Indigenous Peoples’ Day Rocks!

         

    

Saturday, October 7, 2023 from 10:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. 
(Rain Date Sunday, October 8, 2023)

Town of Stowe Stowe Events Fields, Weeks Hill Rd.

Stowe Vibrancy is honored to have partnered with Chief Don Stevens and the Nulhegan Abenaki for the Annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day Rocks. We are so grateful to all of you: our partners, sponsors, musicians, educators, vendors, exhibitors, and volunteers for making it possible to launch this celebration in collaboration with local tribes in Vermont.  

With the vision of the IPD Rocks founders we were able to bring the Annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day Rocks into being. It is with much appreciation that we now pass this event and celebration on to the Indigenous Peoples’ Day Rocks Foundation to continue this yearly tradition with the State of Vermont.

And, as they say in the Abenaki tradition…

Waolowzi (Be Very Well)

We dedicated the 2022 celebration to the late Joanne Shenandoah, Grammy Award winner and Iroquois recording artist, our first headline singer for the inaugural 2020 Indigenous Peoples’ Day Rocks! The daylong program presented Native American culture, education, and live Indigenous musical performances, culminating in a rousing rock-and-roll concert with The Dave Keller Band, DC’s Queen of Blues~Carly Harvey, and the incomparable Blues Hall of Fame inductee Joe Louis Walker. Click here for more details.

You can read more about the upcoming event on Facebook: https://fb.me/e/1QD8fTKr6

 Thank you to the Vermont Department of Health for offering COVID and Flu vaccines to the public

 

A HUGE thank you to our sponsors and partners, the generous contributions of our 2022 donors, the amazing Joe Louis Walker, members of the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe, musicians and performers, and you the attendees of this event.  

Fire Keepers (Gifts of $1000+)

 

John Fusco and Richela Renkun

Jim and Deb Baum

Barr Law Group

Stowe Land Trust

Rocket 88 Records

Alchemist

The UPS Store

NOBULL

Mitzie Laidlaw

Judy & Gregg Hamerschlag

Allies (Gifts of $500 – $1000)

Manitouabeouich Art

turtlefur

 

Magic Mann

Smugglers’ Notch

Butternut Mountain Farm

 

Commodities

Everybody Water

Concept2

Shaw’s

Friends (Gifts up to $500)

Hinda Miller

Creative Concept

Sun & Ski Inn

Grunts Move Junk

Stowe Bee Bakery

The Stowe Village Inn

UniFirst

 
Joe Louis Walker (Cherokee Nation descent) – NPR Music has called him “a legendary boundary-pushing icon of modern blues.”
 
Blues Hall of Fame inductee, multiple Grammy & WC Handy Award winner, Joe Louis Walker is one of the most heralded blues artists of our time. Walker has recorded with BB King, James Cotton, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Branford Marsalis, and Ike Turner. Walker has become an international ambassador for the blues overseas, having played at countless festivals throughout Europe, South America, Australia, the Middle East, and Asia. Joe Louis Walker is already being referred to within the blues world as a “living legend.” However, as Walker himself would say, “the best is yet to come!”

 

The Akwesasne Women singers were formed in 1999 by four inspired and inspiring women: Bear Fox, Katsitsionni Fox, Elizabeth Nanitcoke and Iawentas Nanticoke. The women were driven by the need to protect and preserve the Kanienkeha (Mohawk Language), traditional Kanienkeha:ka (Mohawk People) customs and stories, as well as the oral traditions that are passed down from grandmother to granddaughter. It was founded on the principle that songs are the easiest way to pass on the language and culture to future generations. Blessed with beautiful singing voices, the women put their talents and their messages together to form a singing group that writes and performs traditional Kanienkeha:ka songs. Since their inception, the Akwesasne Women Singers have brought their beautiful and powerful music to the community of Ahkwesasne.
 
Members of the group are in various stages of their lives – grandmothers, mothers, aunts, daughters, sisters and cousins. They are teachers, environmental researchers, social workers and students. They assist their community whenever possible. The women  fundraise and provide assistance to individual community members. Aside from singing Haudenosaunee social songs, some members of Kontiwennenhawi are song writers, though they work with Elders and fluent speakers from Akwesasne to ensure the correct usage and spelling of words. These songs contain their own messages that they believe are important for the Mohawk people to know and remember. Their songs honor Elders, Kanienkehaka teachers, Mother Earth, Grandmother Moon, and Grandfather Thunder. Kontiwennenhawi is committed to continuing the traditions of our ancestors and preserving language and culture through their beautiful songs and inspiring efforts.

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

Carly Harvey (Tsalagi and Tuscarora descent) combines Blues, Jazz, Soul and Americana roots styles to create a unique sound that calls to mind Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, and Nina Simone, with a little Ella Fitzgerald thrown in for good measure. In July 2018, Carly was featured in Big City Blues Magazine as one of the youngest Blues artists to watch. She has had the privilege of sharing the stage with iconic musicians including Annika Chambers, Ron Holloway, Kebbie Williams, Ephraim Owens, Cory Henry, Kofi Burbridge, Junior Marvin, and Susan Tedeschi – an artist whose work has been foundational to her musical evolution.

Carly is a two-time D.C. Blues Society Battle of the Bands Winner (Duo – 2016, Band – 2018) and proclaimed D.C.’s Queen of the Blues. Her band, Kiss & Ride represented Washington D.C. in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2019. That same year, Carly released a new EP titled Kiss & Ride: Vol. 1, and the hit single, “She Ain’t Me” is now charting on regional blues radio stations. In 2021, Carly was nominated 7 times and won the WAMMIE award for Best Blues Artist/Band. Her international crossover album titled “Among The Stars” and an EP titled “Y.A.M.W.A.O.” with Italian producer/composer Taste of Dream is an additional project allowing Carly to explore an element of her musicianship beyond the Blues.

It is her belief that Blues not only comes from the African American experience but is actually directly influenced by Indigenous American Minor Pentatonic Melodies and Stomp Dance Songs. She occasionally offers master classes to educate people about the music that gives her so much pride in her Afro-Indigenous heritage.

 

 

Jesse Bowman Bruchac, is a Nulhegan Abenaki citizen, traditional storyteller, musician, and Abenaki language instructor. As one of the last fluent speakers of Western Abenaki, he works vigorously to revitalize the language and culture. His efforts have led to the creation of a Western Abenaki website, Youtube channel, Facebook group, and a number of bilingual publications.

As a musician he has produced several albums of Abenaki music, including traditional drum, rattle and flute. He has opened for The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, and performed at Woodstock ’94. He won the Best Storyteller Competition at Indian Summer in Milwaukee in 1995. Jesse has also acted as consultant, translator, composer, and language coach for programs on AMC, National Geographic, and PBS.

Jesse began learning stories, songs, and language as a child from elders and his father Joseph. He has traveled throughout the United States visiting schools and universities to share Northeastern Native American traditional stories, music, language, history and culture for over two decades. He continues to learn and teach the language, including at the University of Southern Maine.

 
Bryan Blanchette, an Abenaki singer-songwriter, and Berklee College of Music alum, brings 10,000 year old traditions of music and performance into a 21st century setting. A contemporary song may be sung in an Algonquian language, or a traditional pow wow song might be fused with a Euro American musicology. His music is the continuation of millenniums of music tradition of the land that flourished before America was America. Beautiful music and Abenaki heritage combine to create one of New England’s most original artists.
 
Blanchette’s musical talent is unquestioned. Whether singing at a pow wow with the Blackhawk Singers or performing solo at Vermont’s Flynn Theater, his voice makes listeners stop and take notice. A Native American Elder once told a young Bryan. “You have the voice of a warrior.”  He plays multiple instruments, writes his own music and lyrics, and sings with a powerful, captivating Abenaki warrior voice. 
 
Blanchette is a New England native and member of the Nulhegan Band of the Abenaki tribe. He began pow wow drumming in 1996. His group, The Blackhawk Singers, are extremely popular and have performed internationally to critical acclaim. They have released two CDs. He began writing Abenaki language songs in 1998. His contemporary music has also played to critical acclaim throughout New England. 
 
 
 
Dave Keller, one of the finest blues and soul musicians of his generation, is on the rise, earning two nominations for a Blues Music Award for Best Soul/Blues Album, winning the International Blues Challenge ‘Best Self-Released CD Award’, and being chosen for Downbeat Magazine’s ‘Best Recordings of the Year’.
 
Dave has performed for audiences across the U.S., including major festivals such as the North Atlantic Blues Fest, Discover Jazz Fest and PA Blues Fest, and many of the finest clubs, including B.B. King’s in Memphis and Biscuits and Blues in San Francisco. In addition to his own recordings, Keller has co-written and recorded with legendary guitarist Ronni Earl. He tours regularly with Mississippi soul/blues master Johnny Rawls.
 
Based in Vermont since 1993, Dave found fertile ground to grow his audience and has become a household name here. Famous for his live-wire shows, he can often be found fifty feet out in the crowd, teasing fiery licks from his trusty Stratocaster, and singing off-mike with his audience.
 
John Fusco, an award-winning writer and filmmaker, has written more than a dozen major-motion pictures, including Crossroads,Young Guns, Thunderheart, Hidalgo, the Academy Award-nominated Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, the Netflix Original hit The Highwaymen starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, and the Netflix series Marco Polo.
 
Fusco is widely-known for his works that explore the American west and Native American rights issues. His critically-acclaimed movie Thunderheart was screened on Capitol Hill in 1992 to help pass legislation to protect sacred Native American sites; while his ABC miniseries, Dreamkeeper, won Best Film at the American Indian Film Awards in 2003, and the Humanitarian Award. In addition to developing several new film and TV projects, Fusco has returned to the blues music background that inspired his debut movie, Crossroads. He has released 2 acclaimed albums of original music in the and performs live with his band the X-Road Riders.

 

 
 
 
 

Don’t Miss Out on Another Awesome Event!

Enter your email below to subscribe to our newsletter.