RECLAIMING THE NATIVE SOUTH

Featuring Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate (2019-22)

SoAL’s 2023 Reclaiming the Native South Arts Festival seeks to re-orient our understanding of “the South” by exploring the rich, deep roots of Native American culture and arts in the Middle Georgia region and beyond. The festival will feature acclaimed Indigenous literary, visual, and performing artists. All events are free and open to the public. Check out the full Arts Festival schedule below.

Schedule of Events

MGA Student Art Exhibition Opening and Awards (exhibition runs through April 6)

Time:  6pm
Location:  Peacock Gallery | Cochran Campus
Description: The 2022-2023 MGA Student Art Exhibition Opening and Awards in Cochran is a juried exhibition featuring Middle Georgia State University art students. There will be an opening and awards celebration to reveal winners in categories such as 2-D design, 3-D design, student choice, as well as best of show.

Contact: Dr. Sheree' Keith      FLYER

Reclaiming the Native South Humanities Panel

Time:  4:30pm
Location: Arts Complex Theatre | Macon Campus
Description: Experts on the Indigenous Southeast will gather to share their work and reflect on recent scholarly trends in a lively and entertaining session.

Panel:
Dr. Matt Jennings, Historian, MGA Professor
Tracie Revis (Yuchi/Muscogee), Director of Advocacy for Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative
Dr. Jace Weaver, Religious, Literary, and Law Scholar/University of Georgia
Beau Carroll (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), Archeologist, EBCI Tribal Historic Preservation Office, University of Tennessee
Dr. Robbie Ethridge, Historical and Environmental Anthropologist, University of Mississippi

Contact: Dr. Matt Jennings        Additional Information        FLYER     

Film Screening with Historian and Documentary Film Producer, Dr. Malinda Maynor Lowery (Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina)

Time:  3:30pm
Location: Arts Complex Theatre | Macon Campus
Description: Join us for a screening of Dr. Malinda Maynor Lowery's short films Real Indian (1996) and Sounds of Faith (1997), followed by a Q&A with Dr. Lowery.

Contact: Dr. Matt Jennings        FLYER

Lecture and Recital by MGA Professor Giuliano Graniti, 
Ombaska:  Composers of Native American Music against Cultural Stereotypes

Time:  7:00pm
Location:  Arts Complex Rehearsal Hall | Macon Campus
Description: The lecture-recital will explore the fusion of European contemporary classical music techniques and Native American music idioms in the works of Louis Ballard and Alberto Ginastera.

Contact: Prof. Giuliano Graniti        FLYER

Lecture and Reading by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (Eastern band of Cherokee Indians)

Time:  4pm
Location: Arts Complex Theatre | Macon Campus
(followed by a reception in the Arts Complex Rehearsal Hall)
Description: Clapsaddle is author of the nove Even as We Breathe, which tells the coming-of-age story of Cowney Sequoyah, a nineteen-year-old Cherokee boy who finds himself entangled in dangerous mysteries in Asheville's grand Grove Park Inn in the midst of World War II. Author Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle will read from and discuss writing this award-winning novel, and she will also be available to sign books.

Contact: Dr. Monica Miller        FLYER

Demonstration by Randy Kemp, Member of the Muscogee (Creek), Choctaw, and Euchee Nations 

Time: 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Location: Arts Complex Rehearsal Hall | Macon Campus
Description: Multidisciplinary artist Randy Kemp will give a screen-printing demonstation.

Contact:  Dr. Sheree Keith        FLYER

MGA Student Art Exhibition Opening and Awards (exhibition runs through April 14)

Time:  6pm
Location:  SoAL Building Lobby | Macon Campus
Description: The 2022-2023 MGA Student Art Exhibition Opening and Awards in Macon is a juried exhibition featuring Middle Georgia State University art students. There will be an opening and awards celebration on both the Macon and Cochran campuses to reveal winners in categories such as 2-D design, 3-D design, student choice, as well as best of show.

Contact: Dr. Sheree' Keith      FLYER

Presentation and Performance by Randy Kemp (Muscogee (Creek), Choctaw, and Euchee Nations)

Time: 6:30pm (immediately following the April 10th MGA Student Art Exhibition Opening)
Location: Arts Complex Rehearsal Hall | Macon Campus

Description: Kemp will give a Native American flute, storytelling, and visual arts performance.

Contact: Dr. Amy Berke        FLYER

Reading and Performance by Joy Harjo, internationally renowned musician, performer, and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States (2019-2022), and 1st Native American Poet Laureate.

Harjo is the 2022 winner of the National Book Critic Circle's Ivan Sandroff Lifetime Achievement Award. Recognizing her three terms as the US Poet Laureate and as “a leading voice for Native American communities on and off the page,” the NBCC praised Harjo’s work in “harnessing the traditions of the Muscogee Nation and the vast landscape of her limitless imagination.”

Harjo has recently been named the winner of Yale’s 2023 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry. The Bollingen Prize is awarded biennially by Yale University Library through Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library to an American poet for the best book published during the previous two years or for lifetime achievement in poetry.

Time: 11am
Location: MGA Recreation & Wellness Center | Macon Campus

Contact: Dr. Amy Berke        Additional Information        FLYER         

Fall Line Review:  Release Party

Time:  2:00pm
Location:  SoAL Buillding Lobby | Macon Campus
Description: Join us for the release of MGA's annual journal dedicated to highlighting the literary and artistic achievements of Middle Georgia State University students.

Contact:  Dr. Kelly Whiddon

Jazz Band Concert

Time: 4:30pm
Location: Walker Auditorium | Cochran Campus
Description: This spring, the student fronted jazz ensemble is expanding their repertoire to include jazz-rock along with the classics. One of the hottest shows on campus!

Contact: Dr. Rebecca Lanning

Play

Times and Location for Cochran Campus:
April 12: 7:00pm
April 13: 7:00pm
April 14: 7:00pm
Location:  Russell Hall Theatre | Cochran Campus

Times and Location for Macon Campus:
April 12: 7:30pm
April 13: 5:30pm
April 14: 7:30pm
Location:  Arts Complex Theatre | Macon Campus

Contact: Dr. Sheree' Keith  

Percussion Ensemble Performance

Time: 7:30pm
Location: Arts Complex Rehearsal Hall | Macon Campus
Description: The percussion ensemble always delivers an exciting show to hear and watch! This semester they will present a show of Latin and modern percussion music, from the timpani to the steel drums and everything in between.

Contact: Dr. Rebecca Lanning        FLYER

These events are sponsored by MGA's School of Arts and Letters, with generous support from Georgia Humanities, in partnership with the Georgia Department of Economic Development, through appropriations made by the Georgia General Assembly, and from the Georgia Council for the Arts, which also receives support from its partner agency – the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support comes from the MGA Foundation, the Ocmulgee Mounds Association, the MGA Honors Program, and MGA Student Affairs.