From Metal and Jazz to Hip Hop, there isn’t a type of music Native Americans don’t play. #k5evening

SAN ANTONIO – Artist Ray Scarborough is a lifelong Spurs fan and San Antonio native, and now his artwork will be showcased for the rest of Spurs nation to see.

Scarborough — who also goes by “Ray Tattooed Boy” on social media — created the illustration for the Spurs shirts that will be given to fans in attendance on opening night on Wednesday at the Frost Bank Center. His art reflects his love for his team and the city.

“This truly is a dream come true. I’ve always wanted to be an artist for the Spurs,” said Scarborough. “I’m born and raised in San Antonio, in love with all the San Antonio culture and the colors.”

Scarborough, 47, has been in the local art scene for years. His “Puro San Antonio Pop Art” has gained popularity for its connection to San Antonio neighborhoods, restaurants, businesses and staples like Whataburger and H-E-B.

“I keep it simple and have a lot of fun with it, especially with the pop art aspect. The city prints are probably my favorite ones because I like to showcase places that I grew up in, and it’s just fun to see other people react the same way,” said Scarborough. “I try to showcase the lesser-known areas but also the popular areas for us. It’s like tourist posters for the locals.”

The Spurs took notice of Ray’s work online and on social media. He worked on an illustration for a San Antonio FC match and then received a message he’ll never forget.

“The Spurs emailed me, and I thought it was a joke,” Scarborough said with a laugh. “They said, ‘We’re going to set up a meeting’ and reassured me it wasn’t a joke. They basically just said we want something for opening night, and we want it to be special.”

Scarborough originally came up with a Gregg Popovich and players-themed illustration. After discussions with the team, he decided to go another route and go back to his West Side roots.

“I showcased my old hood that I was from, Culebra Park on Ingram Road,” said Scarborough. “The taco stand that we used to go to and just put a lot of the elements that was from that neighborhood. It’s something everybody in San Antonio, I think, can relate to.”

Scarborough’s illustration also features the Spurs Coyote pushing a Paleta cart, fans honking after a big Spurs win, David Robinson’s old sneakers hanging from the telephone lines, and Pee-Wee Herman’s iconic bike. But it’s his nod to his late mother, Lala, that makes his design special.

“The best part of it was my mom’s name right there,” said Scarborough. “The reason why the Spurs are a great organization is because they allowed that to happen, and for an unknown artist like myself to draw their neighborhood and allow me to show my view of what a Spurs fan is.”

Like other Spurs fans, Scarborough is excited about the franchise’s future and honored to be a part of Spurs history with the start of Victor Wembanyama’s career.

“I was very honored that they got to let me do what I wanted to do as far as show my old neighborhood but also show elements of the Spurs family. It’s such an important day for us, for the city. It’s going to be a great day,” said Scarborough. “I hope I can relate to a lot of other people that see this, and I hope they like it.”

Click here for more information on Ray’s work.

Click here here for details on the Spurs’ opening night.

KEARNEY, Neb. (Press Release) – The Museum of Nebraska Art celebrates Native American Heritage Month with Oglala Lakota storyteller Jerome Kills Small. Mr. Kills Small tells children’s stories and animal stories that have been passed down for generations as part of the Lakota and Dakota Sioux traditions. Among the types of stories covered are iktomi (trickster tales) and ohunkanka (old legends).

Jerome Kills Small is an Oglala Lakota from Porcupine, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Reservation. A 1997 graduate of the University of South Dakota with an M.A. in Selected Studies, he retired after 20 years at USD. He taught Lakota Language, American Indian Thought, Siouan Tribal Culture, Early Native American History. He is featured in the book Wounded Warriors: A Time for Healing and has a story in the Silver Anniversary Anthology published by the South Dakota Humanities Council. Mr. Kills Small has parts in the videos: Sucker Punched, Nagi Kicopi (Calling Back the Spirit,) Lost Landscapes, and Bones of Contention: Repatriation and Reburial (BBC.) A storyteller for public schools, museums, and colleges, he translates, explains, and sings Lakota ceremonial, sweatlodge, powwow, rabbit, round dance, warrior, vision quest, and sundance songs. He sings with the Iron Wing Singers of Wagner, SD. He is a powwow organizer, announcer, and arena director, and he helps in conducting Lakota ceremonies. He portrayed Tecumseh, a Shawnee Chief and British General. He also portrayed Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman, the first Dakota Medical Doctor. Mr. Kills Small is on the Board of Directors for the Native American Advocacy Program.

Humanities Nebraska (HN) provides major funding for this program. HN receives support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Nebraska State Legislature, the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, and private donations. “Children Stories, Animal Stories and Traditional Lakota Stories” is one of approximately 300 programs offered through the Humanities Nebraska Speakers Bureau. The more than 165 available speakers include acclaimed scholars, writers, musicians, storytellers, and folklorists on topics ranging from pioneer heritage to ethics and law to international and multicultural issues, making it the largest humanities speakers bureau in the nation.

Copyright 2023 KSNB. All rights reserved.

Looking to the future of music: rising Indigenous artists to watch and listen to.

From pop country that would fit seamlessly into the radio machine to activist anthems and tribal hymnals, Indigenous artists have long been creating a vibrant soundtrack of their lives and tribes. And music’s the better and richer for it. Spanning the Sonoran Desert up to the farthest northern reaches of Turtle Island — also known as North America — Indigenous artists are making memorable country, Western, and roots music.

Vincent Neil Emerson

East Texas-based artist Vincent Neil Emerson (Choctaw, Apache) has always been vocal about his Indigenous roots in his music, something he delves into further than ever before on his forthcoming album The Golden Crystal Kingdom out November 10.

The first single, “Little Wolf’s Invincible Yellow Medicine Paint,” he tells the story of a medicine man who motivated warriors going to battle against white men by convincing them the yellow paint he covered them in would make them invisible to arrows, bullets, and any other weaponry. A music video released alongside the song features Native American bareback horse race champion Sharmaine Weed and was filmed in Wyoming near the Wind River Reservation, further leaning into the heritage he and his family often had to hide in his youth due to the racism they encountered.

Emerson will share more about his Choctaw and Apache roots and music during a panel at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles in November as part of its Native American Heritage Month programming.

Dakota Beavers

After making his acting debut as Taabe on Hulu’s Prey, Arizonan Dakota Beavers (Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo) is eyeing a return to music by launching his own solo music career. For years the artist lived in Nashville and worked part time at a TJ Maxx while trying to earn a big break with his songs and family band WesternBoy, but to no avail.

With the streaming success of Prey, Beavers is looking to have another go at it. During an interview last November with C&I’s Hunter Hauk, Beavers let it be known that he had a lot of original material that he hoped to record in between time on set filming.

With his deep country drawl, group harmonies, and pop-fueled hooks there’s a little something for everyone to like in Beavers’ sound, much like the acting that’s thrust him into the spotlight.

Desiree Dorion

Although she’s had numerous songs hit Canada’s Top 100 Country Charts in the past decade, Desiree Dorion (Opaskwayak Cree Nation) fully hits her stride on the recently released That’s How I Know. Through its eight songs she effectively crosses between emotional gut-wrenchers and light-hearted, comedic creations to make her most biographical recordings yet.

This includes confronting a family member addicted to alcohol on “Love You to Death” and “Sometimes I Drink,” a tongue-in-cheek co-write with Crystal Shawanda (Wiikwemkoong First Nation) that focuses on drinking to escape life’s problems. The latter is one of three singles from the project — along with “Your Last Name” and “Wouldn’t That Be Fun” — to reach the top spot on the Indigenous Music Countdown.

Kyle McKearney

After taking home Alternative Country Album of the Year honors at September’s Canadian Country Music Association Awards for A Traveler’s Lament, Calgary native Kyle McKearney (Métis Nation) has reinforced himself as one of the country’s top emerging independent country acts in recent years.

It’s a development that’s even caught McKearney by surprise after returning north following years in Nashville and gaining traction posting cover songs to YouTube at the height of the pandemic.

But is original songs — like Lydia Sutherland co-write “Mercy” and Don Amero (Cree, Métis Nation) collaboration “Devil Water” — have truly won fans over and earned him praise as an artist to keep an eye (and ear) on.

William Prince

He burst onto the Canadian country music scene in 2017, when his debut album, Earthly Days, earned him a JUNO Award, and now William Prince (Peguis First Nation) is building a name for himself stateside as well.

The Winnipeg-based artist was just nominated for Emerging Act of the Year at the 2023 Americana Honors & Awards held September 20 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. The recognition came on the heels of Stand in the Joy, Prince’s fourth full-length album. Released in April, it looks back on his Indigenous upbringing in search of a more universal human element as a way of healing long-held pain and bringing folks together.

Amanda Rheaume

Ottawa-based Amanda Rheaume (Métis Nation) is a trailblazer not just with her own songs but also with the platform she’s provided others.

The artist works with the National Indigenous Music Office, as the operations manager for the International Indigenous Music Summit. She’s also the co-founder of Ishkōdé Records, an independent women-owned label started in 2021 with fellow artist ShoShona Kish.

Rheaume’s latest record, The Spaces in Between, sees the songwriter mixing activist music with empowering ballads of self-discovery in what is her most dynamic work to date. On it she moves between ruminating on the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and others (“Death of the American Dream”) to opening up about her identity struggles as a white-presenting Indigenous woman (“Do About Her” and “All Sides of Me”), serving up equal parts stillness and fury and captivating listeners in the process.

Saltwater Hank

You’d be hard-pressed to find more authentic Indigenous music today than what’s coming from British Columbia native Saltwater Hank (Gitga’at, Ts’msyen). On his new album, G̱al’üünx Wil Lu Holtga Liimi, he sings almost entirely in the Indigenous Ts’msyen language Sm’algyax, flanked by fiddle, steel guitar, and drums in tunes that take the shape of everything from waltzes to Western swing and rockabilly ragers to tribal hymns.

Born Jeremy Pahl, Hank covers the topical and emotional gamut, singing out about police violence on the reservation (“Na Waaba Gwa̱soo”), picking salmonberries (“Liimi Maḵ’ooxs”), and barbecuing rabbits captured on a local college campus (“Dm Yootu Stukwliin”) on the sometimes perplexing, but always intoxicating, record.

Julian Taylor

Julian Taylor (West Indian, Mohawk) experienced major label success in the late ’90s and early 2000s with the rock band Staggered Crossing, and now the Toronto native is doing it all over again, this time under his own name.

Taylor is putting his songwriting front and center with new country- and folk-focused compositions that have brought new fans to his music and old fans back.

His breakthrough came with 2020’s The Ridge, an album that netted him Solo Artist of the Year at the 16th annual Canadian Folk Music Awards along with multiple JUNO Award nominations.

Now Taylor is looking to tie all of his musical chapters together with the 18-song compilation Anthology Vol. 1. Released October 20, it combines some of Taylor’s most popular hits from Staggered Crossing, the Julian Taylor Band, and his two solo records with three all-new tracks.

Jade Turner

She may not wield an instrument, but when you’ve got vocals as powerful as Jade Turner’s (Misipawistik Cree Nation) you don’t really need one.

The Manitoba-based artist immediately made waves with her 2017 debut North Country, earning the award for Best Country Album at the 2017 Indigenous Music Awards and Emerging Artist of the Year at the 2018 Manitoba Country Music Association Awards, thanks to songs like the self-assuring “Worth” and the soulful, hard-driving “Mr. Miserable.”

Her talent for penning a great song remains as polished as ever on her self-titled follow-up and ensuing singles like “Stay Wild Child” and “Deadweight” that illustrate how taking creative risks and staying true to yourself can pay off.

Raye Zaragoza

Los Angeles-based Raye Zaragoza (Pima, O’odham) has never shied away from politics, womanhood, or her Indigenous, Asian, and Latina heritage with her music.

One of her earliest singles, “In the River,” is a protest anthem against the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the 2020 album Woman in Color homes in on how her identity fits into the American landscape with songs like “Fight Like a Girl,” “Warrior,” and “Rebel Soul.”

While her latest album, Hold That Spirit, encapsulates a similar feeling, it’s far from all Zaragoza has been up to recently. She’s also been filling time between her own tour dates by going out on the road with Peter Pan: The Broadway Musical in the role of Tiger Lily.

Artist Amanda Rheaume – Photo courtesy of Jen Squires
Artist Saltwater Hank – Photo courtesy of J. Joshua Diltz
Artist Vincent Nail Emerson – Photo courtesy of Thomas Crabtree
Artist Desiree Dorion – Photo courtesy of Chantelle Dione

The 31st annual Art from the Streets show in Austin had over 100 unhoused artists selling their artwork.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) – An Evansville-based artist is preparing to have his art displayed at an international art festival.

This week, Fort Branch-native Andrew Cooper will ship out new work for display at Art Basel Miami, one of the largest and most exclusive art fairs in the world.

Cooper says this will be his third year participating, but he’s been invited to bring more work than ever before. Six of his new paintings will be on display.

He tells us it’s a great chance for him to get inspired by the other artists and to get his still life collection noticed.

That’s because lots of celebrities attend the fair to discover new artists.

“Thousands of people come around from the world, Kanye was there last year, Leonardo DiCaprio — like all of the names and they buy art. It’s a very exclusive event, and I’m really happy to be there,” he says.

Cooper has already shown his paintings in London and Switzerland, but all his work is made in his live-in studio on Evansville’s west side.

The exhibition runs December 8th to 10th.

Copyright 2023 WFIE. All rights reserved.

Located in Durham’s City Center District, the newly-opened Ella West Gallery lies inside an old brick warehouse. Within this gallery, the exhibition “Return to Parrish Street: A Dream Realized” showcases and honors Black artistic expression. 

This purpose lines up perfectly with the vision of Ella West Gallery founder Linda Shropshire, who wanted to create a fine art space that recognized and celebrated the diversity in the Durham community. Her dual passions for art and creating a space for Black artists is illuminated throughout the gallery, which features many works by North Carolina artists.

The gallery is located in what was once Durham’s “Black Wall Street,” the home to a variety of Black-owned businesses during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Once called the “mecca of the Black South,” this area suffered greatly from desegregation and Urban Renewal, a government initiative that resulted in the construction of Durham Freeway 147 through the heart of the district.

The building is also a part of “Black Wall Street’s” history, as it was once home to the printing presses of The Durham Reformer, a 1920s-era Black newspaper. By opening the gallery, Shropshire recognizes just how important it is to remember and take pride in what was “Black Wall Street.” 

“Return to Parrish Street: A Dream Revisited” is dedicated to Durham native and artist Ernie Barnes, displaying several of the late artist’s paintings that visually  show his life experiences from Durham to Los Angeles.

Upon first entering, the title of the gallery can be seen on the back wall, its black letters standing out against the wall’s white paint. Next to the title is “The Dream Keeper,” a poem by Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, and an explanation of why that poem was chosen.

The aforementioned poem and “A Dream Deferred”, another of Hughes’s poems, provide the inspiration for the exhibition title. The poems embody the “aspirational elements of dreams as goals.” Showcasing work by Clarence Heyward, Kennedi Carter and Ransom, the exhibit is meant to “traverse the terrain of dreams through portraits and photography that probe perception, identity, and vulnerability.”

On one side of the exhibit, Clarence Heyward’s works are displayed under “Painting His Truth.” In these works, Heyward portrays his subjects as “emissaries of lived truth in his exploration of identity and Blackness.” 

Overall, I believe the exhibit does a great job of recognizing the significance of Black art culture to Durham. The most rewarding part about this gallery is its focus on creating a space for marginalized communities. It’s not too often that you will find a gallery oriented in this way which sets it apart from the rest.

“A Return to Parrish Street: A Dream Revisited” opened on Aug. 19 and remained on view until Oct. 21.

Kerria Weaver
| Associate News Editor

Kerria Weaver is a second-year master’s student in the Graduate Liberal Studies program and an associate news editor of The Chronicle’s 119th volume.

Art on display took the form of light projections, physical sculptures and paintings and musical performances.

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – Abenaki artist Abena Songbird has always been proud of her heritage. But at the same time, she felt the celebration and representation of her culture as one of only four state-recognized native American groups was lacking. So, when she received a grant from Vermont Arts Council and the Public Arts Commission to paint an Abenaki-inspired mural at the Montpelier transit center she knew it was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.

“I created this gathering event to collimate and celebrate ‘d le musina’ we continue to live, the mural,” said Abena Songbird.

It took 5 years to get the project out of the planning stages, but now it’s finally complete. And on Saturday, people gathered to take in the sight. The mural is 17 feet tall and 27 feet wide with valuable symbols in Abenaki culture. Songbird says it represents all four seasons in Vermont. There were eight artists involved with painting the mural and they say it took eight days to complete

“When Abena first spoke with me about it, I was a little bit taken aback, I never done a project of this magnitude before. And so, we talked about it, I gave her some ideas then my ideas went down on paper then I designed some and then it came to fruition,” said Co-Art Director and Co-Designer Lucy Cannon-Neel.

“This experience has been amazing, it’s great to celebrate the hard work of a lot of us artists and also in the middle of Montpelier to have an Abenaki mural that people can feel pride and representation,” said Songbird.

Artist Erik Gillard described his time working on the mural as rewarding.

“It was really fun, it was totally an honor to help Abena get her vision painted up there, big and bold. Real collaborative work to just paint it together,” said Gillard.

Alburgh resident Sage Gould says it was an honor to be at the celebration.

“As long as the sun rises, the water flows, the grass is green — that’s what the Abenaki flag means and knowing that we’ll have this here, knowing that we’re going to have that still, as a reminder for people…We’re still here so that was pretty cool,” said Sag Gould.

The artists say they’re happy the work is getting to be displayed at such a public and high-traffic location. And hope it inspires people to appreciate and learn about the Abenaki culture.

“It feels really powerful to help uplift this Abenaki imagery and celebrate the indigenous people in this place of meeting at the bus station seem like a really nice place by people coming through,” said Gillard.

Copyright 2023 WCAX. All rights reserved.