TBA:17 LATE NIGHT

DEATH DANCE*

by Demian DinéYazhi’

Part song and dance, part IBQTPOC prom, but mostly dedicated to honoring the labor and intelligence of indigenous and brown punk energy that continues the fight against heteropatriachy, white supremacy, and settler colonialism. Join us as we honor the revolutionary spirit of activists, artists, and lovers whose lives were lost, whose lives are threatened, and those who are yet to come. This is as much a sweaty celebration as it is a ceremony. Albuquerque, New Mexico’s angry pop punk trio, Weedrat, and San Antonio’s riot grrrl chicano punk band, FEA, will provide live music along with local poetry that will help set the tone for the evening. Video projections, live printing, and punk/riot grrrl music will do the rest. Bring your beautiful body, and let’s collectively celebrate how far we’ve come as community while we smash heteropatriarchy to pieces.

*death dance is a term coined by Sara Siestreem during a conversation with Demian DinéYazhi’ as a response to the gross and shameful death of colonizers desperate to hold onto power and false security.

Demian DinéYazhi´ (born 1983) is a Portland-based Diné transdisciplinary artist born to the clans Naasht’ézhí Tábąąhá (Zuni Clan Water’s Edge) & Tódích’íí’nii (Bitter Water). Whether he is broaching topics adjacent to Decolonization, Survivance, & Queerness in written or visual language, Demian is caught in a narrative that is informed by romanticized notions of belonging & the alienation experienced through centuries of forced assimilation to White Supremacist Capitalist Heteropatriarchal Colonization. His practice is rooted in Radical Indigenous Queer Feminist ideology, landscape representation, memory formation, HIV/AIDS-related art & activism, poetry, and curatorial inquiry. He received his BFA in Intermedia Arts from Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2014. Demian is the founder & director of the artist/activist initiative, R.I.S.E.: Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment, which is dedicated to education, perseverance, & evolution of Indigenous art & culture, as well as co-director for the forthcoming zine, Locusts: A Post-Queer Nation Zine. DinéYazhi was an artist-in-residence at Institute of American Indian Arts (2016), and is a recipient of Crow’s Shadow 2017 Golden Spot Residency. He has received grants from Evergreen State College (2014, 2016), PICA – Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (2014, 2016), Art Matters Foundation (2015), and Potlatch Fund (2016).