Come march with NE2SS
in NYC’s Pride Parade
Sunday June 24th, 2007
Line up
56th St. btw 5th and 6th Aves.
11am
Everyone Welcome!
More Info? Contact.
Dance at the NMAI (National Museum of the American Indian) at Bowling Green
July 10-12, 17-19, and 24-26
11am, 1pm and 3pm
Rotunda
Learn Indian social dances in this interactive program led by skilled Native American dancers. First come, first served.
It’s Pow-wow season. Come attend one of the biggest Pow-wow’s in America.
General Admission
Adults: $15
Youth (5–11 years): $12
4 years & under: Free
Groups (10+): $12/person
3-Day Pass: $36
Seniors (65+ years): $12
NMAI Members: $12
Grand Entries
Friday: noon and 6 p.m.
Saturday: noon and 6 p.m.
Sunday: 1 p.m.
Download the PDF flyer here.
Originally Published on June 25, in the Two Spirit Times
By Kevin VanWanseele
My grandfather, Edward R. Brown, has died. It was the cancer that finally got him. He was a very loving man who showed it by helping others.
When I was young, I remember Grandpa was very stern. I didn’t like to stay over at his house much. The first memory of my Grandpa that I have is of him getting mad at my brother and I for playing inside the house. “Go outside or I’ll spank you!” is one of the first things I remember Grandpa telling me. So we would go outside.
I lived down the street from him, maybe a half mile away. I used to ride my big wheel down the dirt roads of the reservation next to the highway that rarely had cars on it. Sometimes my mom would let me ride my big wheel to Grandpa’s. I passed small one-story homes, oak trees and old beat up cars that never seemed to move.
This article, ‘Rainbow and Red’, was originally published online at InTheFray.com dated Dec. 6, 2004. The writer Emily Alpert received a GLAAD Media award for Online Journalism. NE2SS has come a long way since its founding days. Let’s take a look back at what it was like when the society first started up…
“There was a time on this land in which we did have full equality,” he
comments. “There was a gender analysis with an open acceptance of
same-sex couples and relationships. There was a place for all of it,
and I think that it’s a shame that it’s been ignored.” Pruden sees this
history as crucial to current two-spirit identity. “There is a model
there that can be reactivated, claimed and worked on”, he says,
although he adds hastily, “There is no going back to a traditional
model.”
Originally posted on Advocate.com on Nov. 15, 2005. Written by Kevin VanWanseele for Advocate Online. There are over 20 different websites which picked this story up and reprinted it. It just goes to show, if you’re Indian and have something to say, WRITE! There are not enough of us documenting our history. Pick up a pen, boot up Microsoft Word, or even crank up the video camera. A-HO!
A life of two spirits
I’ve been
thinking a lot lately about what it means to be a gay man
and native American. We were once revered on the
reservation. Can we find the same respect again?
(Read the whole article here.)
A Spirit of Belonging, Inside and Out
October 8, 2006
By JOHN LELAND
SEELEY LAKE, Mont.
ALISTAIR BANE went to his first weekend gathering five months ago and was so nervous that he barely participated. By the time of his second, last month, he had sewn his own outfit and was comfortable enough to dance in the powwow and the drag show.
“This has been a big thing for me,” said Mr. Bane, who is a mixed-blood Eastern Shawnee. “If somebody had talked to me when I was 16 and said people like me were once respected, my life might have been different.”
(Brian Rainforth, left, and Raven E. Heavy Runner at the Two-Spirit Gathering in Montana. Mr. Rainforth is Klamath; Mr. Heavy Runner is Blackfeet - Picture from Lynn Donaldson of The New York Times.)
This week’s Time Magazine cover story featured some in depth scientific analysis on wisdom and why some people get it and some just grow old. A quote:
From the outset, it’s easier to define what wisdom isn’t. First of all, it isn’t necessarily or intrinsically a product of old age, although reaching an advanced age increases the odds of acquiring the kinds of life experiences and emotional maturity that cultivate wisdom, which is why aspects of wisdom are increasingly attracting the attention of gerontological psychologists. Second, if you think you’re wise, you’re probably not. As Gandhi (who topped the leader board a few years ago in a survey in which college students were asked to name wise people) put it, “It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom.” Indeed, a general thread running through modern wisdom research is that wise people tend to be humble and “other-centered” as opposed to self-centered.
…Certain qualities associated with wisdom recur in the academic literature: a clear-eyed view of human nature and the human predicament; emotional resiliency and the ability to cope in the face of adversity; an openness to other possibilities; forgiveness; humility; and a knack for learning from lifetime experiences. And yet as psychologists have noted, there is a yin-yang to the idea that makes it difficult to pin down. Wisdom is founded upon knowledge, but part of the physics of wisdom is shaped by uncertainty. Action is important, but so is judicious inaction. Emotion is central to wisdom, yet detachment is essential.
Read the entire article here.
Proud spirits
Gay Native Americans balance ethnic, gay identities
By ZACK HUDSON
Friday, November 17, 2006
Harlen Pruden can walk the walk down the streets of New York, but to some of his neighbors, he’s ill equipped to talk the talk.
“People speak Spanish to me all the time, and I don’t know Spanish,” he says. “Then they get really upset with me when they have to speak to me in English. They think I’m turning my back on my culture.”
But as culture clashes go, Pruden is well versed.
“I have to say, ‘I’m not Spanish, I’m Indian,’” he says.
The Next Gay Superstar, aka Roger Kuhn, will be shooting his first music video for “What’s Your Name?” The first big hit off his album Proof. He is looking for Extras. (You know, people in the background doing what people in everyday situations do. Shopping, walking, talking, pow wow dancing! Well maybe not he latter, but be ready to act!) If you are interested in this NYC based shoot please give him a shout. It should be a lot of fun. Plus, who knows where it’ll go? TV? Film festivals?
Roger’s E-mail
