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SPIRIT!

SPIRIT! is the newsletter of the Native American Resource Center.

VOLUME XV, NUMBER 3      Pembroke, North Carolina       SPRING 2003
 

Summer Art Show!

     With summer not far away, it is time once again for our annual Native American Summer Art Show-and-Sale. The Native American Resource Center regularly features fine Native American art in our summer show, and we hope that this year will be another great exhibit. Native American artists of all tribes and nations are invited to submit works of art for consideration.
     As usual, the Show-and-Sale will open at Lumbee Homecoming and end after Indian Heritage Week. Artists may submit up to five works in any medium (painting, drawing, sculpture, batik, beadwork, basketry, textiles, photography, mask-making, ceramics, jewelry, mixed media, etc.).
We welcome works of modern art in the exhibit. We believe that Native American art is any art which is done by Native Americans, regardless of the subject matter. Indian art is clearly not all feathers, buffaloes and tipis.
     We are also looking for the more traditional works, especially those done with traditional materials (shell, stone, bone, antler, wood, hides, pine needles, quills and such). We also like to see traditional methods, and those featuring traditional Native American subject matter. We are especially looking for new works -- things which have not previously been shown in The Center. Works should be submitted by the 6th of June, in order to give us time to get them arranged and displayed properly. Two-dimensional works must be framed and ready for hanging. Free-standing works (such as sculpture) must be sufficiently stable for display. Artists may choose to offer for sale some or all of their works, or they may decide only to exhibit them.
     So, if you are a Native American artist, or if you know someone who is, we want to hear from you!

New Book Available!

     How may we know what is meaningful in a culture? What is it that makes one culture distinct from another? In what ways is a culture similar to all other cultures? One way to approach answering these questions is to look at a collection of writings from the culture -- by allowing poets, dramatists and storytellers to be representative voices of that culture.
     Now such a book is available at the Native American Resource Center. River Spirits: A Collection of Lumbee Writings gathers the works of forty-nine Lumbee writers. There are times when it seems that each piece, each line, each word stands completely alone. There are other times when every piece, every line, every word seems to be part of a whole, of one great voice that is the collective say of these Lumbee writers.
     This does not mean that only one opinion, one voice, emerges from these writings. Lumbee culture is a very complex thing. But in every piece a window into Lumbee culture is open. Sometimes it is a narrow opening, giving only a glimpse of what it means to be Lumbee. Sometimes it is a wide opening, folding back the curtains of history and cultural differences to bare the very soul of what it means to these writers to be alive, to be who they are, to be Lumbee.
     Special gratitude is due to Anne Lowry Sistrunk, to her husband, Don C. Sistrunk, and to her mother, Mrs. Earl C. Lowry for their vision of the importance of this book, and for their major financial support of the River Spirits project.

Coming Events

** 19-22 June Elders' Traditional Spiritual Gathering; NC Indian Cultural Center

** 21 June Fine In The World: Lumbee Language in Time and Place, a discussion by the authors;      NC Museum of History; Raleigh; 2PM.

** 5 July Lumbee Homecoming Parade; Pembroke; 10AM.

** 5 July Open House, Native American Resource Center; UNCP; 11AM.

** 5 July AISES Powwow; beside Old Main, UNCP; 11AM.

** 5 July Literary Voices; Dial Building, UNCP; 2:30PM.

** 5 July Strike At The Wind! Premier; North Carolina Indian Cultural Center; 7PM.

SPIRIT WORDS

I know how to work the magic.
It comes to me from the earth,
sent in plants and trees.
I gather it with prayer,
distribute it with love.

I know how to work the magic.
It comes to me in dreams
sent from my ancestors.
I embrace it with my heart,
remember it with my being.

I know how to work the magic.
It comes to me from nature,
sent on majestic winds.
I hear it with my ears.
I feel it with my body.
I know it with my mind.

Hayes Alan Locklear (Lumbee)

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