Poetry Festival: Native Voices 2016

Inspire. Discover. Explore. Create. The second annual Native Voices Poetry Festival at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center in downtown Banning on Saturday, January 23, will celebrate the human voice in all the arts. 

Explore the richness of Southern California’s Native cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. Discover and be inspired by our region’s beauty, vitality, and uniqueness. Enjoy Native American songs, storytelling, poetry, and more in family-friendly, free performances. 

Create poetry, stories, and art in free workshops for all ages.

 

DETAILS:

When:  9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, January 23.

Where: Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Gathering Hall at 127 N. San Gorgonio Avenue, Banning.

What: Free, family-friendly performances and workshops.

Who: Native American storytellers, singers, and poets from the region and from throughout Southern California, including Georgiana Sanchez, Ted and Dennis Garcia, Ernest Siva and family members, Kim and Mallory Marcus, Raymond Huaute, the Morongo Bird Singers and Dancers, Madrigal Family Bird Singers and Dancers, and other bird singers. 

Dragonfly Wind Flute Ensemble returns for the 2016 Festival, along with musicians Bill Bell and Don Strandberg, who again will perform local historian Bell’s “Ballad of Willie Boy.”

Food: Festival participants can enjoy lunch from Ramona’s food truck and Super Subs restaurant nearby.

Other Poetry Festival highlights are:

• Free workshops throughout the day, many for children, teens, and their families, offering ways to explore their own creativity through writing and art. First-come, first-serve signups will be available at the event.

• A Native Garden area with demos and displays of how native plants provide foods, medicines, tools, and have served Native cultures through time. 

• Shopping, browsing, and enjoying poetry in the Literary Café sponsored by the nonprofit Inlandia Institute, with poetry readings throughout the day.

Browse among books offered by vendors Malki Museum/Ballena Press; Heyday Books and News From Native California magazine; Scarlet Tanager Books; Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s publishing arm, Ushkana Press; UC Riverside Costo Chair; and Inlandia Institute.

• Tours of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s new library, along with information on local history resources in Banning Library. The nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center since 2003 has saved and shared Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.

Festival sponsors Include California State University, San Bernardino, and CSUSB Palm Desert;

Banning Community Fund; Mt. San Jacinto Community College; College of the Desert;

Inlandia Institute; Banning Schools Indian Education Program; UC Riverside Costo Chair; Poets and Writers; PoetrIE; Morongo Cultural Resources; Morongo School, and Banning Library District, which is kicking off its 100th birthday celebration at the Poetry Festival.

For more information: Call 951.849.7736; email info@dorothyramon.org, or come back here.