and advocacy organization dedicated to developing and supporting the performing arts field and the professionals who work within it. As a leader​in the field, APAP works to effect change through advocacy, professional development, resource sharing and civic engagement. The annual APAP|NYC conference provides a platform for those working in performing arts to engage in discussions around pressing current cultural, artistic and professional issues.

Read more about the Western Arts Alliance (WAA), Native Launchpad award that made this performance possible!

Christopher K. Morgan (Native Hawaiian)
2013 NACF Artist Fellowship

Washington, DC based artist, Christopher K. Morgan will present elements of Pōhaku, recipient of both a National Performance Network Creation Fund and New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project, a unique modern dance and hula performance with live music by choreographer/performer Christopher, electric cellist Wytold and Hawaiian chanter/percussionist Elsie Kaleihulukea Ryder. The show tells the story of Hawaii’s colonial past through the choreographer’s personal story of his ache for the land he is from, but never lived in.

Anthony Hudson (Grande Ronde)
2018 NACF National Artist Fellow

Portland, Oregon-based performance artist Anthony Hudson, recounts growing up as a queer Native kid in a small town in an autobiographical solo show and hilarious sendup of pop culture stereotypes. Incorporating video and dance, and invoking Anthony’s drag clown persona, “Carla Rossi,” drawing from a songbook stretching from Disney’s Pocahontas to Cher’s Half-Breed—to the infamous blond, blue-eyed Indian “princess” Tiger Lily in Mary Martin’s Peter Pan.

Allison Akootchook Warden (Iñupiaq)
2018 NACF National Artist Fellow

Anchorage based multi-disciplinary artist, Allison Warden, will perform pieces of her circumpolar hip-hop repertoire, which ranges thematically from decolonization to the effects of global warming on Alaska Native communities, and incorporates innovative performance art and theatrical techniques.