Klee Jones Benally & Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara Bring “Art of Resistance” to Flagstaff’s Premiere ARTx Festival
Contact: Suzanne Thompson
Email: suzannethompson55@gmail.com
Kinłani (Flagstaff, Arizona) — Local Diné artist and anarchist Klee Jones Benally will be joining forces with legendary L.A.-based musician, poet and activist Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara for Flagstaff’s premiere ARTx festival. In a cross-cultural Indigenous, intergenerational collaboration of resistance art titled “Tzonteyōtl Na’ach’ąąh,” both artists will share the stage with Diné drag artist Lady Shug, Indigenous dancer, freestyler, and visual performance artist Sonni Pinto, and Danza Mexica Mexicayōtl. Tzonteyōtl translates to resistance in Nahuatl and Na’ach’ąąh translates to art in Diné (Navajo).
This dynamic performance will feature spoken word, drag, dance, music, and visual projections.
The performance is part of ARTx, a new festival providing “a regional and national platform for local artists, creatives, and thinkers. ARTx is an annual, accessible community opportunity to engage with the arts in an immersive and interactive way.” (www.artxideas.org)
The performance is part of Creative Flagstaff’s ARTx festival on Saturday, May 27, 2023 doors open at 6:30p.m., performance at 7:30p.m. at the Coconino Center for the Arts located at 2300 N Fort Valley Rd in Flagstaff.
The event is free but donations will be accepted at the door to benefit Northern Arizona Immigration Legal Services (www.immigration-naz.org) & Kinlani Mutual Aid (www.kinlanimutualaid.org/). Masks are required for health and safety for all.
This collaborative performance connecting Diné and Xican@ cultures offers an unraveling of histories through shared re-imaginings which will celebrate the art of Indigenous resistance against the gendered violence of colonialism.
“We live where the streets have no shame.” states Klee Jones Benally, “Where the most revered holy site of 13 Indigenous Nations is desecrated with treated sewage. Where unsheltered Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately arrested while facing freezing temperatures. Where the names of Indigenous women like Ariel Bryant, Nicole Joe, and Vanessa Lee are lost in-between brief news posts and labeled as missing, as murdered. This is occupied Kinłani, so-called Flagstaff, a ‘border town’ of many borders and buried histories. From forced migrations and border wall militarization, to assaults on bodily autonomy and transphobic attacks, how do we find harmony when the borders of colonial violence cross our lives every day?”
“My performance will not only address past and current toxic injustices and violence experienced by Indigenous peoples but will also reveal through spoken word and ritual theater their unique, elemental contributions and achievements in agriculture (corn, squash, beans, avocados, chocolate, etc.) the arts, architecture, and astronomy (Mayan and Aztec).” says Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara. “Knowledge of these struggles, contributions and achievements can possibly shift misperceptions and show the intrinsic, elemental value of Indigenous cultures and how their various contributions have continued to enrich this country and continent for thousands of years. Hopefully, a more transparent, equitable, educated, and humane society will emerge.”
Sonni states, “Recognizing Indigenous queerness is something I want to amplify by abolishing masculinity through my movement and connecting to the silence of reinforcing they are not alone through the struggle.”
Danza Mexica Mexicayotl offers an assertion of Indigenous solidarity, “In the spirit of the Zapatistas we quote Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano (formerly known as Marcos), ‘We are nothing if we walk alone. We are everything when we walk together In step with other dignified feet.’”
More info about the artists:
Los Angeles Xikano Native, musician, poet, performer, and author, Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara, is the subject of the 2021 Emmy-nominated episode “Con Safos” for the KCET/ PBS SoCal series, Artbound. The documentary also received two local and two national broadcast journalism awards which featured sixty years of his work as a “Chicano culture sculptor” in theater, spoken word, record production, and as a singer-songwriter-band leader.
Klee Jones Benally is a Diné musician, writer, artist, traditional dancer, filmmaker, & Indigenous anarchist. Klee is originally from Black Mesa and has worked nearly all of his life at the front lines in struggles to protect Indigenous sacred lands.
Lady Shug is a proud Indigenous queen, born of the Diné (Navajo) Nation, growing up in the four corners area in New Mexico. Lady Shug’s drag persona has been in the business of female impersonation for over 10+ years.
Sonni is an Indigenous dancer, freestyler, and visual performance artist. Arizona descendent for 40 years, grew up in dancing in Indigenous social Pow-Wow circuits, and street dance. Sonni is expressive in Hip-Hop and house movement, Culture, identity, and experimental social awareness.”
Danza Mexica Mexicayōtl
We are a Danza group that focuses on bringing awareness to injustices affecting Indigenous people and people around the world. We use our culture and traditions as a tool to bring awareness to such issues and allow our dances to “speak for us” to convey such messages to the public.
The performance is produced by Suzanne Thompson of the Arts and Cultural Bridge Foundation (www.artsculturalbridge.org). Thompson says, “Bringing Klee Jones Benally and Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara together to collaborate on bridging cultures and shared struggles, creating a stirring, multi-interdisciplinary performance art piece, exemplifies the Arts and Cultural Bridge Foundation’s mission, to build a deeper understanding and dialogue between people through the arts.”
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You can learn more about the ARTx festival by visiting www.artxideas.org.
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