MNN Extended Interview: Charli Fool Bear

Transcript

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Marie Rock [Anchor]: You're listening to Minnesota Native News. I'm Marie Rock. This week, we revisit producer Emma Needham's conversation with Charli Fool Bear about their work with New Native Theater, the importance of having a space for Indigenous stories, and the fifth annual Two Spirit Powwow on June 23rd at the Minneapolis American Indian Center.

Charli Fool Bear: So, my name is Charli Fool Bear. I use she/they pronouns. A member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. I'm Yankton Dakota. I am an enthusiastic community member and former artistic producer with New Native Theater. One of the things that I worked on a lot, was looking at my own experiences and seeing where I found roadblocks when I was growing up, and I wanted to be a performer. I wanted to be on stage, I wanted to write, and I wanted to share. But when I came from a community that was very, pretty generally impoverished reservation, sort of an arts desert. And so, theater itself, just as an art form, became inaccessible. It became foreign, something that I didn't have the tools for. And the reality is, is that in pretty much every Native community that I know of, storytelling is this very basic tenet of culture. It's probably one of the strongest remaining links we have to any of our cultures are the stories that we are handed down and that we tell each other. And that's always been a part of our culture, well before colonization. And for us, New Native Theater is a way to reclaim that act of storytelling and to create spaces for us within it. There are other Native Theater groups popping up in the area, theater artists who are starting with one class or one workshop, and then a year later they're contracted whole production at a big theater to do props or puppets or sound. So that bridge is being built. So that bridge is being built all the time. And I'm really proud to have been a part of that for even a little bit, because those are seeds that have been planted and fostered and cared for for a long time. I think just being in a play with Native people, it's so healing to share something I love with people I always wanted to be a part of it. As soon as I started acting, as soon as I started writing plays when I was in college, I was like, why isn't everyone on the res doing theater? Like something in theater. Why aren't people building sets and learning how to run light boards and writing plays and acting? And there was something for everyone. And I love seeing that in action. I love coming to this community, coming to the cities, and seeing kids on stage, seeing Native kids learning how to make puppets and costumes and designing their own little sets. And it's a dream come true. I would really want people to know that these stories are for them, that we tell them so that people will listen, so that people can see themselves, so that people who aren't in our communities will see an authentic representation of some Indian. You know, there's no pan-Indian experience, but they'll hear an authentic voice. And we want our community to hear that, too. We want them to come in and see themselves, see their grandmas, see their cousins and siblings on stage, respected, loved, treated the way any other character in a play is treated, with the same complexity and care. And these are amazing productions. This theater is of the same caliber as any other theater in this community. And I think sometimes that's a hurdle that we have to prove as a Native theater. We are doing everything we can to make sure that our community feels welcome in a theater, when we know that many Native people have probably never set foot in a traditional theater where they're doing plays and musicals, because that's pretty inaccessible to a lot of just rural America in general. And so, I think that's the biggest thing, is that that space is for you, and you belong there, and we want you there. I'm actually going to plug one more thing for NNT, which is that they have a Two Spirit powwow every year. That's a very special event to me, and I really hope that in our current national climate, political climate, that people will show up for their TwoSpirit siblings and relatives, help us feel safe, help people feel loved and celebrated, and show that two-spiritedness existed forever, and it always will.

Marie Rock: That's all for this week's episode. Join us next time for more voices and stories that inform, uplift, and shape our communities, right here on Minnesota Native News.
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Marie Rock: Minnesota Native News is produced by AMPERS: Diverse Radio for Minnesota's Communities. Made possible by funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.