November 19, 2009
Concert, symposium close out yearlong celebration of AYP centennial
On Nov. 20 at 7:30 pm, the Burke will hold a unique concert at Meany Hall — Tribute to the Spirit: Little Big Band. It features the musical, dance and storytelling talents of Grammy Award-winning singer Star Nayea; Tlingit storyteller, actor, musician, and motivational speaker Gene Tagaban; electric bassist and celebrated Tlingit glass artist Preston Singletary; violinist and comic Swil Kanim, and many others. These seasoned performers with more than 150 years of combined experience and veterans of many national tours, will combine the best of blues, rock, spoken word and jazz with deep resonances of their traditional culture.
The Native American performers are coming together to commemorate the end of the 100th Anniversary year of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. The concert and a related A-Y-P Symposium on Nov. 21 complement the Burke Museum’s current exhibit, A-Y-P: Indigenous Voices Reply. The exhibit, concert, and free A-Y-P Symposium are all part of the citywide 100th anniversary of The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.
The Burke’s A-Y-P: Indigenous Voices Reply exhibit highlights 16 contemporary artists who respond to the way that indigenous peoples were represented in the 1909 fair. The Nov. 20 concert serves as a performance-based continuation of those responses, and features several Native American artists who are also represented in the Burke exhibit.
The one-day free public symposium features keynote speaker Robert Rydell, the premier world’s fair historian, and examines the portrayal of indigenous cultures in the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition and other world’s fairs of that time. The symposium is supported by the Simpson Center for the Humanities. Speakers include:
- Robin Wright, Burke Museum curator of Native American art, on cultural appropriation and misappropriation at the A-Y-P.
- Kate Duncan, professor of art history at Arizona State University, on Seattle’s Olde Curiosity Shoppe and A-Y-P.
- Jon Olivera, UW graduate student in history, on Philippines cultures’ portrayal in worlds fairs.
- Jayme Yahr, UW graduate student in art history, on indigenous peoples’ portrayal at A-Y-P.
- Nadia Jackinsky, UW graduate student in art history, on Alaskan Native peoples’ portrayal at A-Y-P.
- Deana Dartt-Newton, Burke Museum curator of Native American ethnology, on California cultures’ representation at the A-Y-P and the cultural revitalization of indigenous canoe traditions.
Tickets to the Nov. 20 event are on sale now at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/80165 or by phone at 206-616-6473.Tickets are $20 for adults; $10 for Burke Members and $5 for youth and students 18 and over with ID. $17 tickets are available over the phone for groups of 10 or more.
