Alice Manuel is a basketweaver in the Onk Akimel O’odham tradition. A member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, she learned to weave at age 19. She is the recipient of a 2017 Master-Apprentice Artist Award from the Southwest Folklife Alliance in recognition of her artistry and education. The award supports her in passing on the ... [Continue Reading]
Mo’ Betta: A Conversation with Barbea Williams
Barbea Williams is a dancer/choreographer, director, visual artist, and educator dedicated to sharing dance, theater, and visual cultural traditions from Africa and the African diaspora, including traditional West African, Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, and Haitian forms. She has directed the Barbea Williams Performing Company (BPC), Arizona’s premier ... [Continue Reading]
That’s a Lomaventema: A Hopi Silversmith on Making and Teaching
Gerald Lomaventema is a Hopi jeweler and recipient of a 2016 SFA Master-Apprentice Artist Award. Lomaventema teaches students the Hopi overlay technique, which was first developed by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie and his brother-in-law, Paul Saufkie, in the 1940s. After World War II, the artists taught returning Hopi veterans through the GI Bill and ... [Continue Reading]
More than Luck: A Master Artist Passes on the Chinese Lion Dance
On a Sunday morning in March, nine teenagers are squat-waddling across the floor of a large room of the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center. Kevin Lau, a heavy-set man in his 30s wearing shorts and a t-shirt calls out, “Good job. Keep going! This is good for your hip flexors. You guys are young!” He claps a few times and when everyone has returned to ... [Continue Reading]
Rod Ambrose, Talking Drum Performance Studio Network
Rod Ambrose was a 2016 recipient of the Southwest Folklife Alliance’s Master-Apprentice Award for his work as a storyteller, pulling from the oral traditions of West Africa. For over 47 years Ambrose has studied, learned, developed, composed, written, acted in and directed plays in addition to storytelling in hundreds of elementary, middle and high ... [Continue Reading]