Artist Raven Chacon in Concert and Conversation
Saturday, November 4, 2 p.m.

Don't miss a dazzling musical presentation by Raven Chacon (Diné), a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and 2023 MacArthur Fellow. Chacon will present selections from his work For Zitkála-Šá (2020) with performances by Joy Harjo (Muscogee (Creek) Nation), Candice Hopkins (Carcross/Tagish First Nation), Ange Loft (Kanien’kehá:ka, from Kahnawà:ke), Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache), and Olivia Shortt (Anishinaabe, Nipissing First Nation).

Chacon dedicated this portfolio of scores to contemporary Native American and First Nations women to celebrate their contributions to music. Following this piece, a local ensemble will perform ...lahgo adil’i dine doo yeehosinilgii yidaaghi (2004), which is held in the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian. This program marks the first time each of these compositions will be performed before a live audience in Washington, DC.

Concluding the event is a conversation with the five For Zitkála-Šá performers, moderated by Chacon. A selection of works from this portfolio of thirteen lithographs are currently on view in SAAM’s Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies.

Please note this program takes place at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC.

This program is co-presented by the National Museum of the American Indian and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, with funding support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative.