Performance of dance sent from South Dakota State Penitentiary, SD: Ocean Dreams/Mni Owanca Tanka Woihanbla

Join us for a moving performance embodying a dance written inside the South Dakota State Penitentiary by Oglala Lakota elder, activist, artist, and writer Zintkala To (George Blue Bird). The dance is a collaboration among Zintkala To; dance practitioner, curator, and scholar, Tria Blu Wakpa; and Dancing Through Prison Walls’ artistic facilitator / director, choreographer Suchi Branfman, with music composed by Leta Wise Spirit, Hunkpapa Lakota, Standing Rock (ND).

George Blue Bird/Zintkala To grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation and has served over four decades of a life sentence on occupied Lakota lands. Although George has never journeyed to the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean, he has requested that the many drawings and paintings he has created travel to where he currently cannot. Performing Ocean Dreams/Mni Owanca Tanka Woihanbla in New York, next to the Atlantic Ocean, expands Zintkala To’s request to “take [his artwork] to the ocean and say [his] name.” This dance honors tribal people imprisoned everywhere in the world. Performers: Tria Blu Wakpa and Leta Wise Spirit, Artwork/Archive: George Blue Bird, Film: Tom Tsai.

After sharing of Ocean Dreams, we invite you to join a community conversation and dance jam. Part of FREEDOM TIME, hosted by Recess’s Session program, this work expands our vision of justice across lands and lifetimes.