Fun events at the Center

Fusion! Ballet and Native American music

Wonderful Inland Southern California

Amazing but true: Stories from the Pass
and Inland Southern California
Explore odd, surprising, and amazing stories of Inland Southern California with a special added focus on Banning. Larry Burns of Riverside will lead a fun session on Monday, June 10, 2019, guiding you to the weird, wonderful, and obscure in the Inland Empire region, including family-friendly places to visit, little-known history, and just plain wonderful trivia, such as who from the Inland area invented flaming hot cheetos, or the white line in the middle of all highways. 

Burns will share and sign his new book, Secret Inland Empire, which spills secrets that give the communities of Riverside and San Bernardino counties their wonder and uniqueness. 

In the session that starts at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 10, at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., in Banning, also learn from local historians a few surprising recently discovered twists in Banning history and about efforts to save and cherish historic landmarks of the San Gorgonio Pass. And, you might also learn how to call a dragonfly with a local Native American song, and your open heart.

Your $5 helps the nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center save and share Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and arts.

“Coming Alive Through Story:” Free workshops start Friday

Explore the power of ancient Native American stories and discover how they apply in healing ways to contemporary living. 

Dr. Renda Dionne Madrigal, Luke Madrigal, and family will lead "Coming Alive Through Story," four free workshops starting Friday, June 7, at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, 127 San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, CA.

The sessions are scheduled from 7:30-9 p.m. on June 7, June 14, June 28, and July 12, at the nonprofit Center, which saves and shares Southern California's Native American cultures, languages, history, and arts.

These workshops are free and are for adults and older teen-agers; all are welcome. Please RSVP.

Dr. Renda Madrigal is a licensed clinical psychologist based in Temecula who combines mindfulness and story in her work. Her heritage as Turtle Mountain Chippewa informs her focus on the importance of respect, balance, and connection for well-being. 
Luke Madrigal is a Cahuilla culture bearer and has worked for years on Indian child welfare issues.

Their daughter, Isabella Madrigal (Cahuilla/Chippewa), recently wrote, directed, and produced a play performed at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, "Menil and her Heart," which explores the healing powers of Native American stories. 
The play earned 16-year-old Isabella her gold level in Girl Scouts, the highest achievement level. She and her sister, Sophia, 15, have won a $5,000 grant from Dragon Kim Foundation to continue the work in cultural revitalization through Native storytelling. 

April 28th concert

Menil and Her Heart: A Play

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Isabella is in her junior year at the Orange County School of the Arts in the Acting Conservatory and is pursuing her Girl Scout gold award project. As part of this project, she has gathered traditional Cahuilla Indian stories. Her play combines these stories into a telling that highlights a contemporary Native American issue. She has chosen to focus on the high rate of disappearances of Native women, as well as to highlight the importance of cultural revitalization, which includes bringing back the stories. Please join her to explore how age-old stories can have deep meaning in contemporary times, and healing powers that are timeless.

photo by Carlos Puma for Dorothy Ramon Learning Center

details: 3 p.m. February 24, 2019, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, CA FREE

Being Native American in 2018

Come listen and engage in this discussion on following traditional cultural pathways in our contemporary world, being true to one's Native American identity, respecting the past in present tense. 

Being Native American in 2018

A panel discussion with Culture Bearers and Catalysts

Moderator: Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla/Serrano)

Including Sean Milanovich, Cahuilla Red Elk, Gerald Clarke Jr., Terria Smith

DETAILS

6 pm Oct 15, 2018

127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning CA 92220

Your $5 donation helps the 501(c)3 nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center save and share Southern California's Native American cultures, languages, history, and music and other traditional arts.

Ballerinas and Native American Flute

Today, Sunday, Sept. 23, 2018: Julia Olsen Rodriguez and San Gorgonio Ballet Company present "Fusion, Revisited," classical ballet interpretations of traditional and contemporary Native American music.

Flute music by Ernest Siva.

Our local ballet company also will present other classical and modern dances.

Details: 3 p.m., Sept. 23, 2018, San Manuel Gathering Hall at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning CA 92220. Your $10 helps support the Center's 501(c)3 nonprofit work to save and share Southern California's Native American cultures.

An Evening With Dorothy Ramon

Step into a world of wonder in our next lecture on July 30, 2018, with Dorothy Ramon’s family members, Ernest Siva and Carolyn Horsman. Hear the beautiful words flowing in one of Southern California’s own languages, and explore some of the cultural memories of Dorothy Ramon.

The power of the old ways
Dorothy Ramon was a force to be reckoned with. Descended from a traditional Serrano ceremonial assistant and filled with knowledge of the power of the old ways, she was in her 80s when she began working with linguist Eric Elliott to save and share the Native American Serrano language and culture. She is believed to be the last primary speaker of Serrano, that is, the last to think and dream in Serrano first, before English. The linguist later recalled that when he first met her, she was wearing a bandage on one hand from getting accidentally locked out of her home. To regain entry she had smashed her fist through a glass window. She initially refused to talk to him in Serrano, and he recalled that his nerves plunged over the brink and he began sweating profusely. Eventually they worked together for years and became dear friends. Because of their work and the work of other linguists, the language continues.

The resulting readings transport you, whether it’s to an ancient traditional time when shamans listened to the ocean and mountains to learn their teachings, or later times, when Native Americans faced the losses of their homelands. Although Dorothy Ramon ends every story with” ‘Ama’ ‘ayee’ “ — “That’s all” — we’re thankful for an amazing legacy that’s never “all.” 

DETAILS: 6 pm Monday, July 30, 127 N San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, CA. Your $5 donation helps the Learning Center save and share Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.

The call of the red-tailed hawk

The Serrano Native American name for Red-tailed Hawk is Kwaat. If you listen to the hawk call in the first recording (Alaska 1975) in this link at Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the hawk just may be screaming its name in Indian. (Maybe, maybe not? ... Tell us what you think.)

Explore and discover more in our July 16 lecture with Rebecca K. O’Connor of Banning, "A Raptor As a Guide: Lessons on connecting and listening to the natural world gleaned from hawks, eagles, and falcons.”
She will discuss her 25 years of working as a licensed falconer with birds of prey, and how this experience has given her a meaningful connection based in respect and honor for wild animals and the open spaces she shares with them.

By Daniel Ankele (Grover Beach, California) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

We also will share information on Native American relationships with a few wild birds of prey and their landscapes, led by Center President and Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla/Serrano) and the Learning Center.

DETAILS: 6 p.m. Monday, July 16, 2018, at The Center’s Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning. Your $5 donation will help the 501(c)3 nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center save and share Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and music and other arts.

Raptors as a Guide

A longtime falconer will share her experiences on July 16, 2018, in Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s next Dragonfly Lecture, “A Raptor As a Guide: Lessons on connecting and listening to the natural world gleaned from hawks, eagles, and falcons.”

Rebecca K. O’Connor of Banning will discuss her 25 years of working as a licensed falconer with birds of prey, and how this experience has given her a meaningful connection based in respect and honor for wild animals and the open spaces she shares with them.  

When your hunting partner is a wild bird
For falconers, a successful hunt and more importantly, a partnership with a wild and free-flying bird of prey, is a constant conversation between human and bird, O’Connor says. The falconer must learn to speak the hawk’s language, be willing to listen, and trust in their relationship. This conversation ultimately grows into a larger and deeper conversation with a landscape and the other creatures that inhabit it.

Also explore a few traditional Native American relationships with wild birds of prey and their landscapes, led by Center President and Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla/Serrano) and the Learning Center.

DETAILS: 6 p.m. Monday, July 16, 2018, at The Center’s Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning. Your $5 donation will help the 501(c)3 nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center save and share Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and music and other arts.

About Rebecca K. O’Connor
She's the author of the award-winning memoir Lift published by Red Hen Press. She has published essays and short stories in South Dakota Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Los Angeles Times Magazine, West, divide, The Coachella Review, Phantom Seed, Prime Number Magazine and The Rumpus. Her work has been anthologized in New California Writing 2011, New California Writing 2012, No Place for a Puritan: The Literature of California Deserts and Animal Companions, Animal Doctors, Animal People. She has also written several reference books on the natural world and several books on pets including The Perfectly Trained Parrot, a best-selling parrot training guide. Her latest novel, We Were Wilder, was self-published on Amazon in 2016.

Along with her 25 years as a falconer and animal trainer, O’Connor serves as development director for Rivers and Lands Conservancy, where she combines her passion for preserving open spaces with her love for connecting people with the wilderness.

November 2017 concert

Native Voices January 29 Concert

Discover and Explore California Native American Poetry

California Native American poets and writers tell what it's like to be a contemporary Indian in their vibrant, creative poems and stories. Come read, discuss, discover, and explore the diversity of their voices with David J Carlson, and get ready for the upcoming Native Voices Poetry Festival. Dragonfly Lecture 6 p.m. Wednesday, January 25, 127 N. San Gorgonio, Banning. Suggested $5 donation.

Art From the Heart: Free Family Fun, Community Cheer, Native American Culture & Gifts

Enjoy free family fun, music, and more, and shop for unique, affordable, beautifully handmade and Native American gifts at “Art From the Heart” from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3, in downtown Banning. 

"Art from the Heart,"  centered at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., supports Native American cultural work and education. Instead of shopping til you drop, we welcome you to the Center, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, where you can relax, enjoy free refreshments, free family fun, cultural entertainment, and discover and explore our Learning Center, where we save and share Southern California's Native American cultures, history, languages and traditional arts. Come check out our new reference library! AND you can buy Native American and beautiful, eclectic gifts, including books, that benefit Native Americans and local artists and not-for-profit Native American causes.

Highlights: A FREE basket-making workshop throughout the day led by Malki Museum. Free performances include Dragonfly Wind Flute Ensemble, traditional American Indian songs and stories with Ernest Siva, and a special, free sneak preview at 2 pm of the Pass Chorale's upcoming Dec. 11 Christmas concert, which features a cantata by Banning composer Bill Bell, and is directed by Ernest Siva.

Vendors will offer Native American jewelry, beadwork, basketry, pottery, good books, and more, and local, unique, handmade affordable art and gifts. The Market at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center will include the Native American Christmas ornaments, pottery, beadwork, and gourd jewelry of Native American artisans Ron and Geneva Moore of Parker, AZ; the flint knapping, blacksmithing and silver-jewelry-making art of Past to Present Programs and Trading Post of Redlands; gifts from Morongo Cultural Resources that will benefit Morongo students; and Native American crafts and more from Chia Café Collective, that benefit this not-for-profit group's work to preserve, educate, and enrich new generations with knowledge of traditional Native uses of native plants. Other arts and crafts include Barbara Drake’s Victorian-themed Christmas gifts; Beaumont artist Kristy Christopherson’s fun and functional handmade purses, totes, wallets and more; David Fairrington’s art, and Cheryl Blaum’s crafts. Nonprofits Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, Heyday Books and News From Native California, and Malki Museum will offer Native American books and publications.

Joining in the fun

Also participating in “Art from the Heart” are Super Subs, serving subs across the street from the Learning Center at 112 N. San Gorgonio Ave., and Toti’s Art Studio, just a block away at 235 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning. Gloria “Toti” Bell will offer free entertainment and an open house of her Day of the Dead-style art, joined by local artists offering pottery, paintings, and more. Ramona’s taco truck will offer delicious foods there.  

Spring into spring! Sunday Concert

Note that our concert is a bit early this month, but just in time for spring. Your $10 helps our nonprofit save and share Southern California's Native American cultures, languages, history, and arts.

February Concert 2016