Come on in Look Around... & Take a Piece of the Mountains Home With You

• Dance Academy of Mexico: Traditional Mexican dance company established to preserve and promote Mexican dances and traditions to include those of the Aztec Indians.

• Mountain Tradition Cloggers. The group’s desire is to pass down their love of Southern Appalachian Freestyle Clogging to the next generation.

• Ashgrove Garland Dancers & Asheville Morris Dancers: Performing dances which began in Northern England mill towns in the 19th century to welcome seasonal changes and other festive events.

• Waynesville Bellydance: One of North Carolina’s oldest belly dance troupes who take you on a tour of dance styles, from sunny Luxor, Egypt, along the verdant banks of the Nile to the modern nightclubs of San Francisco.

• Native American Hoop Dance: Storytelling dance performed by many different North American Native Nations from ancient times to today.

• Blue Ridge Big Band: A premier 19-

ALSO:

On the wall

piece “big” band home-based in Western North Carolina.

• Mirai Kanai Okinawan Taiko: The group performs Japanese Okinawan Eisa Taiko Traditional Court Dancing and Okinawan Sanshin and Drum Music.

• LEAF Global Arts School + Streets: Connecting world cultures and creating community through music and arts education and experiences to cultivate curiosity in the young and old to preserve cultures and promote global understanding.

• Haywood Ramblers Band: Old-Time Mountain String Band from Western North Carolina.

• Kathak Traditional Repertoire: One of the eight major forms of South Asia Indian classical dance with its origins in Northern India.

The event is free and open to the public. Donations accepted. For more information and full schedule of events, go to folkmoot.org/festivals, call 828.452.2997 or email info@folkmoot.org.

Cherokee film, concert celebration

The Museum of the Cherokee Indian will be hosting the film “Dadiwonisis/We Will Speak” followed by a Q&A with members of the film's production team after the screening at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4, at the Chief Joyce Dugan Cultural Arts Center located at the Cherokee Central Schools.

As well, there will be a Cherokee Language concert from artists that contributed to the making of the “Anvdvnelisgi” album, with performers offering a wide-range of music from various genres, at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5, in the Cultural Arts Center.

“Dadiwonisis/We Will Speak” is a documentary that discusses the language preservation of the Cherokee Language, the activist and teachers who are working to preserve it and who teach Tsalagi to both older and younger generations.

The preservation of Native languages is critical, as time goes on fewer and fewer tribal members can speak their language and with the forced attendance of Indian Boarding Schools, the last of which were closed in the late 1970s in the United States.

Many elders within those tribes were forced to speak English and were punished, often severely beaten and abused when they were caught speaking their languages. Nevertheless, through struggle and forced assimilation, many elders were able to hold onto those verbal traditions, keeping their languages close to them, and allowing them to pass them down to younger members.

With these efforts, there have been many tribes that have opened and developed adult language schools, and many tribal K-12 schools have immersive language programs for their students.

The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians have created their school, The Kituwah Academy, where the varying generations can come together and make sure that the Cherokee language thrives and grows.

“Through oral traditions, our Cherokee culture has been able to survive for millions of years,” said Shennelle Feather (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Diné, Lakota), education program manager at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. “This event is honoring our language through film and music — two modern ways of sharing stories — and proves that we are still using oral history to teach the world and remind ourselves that we are still here. That our language is not dead, it is living, it is and can evolve just like the people who speak it and have spoken it since time immemorial.”

The event is free and open to the public. Registration is required via Eventbrite (search: The Way We Speak with the World: Cherokee Language Film & Concert). For more information, you can visit the museum’s website at mci.org.