Great Barrington — Alliance for a Viable Future (AVF) and the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center will present the second annual “Honoring Native America” event on Friday, October 6, to kick off Indigenous Peoples’ Day weekend in the Berkshires. Friday’s program consists of flute music performed by R. Carlos Nakai; stories from Mohican storyteller Shawn Stevens; and a talk by lawyer and peacemaker Cheryl Fairbanks, Esq. Executive Director of Alliance for a Viable Future Lev Natan will deliver opening remarks. The Mahaiwe describes the event as going “beyond performance into the interactive realm of ceremony and collective prayer.”
Born in 1946, R. Carlos Nakai is a Navajo and Ute flutist. He initially played brass instruments but switched to the Native American cedar flute due to an injury. Self-taught, Nakai released “Changes” in 1983 and signed with Canyon Records, producing over 37 discs for that label. His music blends traditional Native American melodies with original compositions. Nakai has collaborated with such musicians as composer Philip Glass, flutist Paul Horn, guitarist/luthier William Eaton, composer James DeMars, two-time-Grammy-winning producer Billy Williams, and a very long list of others. Nakai has received 11 Grammy nominations.
Although an ordained minister of the Universal Church of Light, Shawn Stevens does not answer to “shaman” or “medicine man.” Instead, he calls himself a helper. He is also a drummer, dancer, singer, flutist, historian, and especially a storyteller. Shawn is a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans, but his people are now in Bowler, Wisc., so that is where he now makes his home. In this YouTube video (on the “Return of the Mohicans” channel), he shares stories, songs, and wisdom from his own Stockbridge tribe.
Born in Ketchikan, Alaska, Cheryl Fairbanks, Esq. is Tlingit-Tsimshian. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Fort Lewis College in 1969 and her Juris Doctorate in 1987 from the University of New Mexico. Fairbanks is the interim co-director for the University of New Mexico’s Native American Budget and Policy Institute, has served as the Walter R. Echo-Hawk Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Lewis and Clark, and was a visiting Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico’s Southwest Indian Law Clinic. She works in the area of Indian law as an attorney and Tribal Court of Appeals Justice.
Lev Natan earned a master’s degree in Organizational Leadership from The Graduate Institute and a bachelor’s in Human Ecology from Boston University. He is certified through The Empowerment Institute as an Empowerment Life Coach and an Agent of Conscious Evolution through training with Barbara Marx.
Hear flutist R. Carlos Nakai; storyteller Shawn Stevens; peacemaker and attorney Cheryl Fairbanks, Esq.; and AVF Executive Director Lev Natan in the program “Honoring Native America,” which kicks off Indigenous Peoples’ Day weekend at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 6. Tickets are $30 to $60, reflecting a “sliding scale ethic,” with seats evenly distributed throughout the theater. All of the proceeds from this event support AVF’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day programming.
