You’re Invited: Free Programs at Tempe Center for the Arts

Carmen Guerrero, (Kambiwá/Brazilian/Xicanindia) Cultural Coalition Executive Director, Beading Artist, Musician – Producer of multiple annual cultural festivals in Arizona through her nonprofit Cultural Coalition. As an artistic producer, she is committed and dedicated to issues of cultural literacy and social justice. As an educator and teaching artist, she shares her indigenous roots through music and art to foster multicultural understanding. As an artivist/arts advocate, she co-founded Xicanindio (now Xico, Inc.), the Arizona Latino Arts Center, and the Cultural Coalition.

IIWAA (Piipaash/Quechan) is an Indigenous performer, songwriter, and recording artist representing District 7 of the Gila River Indian Community. They are the recipient of the 2022 Viola Award for Excellence in Music for their debut EP, Dysphoria. IIWAA’s work has been featured by ESPN, ABC, the CBC, and recognized by the Grammys Recording Academy.

Missy Mahan (Yuchi/Mvskoke/Tohono O’odham) Painter, Tattoo Artist and business owner. Tattooing since 2012 she currently brings indigenaity to a space in order to highlight indigenous tattoo artists, art and traditional or contemporary tattoos for her community. She is a team member of the Indigenous Tattoo & Music Fest, an annual event high lighting all indigenous tattoo artists and musicians throughout the U.S and Canada. She brings a new revival to reconnect with her ancestors traditions to reclaim traditional designs, art and practices through tattoos.

Emlyn (Mauritius/Creole) Songwriter & Performer – Featured on CNN, Emlyn is leading a wave of performers across the Indian Ocean proudly reclaiming their unique rhythms and cultural mix. Written with a reactive pen and sung in Mauritian Creole, her songs express her concerns for her island’s environment. Emlyn brings the infectious grooves of Sega with the sounds of her traditional frame drum, Ravann, which originated from the rhythms of African/Madagascan people during the slave trade. SIBS fell in love with Sega music during their field trips to Mauritius in 2016 and 2017, and was finally collaborating with Emlyn in 2020. She has been part of the album since and never misses a show!

Putad (Amis/Taiwan) Songwriter & Performer – Powerful, entrancing, unapologetic all words used to describe Putad’s engaging stage presence. In the proud spirit of her indigenous Amis heritage, Putad unites ancient vocal traditions with raw energy of grunge, rock and punk, as her and her brothers Wusang and Linken’s band Outlet Drift express. In the SIBS ensemble, she brings this energy, her soaring voice, rock bass along with her coastal Amis ancestry and love for the ocean! SIBS met Putad through an online project Global Music Match in 2020. She has since become one of the feature artists on the album ‘Our Island’ and its tours across four continents.

Mea Joy Ingram (Motu/Papua New Guinea) – Mea comes from a long line of drummers and dancers. She was taught by her father, master percussionist Airileke Ingram in the tradition of Manus Garamut, Cook Island Pate, and Gabagaba Motu Mavaru. The Garamut drumming of PNG was traditionally an artform dominated by men, however Mea, having just turned 18, represents the new generation of female log drummers emerging from Oceania.

Tony Duncan (Apache-Arikara & Hidatsa) Hoop Dancer & Native Flute Musician – Tony Duncan, a five-time World Champion Hoop Dancer and performing artist, is just getting started. Now based in Mese, Arizona with his wife and children, Duncan learned hoop dancing from his father at the age of five. “I grew up going to powwows and my father taught me different styles of dances, including the hoop dance,” Duncan told Annie Larkin during a special performance for the Amerind Museum. Characterized by rhythmic dancing with colorful hoops and complex footwork, this tradition has roots in healing ceremonies and customs across Indigenous communities of the U.S. and Canada. Duncan represents the best of hoop dancing: using his hoops to tell a story with stunning images – sometimes of a snake, butterfly, eagle, or globe. Even his mastery of the hoop, constantly spinning and forming new shapes, conjures the fluidity of life itself. Now an intertribal activity, hoop dancing has grown in popularity, with modern dancers reinventing its foundational elements. “Everything we wear when we perform tells a story. Designs are passed down among families, the bead work, and even the tailoring of regalia speaks to someone’s tribe or clan. We wear the good feelings of our relatives on our bodies when we dance,” Duncan says of the rich meaning behind his regalia. Though known for his dancing, Duncan is also a renowned flutist, with ten albums released under Canyon Records, a Native American music label. After winning Artist of the Year at the Native American Music Awards in 2013, and touring with such musicians as R. Carlos Nakai and Joanne Shenandoah, Duncan believes hoop dancing and playing the flute keep him balanced.  “Hoop dancing represents fire because the flicker of a flame is constant, like my quick movements while dancing. The sound of the flute reminds me of water and its ability to heal. For me, they go hand in hand,” Duncan explains. After touring with international pop sensation, Nelly Furtado, and performing for thousands globally, Duncan now thinks of the next generation. Duncan’s children, Naiche, Nitanis, Manaya and Mia are budding hoop dancers, and will carry on his legacy. As Duncan told Visit Phoenix late last year, “I’ll be performing the hoop dance until I have white hair and I’m an elder. Continuing to pass down traditions and teachings to my children and their children: that’s how we keep the ‘hoop’ strong.”

Mathieu Joseph (Creole/Mauritius) Choreographer & Performer – Mathieu has been a professional dancer and choreographer since the age of 14 when he was discovered breakdancing on the suburban streets of Port Louis, Mauritius by renowned choreographer Stephen Bongarçon. Quickly embedding himself in Bongarçon’s SRDance, his dedication earned him the gold medal for dance at “Les Jeux de la Francophonie” in 2009. Leading to a succession of shows and companies, including choreographing “Di Sel”, a tribute to the salt workers of Mauritius which won the “Les Jeux de la Francophonie” in France in 2017.

Emlyn (Mauritius/Creole) Songwriter & Performer – Featured on CNN, Emlyn is leading a wave of performers across the Indian Ocean proudly reclaiming their unique rhythms and cultural mix. Written with a reactive pen and sung in Mauritian Creole, her songs express her concerns for her island’s environment. Emlyn brings the infectious grooves of Sega with the sounds of her traditional frame drum, Ravann, which originated from the rhythms of African/Madagascan people during the slave trade. SIBS fell in love with Sega music during their field trips to Mauritius in 2016 and 2017, and was finally collaborating with Emlyn in 2020. She has been part of the album since and never misses a show!

Putad (Amis/Taiwan) Songwriter & Performer – Powerful, entrancing, unapologetic all words used to describe Putad’s engaging stage presence. In the proud spirit of her indigenous Amis heritage, Putad unites ancient vocal traditions with raw energy of grunge, rock and punk, as her and her brothers Wusang and Linken’s band Outlet Drift express. In the SIBS ensemble, she brings this energy, her soaring voice, rock bass along with her coastal Amis ancestry and love for the ocean! SIBS met Putad through an online project Global Music Match in 2020. She has since become one of the feature artists on the album ‘Our Island’ and its tours across four continents.

Sammy (Merina/Madagascar) Songwriter & Performer –  Sammy followed his passion for Madagascar’s musical heritage by mastering and learning how to make most of Madagascar’s instruments. His efforts came to the notice of the UK’s world music scene as his band ‘Tarika Sammy’ gained international recognition, becoming a regular on major festival stages and being acknowledged as one of the world’s “Best Ten Bands”, alongside U2, by TIME Magazine. SIBS met Sammy at his house during their inspiring field trips to Madagascar in 2016 & 2017. He’s featured in both albums and concert tours around the world since 2018.