Indigenous Artists Come Together to Premiere “WIND” in Osage Nation Homelands

Indigenous Artists Come Together to Premiere WIND in Osage Nation Homelands

The intercultural, multimedia project celebrates creation, land connection, and storytelling. Kansas City, MO – In February 2025, WIND, an intercultural, Indigenous performance and workshop, will premier in Kansas City. This innovative project is spearheaded by artistic directors Amado Espinoza (Qhichwa), Maura García (non-enrolled Cherokee/Mattamuskeet), and Yura Sapi (Kichwa), who will collaboratively devise a multimedia performance exploring the element of wind and its profound connections to creation, land, and storytelling.

WIND is deeply rooted in the rich traditions of Indigenous peoples from North and South America, honoring millennia-old practices of travel, trade, and intermarriage. The project seeks to combat colonial forces that have historically disrupted these vibrant cultural exchanges by harnessing the untamed spirit of the wind to foster collective creation and shared dreaming. “Underneath the pavement of Kansas City is prairie land. Unlike the grasses which struggle to exist anymore, the wind doesn’t care about the buildings or cars or people. It is still wild and untamed and forever invisible,” shares García. “It is fast and carries words, sounds, and prayers throughout the whole world. It is ever-present in the form of air. Without it, we are dead in a matter of minutes. And yet, we cannot see it. We feel its presence or gauge its movement and patterns by the way it moves other objects. Wind in the form of a tornado can destroy an entire house, yet leave a cabinet full of delicate ceramics untouched. It caresses our skin and it brings down trees. It is magic.”

WIND features two events, a workshop for the local Indigenous communities and a site-specific performance that is open to the public:

Interactive Community Workshop: February 22, 2025 from 11am – 3pm CST
Hosted at the Kansas City Indian Center (KCIC), this workshop invites KCIC members and the local Indigenous community to engage in creating music, choreography, and narrative storytelling. Activities will include instrument-making, dance learning, singing, and collaborative story creation.

Site-Specific Multimedia Performance: February 23, 2025 at 2pm CST
The performance will debut at Jerry Smith Park, set against Kansas City’s last remaining tallgrass prairie. This free, public event will feature dance, song, textile art, and storytelling. Following the performance, attendees are invited to a Q&A session and refreshments at the Mid-Continent Public Library – Grandview Branch. (In the event of inclement weather, both the performance and Q&A will be relocated to the library.)

This project is supported by a grant from the MAP Fund. Choreography creation is facilitated through a residency at Houston Met Dance. The project’s essayist is supported by the DEMIL Art Fund. International artist travel supported by The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics.

For media inquiries, please contact Taylor Lhamon at taylorlhamon.pr@gmail.com.