Event—Public Programming

Second Saturday in March: Bowwow Powwow

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Dr. Brenda Child, author of Bowwow Powwow, and Steve Premo, Ojibwe artist and muralist, will lead children in traditional Ojibwe storytelling and a drawing activity.

About Bowwow Powwow: When Uncle and Windy Girl attend a powwow, Windy watches the dancers and listens to the singers. She eats tasty food and joins family and friends around the campfire. Later, Windy falls asleep under the stars. Uncle’s stories inspire visions in her head: a bowwow powwow, where all the dancers are dogs. In these magical scenes, Windy sees veterans in a Grand Entry, and a visiting drum group, and traditional dancers, grass dancers, and jingle-dress dancers--all with telltale ears and paws and tails. All celebrating in song and dance. All attesting to the wonder of the powwow.

Steve Premo is an Ojibwe artist and muralist from the Mille Lacs Ojibwe Community.

Dr. Brenda J. Child is Northrop Professor and Chair of the Department of American Studies at the University of Minnesota, and former chair of the Department of American Indian Studies. She is the author of several books on American Indian history. Dr. Child has won the North American Indian Prose Award and the American Indian Book Award and the Best Book in Midwestern History Award. She is a member of the board of trustees of the National Museum of the American Indian-Smithsonian and past president of the Native American & Indigenous Studies Association. Dr. Child was born on the Red Lake Ojibwe Reservation in northern Minnesota where she is a member of a committee writing a new constitution for the 12,000-member nation.

Our Second Saturdays series is supported by a grant from the Chicago Free for All Fund at the Chicago Community Trust.

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