Tens of thousands of people representing hundreds of tribes are expected to celebrate the fortieth Gathering of Nations. The three-day event kicks off Thursday evening for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began.The Miss Indian World pageant will take place Thursday evening, featuring 27 contestants. The more than two dozen women competing come from Canada and across the United States.The next Miss Indian World will spend the next year traveling globally to promote cultural awareness and diversity, along with the Gathering of Nation’s Pow Pow. The Thursday competition will see the winner crowned on Saturday at the Gathering of Nations pow-wow.The annual pow-wow, takes place at Tingley Coliseum in Expo New Mexico, is known to be the largest in the nation and Canada.More than 3,000 singers and dancers are expected to compete across several competitions. There will be more than 800 Native artists and traders displaying art and making some available for purchase.The four-decade celebration will see the return of its stage 49; a music stage that will play music on Friday and Saturday. The stage is setting the day theme for both pow-wow gatherings.The parking lot and ticket gates open each day at 9 a.m. Here’s how you can see the Gathering of Nations for yourself and others.Ticket informationEveryone over 2 years old must have a ticket to attend eventsMiss Indian World pageant tickets will be available to purchase at gate 8 of Expo New Mexico from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. ThursdayTickets for the traditional presentations show for Miss Indian World will be on sale from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Albuquerque Convention CenterSaturday and Sunday event tickets can be purchased from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. at gate 8 of Expo New MexicoPow-wow tickets will only be available for box office purchase Friday and SaturdayEvent scheduleThursday: The Miss Indian World presentations will begin at 7 p.m. inside the Kiva Auditorium at the Albuquerque Convention CenterFriday and Saturday: Pre-pow-wow presentations will start at 10 a.m. and end 15 minutes before the noon start time for the Gathering of Nations pow-wow at Tingley ColiseumStage 49 will provide an all-day theme for the two pow-wow days; Friday will be ‘Rocking the Blues’ and Saturday’s theme is ‘Funky Reggae’The pow-wows will conclude with a singing and dancing competition Parking For Thursday parking at the Albuquerque Convention Center, primary parking will be at the convention center garage located at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Broadway.Other parking spots Thursday will be available at the civic plaza garage on Marquette and 3rd Street. Parking at Expo New Mexico for the two days of pow-wow gatherings will be at gates 7 and 8 with handicap parking available.Parking fees will be charged for all three-day event locations.

Each month in 2023, we’re asking a local artist to recreate one of our iconic covers from the past 75 years. For April, we tapped Golden Hill–based muralist and illustrator Celeste Byers to reimagine a 1949 cover. You can see her recreation here and learn more about her in the Q&A below:

Tell us how you found your distinct art style and how you honed your skills.

I came up with the style for my Mating Games comic (the style in which I re-created the San Diego Magazine cover) in 2017 after traveling for a mural gig and having a fling with this guy who ended up having a girlfriend. I wanted to make art about the experience but didn’t want anyone to know it was me, so Mating Games was born. I imagined my encounter with him playing out step-by-step in this simplified style of drawing that was completely different from the detailed organic work I usually made.

It’s meant to be funny and lighthearted ,and eventually I just let people know I was the one who made it. My murals and other illustration styles are more time-consuming and are more of a result of how I naturally draw and paint than any conscious decision to create a style. I like that I have all these different styles to express different aspects of myself.

What artists do you admire or look up to?

Within the past year I’ve really been admiring Sasha Gordon. She’s half-white and half-Asian, like me, but is only 24 years old and painting these amazing self-portraits about her identity. I’d highly recommend looking up her work and seeing it in person if you have a chance. I saw her Mood Ring painting last year at Jeffrey Deitch gallery in Los Angeles and it blew my mind how powerful it felt and how well it was executed. I kept coming back to it. The painting is 60 fett by 72 feet of her giant face with this rainbow opal texture that is really, indescribably incredible.

How do you think your art reflects the southern California lifestyle?

Living in San Diego has given me the opportunity to paint outside year round. In other parts of the country and world, there is mural season—but here in San Diego, unless it’s raining, it’s pretty much always mural season. I tend to reflect my surroundings in my art so when I’m here I end up painting San Diego’s local people and native wildlife, and even when I’m not here I’ve been so saturated in beachside living that it’s given me this preference for vibrant, sunny-day colors and I end up making work that’s within this very southern California palette that feels like my natural habitat.

What are some of the brands you have enjoyed working with the most and why?

The brands I’ve enjoyed working with most are the ones that were a part of my life to begin with, like Pacifico Beer (which, to this day, is one of my dad’s favorites and was therefore always in our house growing up), Sephora and REI (because I’d been going to both since high school), WarnerBros, NBA on TNT, LG, Amazon, American Express, and NBC … They are household names. Plus, Lyft, Facebook, and Airbnb because I use them all to this day, and the New York Times because it’s a great publication.

Beyond working with brands, I enjoy feeling like my art has had a greater impact on society, which happens when I work with organizations like Amplifier Foundation, [for whom I’ve made] a variety of artworks concerning social justice and environmental justice issues, most notably my We Are American poster that depicts a culturally diverse array of activists from our country’s history marching in unity under the American flag. Working with Amplifier gave me a platform to actively engage in our country’s contemporary history and to create a compelling image that was shared by hundreds, if not thousands, of people on social media—including actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus, pop-star Camila Cabello, and the supermodel Iman—in the days leading up to the 2020 election.

Other notable organizations are PangeaSeed and their SeaWalls: Murals for Oceans project (which enabled me to paint murals in four countries to raise awareness about ocean conservation issues with some of the world’s best street artists), SODO Track and Forest for the Trees mural festivals in the Pacific Northwest, and Proyecto Panorama in Cancun, Mexico, where I painted a four-story high Native Mayan great-grandmother with Aaron Glasson on the apartment building where three generations of her family lived. It was also fulfilling to paint my three-story California Immigrants mural on Oxnard City Hall because at the unveiling I could tell that my work really meant something to the community I painted it for.

What do you have on the horizon?

I’m traveling to the Big Island of Hawaii next month to do an artist residency with Temple Children, where I’ll be collaborating with artists Emily Devers (Australia) and Kristie Fujiyama Kosmides (Hawaii) to paint a mural for Keakaha One Youth Development program, [which] helps Native Hawaiian … youth ages 8 through 18 in the Hilo community. After that I’ll be painting a mural for an apartment building in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and will be coming back to San Diego this summer to paint two new murals at the RaDD IQHD campus downtown. I’ll be painting an exterior mural for the new Starbucks in Oceanside in September. Within my personal painting practice, I’m working on a series of paintings about identity issues from an Asian-American female perspective, with hopes to expand my artistic practice from illustration and murals into gallery and museum spaces.

Where do you like to go to get away and relax? 

Sometimes I don’t have to go far to relax. Just laying in the sun and limiting my time on social media can do wonders for making me feel like there’s more time in the world. I love hiking and spending time outside or anywhere with a big window or a view so I can at least admire the outside. The last relaxing vacation I went on was Tahoe last summer where I hung out at the lake, floated down the river, and biked through the lakeside forest paths. So perfect. 

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Two Indigenous artists visited Columbia in events that were part of Columbia’s new series “Listening to Indigenous Voices,” hosted by the English and Creative Writing Department.

New York Times best-selling author Terese Mailhot read from her memoir, “Heart Berries,” and signed copies on Thursday, April 20, at the Student Center. On Friday, April 21, multimedia visual artist Debra Yepa-Pappan spoke about her work with the Field Museum to create Native American exhibits that accurately portrayed the culture.

The goal of the events is to increase the “air time” of Native American people in the school, said Jeanne Petrolle, acting chair of the English and Creative Writing department.

“We simply don’t study history enough from a Native American perspective,” Petrolle said. “In order to understand history truthfully, we need the perspectives of Indigenous writers and artists so we can understand our actual history and where we actually live.”

Carolina Ayala, a senior creative writing major, helped secure the grants to fund the events. They gave an introductory speech for Mailhot and said their work inspired them.

“I was hungry for lives that looked like mine; starving for words that felt familiar,” Ayala said.

As an Indigenous Mexican, Ayala wanted to start an Indigenous students group on-campus before they graduated this spring. They hope to connect with Indigenous professor Luanne Redeye to organize the group after Ayala graduates.

After reading two excerpts from her memoir, Mailhot answered audience questions. She discussed her writing process and how she gained the confidence to share her work under the pressure of being in a predominately white institution.

“Sometimes you’re truly magnificent and people don’t want to witness it, especially Native women,” Mailhot said. “When we have talent, it is threatening because we talk about land back; we talk about murdered and missing Indigenous women; we talk about disparity.”

Yepa-Pappan spoke to Columbia students about confronting stereotypes of Indigenous people through art. Chicago’s Field Museum had an exhibit displayed for over 50 years that did not accurately portray Native Americans.

Yepa-Pappan said she was embarrassed by the museum’s exhibit but then found herself helping them renovate the Native American hall.

“I kicked in the door to get into the museum so that I could hold that door open for other Native people to come in,” Yepa-Pappan said. “They have a lot of our things there in the museum and we need access to that. Those are our relatives. Those are our ancestors and we need to connect with them.”

Her non-profit Center for Native Futures is an art gallery that will feature Native artists and host programs. The center is set to open this fall in the Marquette building downtown.

“We want to provide a home for those Native students that come to Columbia or the School of the Art Institute,” Yepa-Pappan said. “There are always a few, but they are always there.”

The first event, held on March 17, featured Indigenous advocate Meranda Roberts. The event series was funded by grants obtained by Columbia’s offices of Academic Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Student Diversity and Inclusion.

More programming highlighting Indigenous voices is being planned for next year, Petrolle said. A “super special guest” is in the works, but the school is waiting on the grant to lock that in.

Ayala said the goal of creating an Indigenous group and events is to acknowledge the European influence that is upon the school, from the roots of English departments to the name Columbia being named after Christopher Columbus.

“It’s important that not only do we talk about these things, but that it’s someone like me that’s talking about these things,” Ayala said.

Ayala said they want the Indigenous student group to participate in Columbia’s student council, networking and community events.

“It will become so much easier to continuously remind students that you are in Chicago — this is the land you’re on, this is the air you’re breathing, this is where your art is being created,” Ayala said.

Janvika Shah has been creating art since she was a toddler drawing on walls. Her art career began in art classes in grade school, which sparked a longtime interest in visual art.

“Art has always been a hobby of mine and something that I’ve dedicated time to,” Shah said.

She said she has explored many mediums, but that she enjoys illustration most of all because of the detail she can add.

To celebrate Women’s History Month, Chapel Hill Community Arts & Culture selected Shah to create a piece of art for a bus shelter on South Road on UNC’s campus. 

Shah said she wanted to create a piece of art that represents women’s empowerment rooted in equity. 

“So, I wanted to lift up some of the more marginalized identities that don’t really get shown in public spaces,” Shah said.

She said she designed each panel of her illustration to depict a different variety of women. The first panel represents softness, the second panel represents strength and the third panel represents resilience.

The last panel represents wisdom and intuition, she said, and included an Indigenous identity. Shah said that she wanted to acknowledge and pay homage to the original inhabitants and anyone with Native descendants. 

The end result was a high-resolution digital image that a printer could install on the bus shelter. Shah said she then created an Instagram post showcasing her work.

“I don’t really spend too much time promoting my art, but that received probably the most attention of any of my posts — highest engagement and just a resounding love from my community and friends,” Shah said.

Since 2018, Chapel Hill Community Arts & Culture has had a partnership with Chapel Hill Transit called Art + Transit. This year, the partnership has focused on themed works of art that highlight various initiatives within the community.

Melissa Bartoletta, the marketing and communications coordinator for Chapel Hill Community Arts & Culture, said she receives a lot of positive feedback from the community about the different works of art around town.

She also said artists have creative discretion in creating their pieces. She said Shah was given a brief about logistics and what the organization was looking for.

The Art + Transit program uses an open call system to recruit Triangle-based artists to design art each year. Shah was selected by the organization from a database of artists who have applied for their open calls over the years, Bartoletta said.

“We thought it could fit well on a bus shelter, and we also believe that her intention into the art that she creates would fit really well with this project,” Bartoletta said. 

She also said Shah was chosen because Chapel Hill Community Arts & Culture wanted to highlight a female artist who would uplift, empower and celebrate women.

Other Art + Transit shelters, art buses and ceiling vinyls focus on themes like civil rights, climate change and racial injustice.

Emily Powell, the community outreach manager for Chapel Hill Transit, said buses and bus shelters are a blank canvas for the community.

“The best thing about that is that we are a moving canvas, so not only do you have the people on the bus, but as the bus goes around town, it’s a great way to share art and bring it to people,” Powell said. 

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The Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota made history on March 18, 2023, when it opened the exhibition “Reclaiming Home: Contemporary Seminole Art.” History not only for itself, but all of Florida, as the first museum presentation of contemporary art by Native Americans with ancestral, historical, and present-day connections to the state.

The Ringling is the State Art Museum of Florida, built from the wealth and upon the collection of circus impresario John Ringling who began wintering his troupe of performers, animals and Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus support staff in Sarasota in 1927. Ringling was also one of the early 20th century’s most prolific art collectors.

The grandiose pink, Renaissance-style palace with 21 galleries enclosing a courtyard filled with copies of iconic sculptures–including Michelangelo’s David–first opened in 1930 and was bequeathed by Ringling to the people of Florida upon his death in 1936.

It houses work by Velazquez, El Greco, Van Dyck, Veronese, Tiepolo, Gainsborough and Rubens–the premier collection of European Old Master paintings in the Southeast. It houses exemplary Greek and Roman antiquities acquired by Ringling in 1928 from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It houses art objects from China, Japan and across Asia.

But until this spring, nothing of or from Florida’s indigenous people.

“Reclaiming Home” highlights the breadth and depth of the artwork by Seminole, Miccosukee, and mixed-heritage artists from Florida along with important pieces by internationally recognized artists of Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole descent from Oklahoma and beyond. Twelve artists contributed dozens of items ranging from paintings to patchwork, beadwork, bandolier bags and sashes, wood carvings, a large dugout canoe, ceramic sculptures, video presentations, multimedia pieces, ceramics, skateboard decks and a mural.

“I think this show was groundbreaking–not just in Florida–because it took (Native American art) to a level of fine art,” Jessica Osceola (Seminole; b. 1984) told Forbes.com. “Being in that kind of gallery, the setting, the curation, everything they did elevated our place in the fine arts community.”

The Ringling’s prestige, placing the work of these artists in its Modern and Contemporary galleries otherwise occupied by Josef Albers, Marcel Duchamp, Alexander Calder, Ellsworth Kelly and Robert Rauschenberg, makes a clear statement about the significance of the Native artists and their artwork.

Equals.

Importantly, the show also takes as its singular focus contemporary art. The Ringling is an art museum, not a history museum. The exhibition’s focus is art, not ethnography.

Even today, contemporary Native American art often shares institutional space with Native American artifacts, tethering Native American stories to the past. Subconsciously, the impact on audiences conjoins Indigenous people to history, instead of placing them firmly in the here and now.

“I hope (visitors to the exhibition) say, ‘these people not only exist’–because I get that a lot, ‘wow, you guys still exist?’ Yes, first of all–then, I hope they (see) how (we’re) living and working in present day, contributing to our story now,” Osceola said.

Reclaiming Home, Claiming the Museum

At 25-years-old, Corrine Zepeda (Seminole) is the second youngest artist with work in “Reclaiming Home.” Summer vacations in her family were spent at museums.

“We would go and sit in galleries for hours,” she told Forbes.com. “I always hated it as a kid. I was like, ‘why are we doing this? I’m bored. I don’t want to be here and take the guided tour and learn about all of the paintings.’”

She of course appreciates the lessons now, but back then, which wasn’t all that long ago, trips to the Museum of Modern Art or The Guggenheim in New York failed to interest Zepeda not only because she was confined by their walls, but also because of what was on their walls.

“You don’t see yourself on TV, you don’t see yourself in the movies, or in books, and it also carried over into art,” Zepeda said. “I never saw myself in any of the art.”

Zepeda’s heritage is mixed. Seminole and Mexican on her father’s side; German, Scottish and Welsh on her mother’s.

“I could see my mom in the images, she looks a lot like some of the paintings, but then I would look at my dad and myself and think, ‘I don’t see anybody who looks like me,’” she remembers. “For my little cousins to see my art on the wall (at Ringling) was a big deal because they know now it’s possible to do that; now you’re seeing yourself in these images.”

It’s difficult for white audiences in America to even imagine going into museum spaces and not being surrounded by paintings with people who look like them created by artists who look like them. The dominant white culture. Museums have always been complicit in establishing, promoting and continuing it.

Conversely, for racial minorities, going into a mainstream museum and seeing a single item depicting someone who looks like them can cause spontaneous outbursts of celebration.

In the Ringling’s nearly 100-year history, it had all of one object in its permanent collection created by a Native artist, and that artist had no connection to Florida. In addition to the exhibition, the museum has acquired a work by Osceola to add to its permanent collection.

“There’s two sides to that. We’ve set the standard, there’s a couple of different museums who have already reached out to a handful of us to ask us to also exhibit there, which is really great, but on the other hand, it’s 2023 and we’re just now starting to accept Native artists in these spaces,” Zepeda said. “We’re just now getting representation in museum spaces? It’s kind of alarming, but I’m glad that Ringling has made the effort and I hope other institutions will also do the same thing.”

Southeast, not Southwest

For Western art audiences and institutions, the presentation of contemporary Native American art as novel may seem strange. In Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Montana, there’s nothing groundbreaking about showing contemporary Native American art in a museum. It remains that way in the Southeast.

Indian removal, assimilation policies and Popular Culture have resulted in most Americans thinking “West” when they think about Native people. Headdresses and teepees. The Sioux and the Cheyenne. Horses and buffalo.

Largely forgotten are the Eastern Woodland tribes. Same as in the West, Indigenous people and communities covered every square inch of the eastern half of what is now called the United States.

This unconscious bias impacts the art world as well where “Indian art” is often assumed to only encompass traditionally Southwestern material–turquoise and silver jewelry, Pueblo pottery, Diné weavings.

“I was approached by a man at the opening at Ringling and he (said), ‘I love (the exhibition), have you ever considered going out to Santa Fe and setting up (at Indian) Market, and (I told him), respectfully, ‘no,’” Zepeda said. “He was like, ‘why?’ There is a very big (difference) between the two of us and I absolutely adore all of my Southwestern Native American friends and they love me, but our art and our cultures and the way we live our lives are two different ways, two different styles of existing.”

Go to Albuquerque and then go to Sarasota and you’ll understand what she means. Not only are Florida and New Mexico separated by 2,000 miles, but the climate, the soil, the topography, the sunlight, the vegetation, the animals, the–everything–is completely different. Florida is blue and green and humid with water on three sides. New Mexico is tan and clear and parched and mountainous.

Naturally, the Indigenous people in either place developed separate ways of life and cultural practices and artwork from one another. That nuance, Native Americans as diverse, not monolithic, remains lost to a large segment of Americans.

“Each one of us are unique so I kind of get mad, and I’m mad from myself and my tribe, but I’m also mad for my Southwest friends because I’m like, ‘listen, they’re a whole different people than us!’ We’re two completely different people,” Zepeda said.

That, too, is a benefit for exhibitions of Native American art in mainstream museum spaces. Education. Like it or not, every Native artist working today carries the burden of education and explanation along with their artmaking. Jackson Pollock was never expected to be an expert on American history when showing his paintings in the way audiences expect Indigenous artists to be tribal historians.

But that’s the reality.

“Reclaiming Home” can be seen at the Ringling Museum of Art through September 4, 2023. Every day, the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum of Seminole culture and history, located on the Big Cypress Indian Reservation, which assisted the Ringling in this presentation, welcomes the public to learn more about the tribe.

Throughout an acclaimed career spanning more than six decades, entertainer Harry Belafonte leveraged his passion and talents to champion the arts, spotlight humanitarian issues and advance justice. Born in 1927 Harlem, he moved to his mother’s native island, Jamaica. There, he embraced Caribbean culture and witnessed the impact of British colonization on the island. In his late teens, Belafonte served in the US Navy and later fell in love with performing. In 1946, he played the lead in “Days of Our Youth” at Harlem’s American Negro Theater. His understudy was Sidney Poitier.

Among Belafonte’s signature musical contributions was his 1956 version of “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” on his studio album, “Calypso.” The album sold more than 1 million copies. In 1960 Belafonte became the first African American to win an Emmy. He earned the honor for “Revlon Revue: Tonight with Belafonte.” Throughout his career, Belafonte was nominated for 11 Grammys and won 2. In 1985 he helped orchestrate the “We Are the World” supergroup single, raising awareness –and more than $50 million—for emergency famine relief in Africa.

Belafonte received many awards for his artistry and commitment to humanity across the globe including the National Medal of the Arts from US President Bill Clinton in 1994.

To honor Belafonte’s life and legacy Impact Your World presents ways you can support causes the singer and activist championed.

Fight for equity and justice

Belafonte was a close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and was a lifelong supporter of the civil rights movement.

Uplift humanity

Advance education

Art institutions are moving away from residency programs that support artists in seclusion, and toward those that engage with their communities.

“Scanning the Room,” an exhibition featuring 20 Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) artists, will run May 5-28, at Vashon Center for the Arts.

The show speaks to the identities, sentiments, and politics of the artists involved — and their perceived place as ‘the other’ in predominantly white space.

Artists included in the exhibit include Anida Yoeu Ali, Cheryll Leo-Gwin, Eliaichi Kimaro, Erin Shigaki, Hanako O’Leary, Jonathan Wakuda Fischer, June Sekiguchi, Lauren Iida, MalPina Chan, Marialina Wallace, Michelle Kumata, Miya Sukune, Nari Baker, Paula Onodera Wong, Saya Moriyasu, Soo Hong, Teruko Nimura, Thuy-Van Vu, Trenton Quiocho, and Yoshi Nakagawa.

The concept for the show was conceived by June Sekiguchi, who also served as co-curator. After being invited to co-curate a show at VCA for AANHPI month, Sekiguchi wanted to give substance and direction to the show, versus just putting AANHPI artists together without any other connection besides their heritage.

“My upbringing as one of the few Japanese or Asian families in Northwest Arkansas, during the civil rights movement, imprinted the fact that we were the ‘other,’ which has had a lasting effect on me to this day,” Sekiguchi said. “In speaking to other AANHPI artists, they immediately got my meaning about ‘Scanning the Room’ and I could see this was a strong curatorial direction to follow.”

To scan a room, according to Sekiguchi and others use the term, is an automatic response for many people in the AANHPI community to gauge the racial makeup of a space upon entering. The response could gauge physical safety, or simply represent observational awareness that is physically, emotionally, and psychically increased when navigating spaces that have a majority Caucasian racial makeup.

For Sekiguchi, the message is personal.

“I have always scanned the room everywhere I go, stemming from being a minority,” she said. “Within increased anti-Asian hate, I felt it was important to bring light to how we feel.”

The artists invited to show in the exhibition come from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, and their work reflects the diversity of the AANHPI experience.

AANHPI is an umbrella term for people who identify as Asian American, Pacific Islander, or multiracial, and descend from the countries and cultures of East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Native Hawaiians.

This term is often used as a form of resilience in the face of racism and discrimination. By embracing this term and their shared heritage, AANHPI people cultivate a sense of belonging and connection with one another.

Sekiguchi is a full-time artist in sculpture, installation, and public art. She is a curator producing events in Seattle and Tacoma for over 12 years and currently serves on the board of directors for the Asian Pacific Cultural Center in Tacoma.

What experiences or “takeaway” does Sekiguchi hope gallery-goers will have the upcoming exhibit at VCA?

“I hope visitors value the individual narratives of each artist, understand that we don’t want to be whitewashed with colorblindness, but rather, appreciate and celebrate unique cultures within the AANHPI communities,” she said.

“In light of the political environment of increased negativity of people of color, we need to celebrate, support, and advocate for minority voices,” she added.

The show runs May 5 to 28 during AANHPI Month in the United States.

Many artists will be in attendance for the exhibit’s opening reception, from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, May 5. Regular gallery hours are 12 to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday. For more information, visit gallery.vashoncenterforthearts.org.

Román Zaragoza got nervous when he read the character description before his audition for the sitcom “Ghosts.”

As an actor of Akimel O’otham and Mexican descent on his father’s side and Japanese and Taiwanese descent on his mother’s side, Zaragoza ’21 (Cinema and Television Arts – Film) doubted his prospects in television or film because of all the stereotypical Native American and Asian roles he found himself auditioning for — and there were so many ways the writing for this Native character could’ve gone wrong, too.

“I was like, ‘Oh no, it’s a show called ‘Ghosts,’ and it’s a character that’s Lenape and he’s from the 1500s,’” he recalled. “‘Oh, no, they’re gonna want me to have an accent and do some stereotypical thing.’ But then right below, it said, ‘Please use your normal accent.’”

That changed everything.

The more Zaragoza learned about the multi-dimensional character, Sasappis, and the show, the more excited he became.

He auditioned for the role and shot the pilot in late 2020, while in his last year at CSUN. The show was picked up in early 2021, and when he graduated, Zaragoza found himself starring on what has become one of the most popular sitcoms on TV, a hit with audiences and critics alike. “Ghosts,” which airs on CBS and can be streamed on Paramount+, was recently picked up for a third season.

For Zaragoza, who loved sitcoms such as “How I Met Your Mother,” “Friends” and “Parks and Recreation,” landing a starring role on a hit network comedy is a dream come true.

“It’s amazing, and then to be playing a character like Sass, it’s been a really beautiful experience,” Zaragoza said. “And seeing how the Native community has really supported him and the story, it’s really cool. I’m very, very grateful and constantly just pinching myself.”

CSUN’s film program in the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication intentionally makes space for voices that historically haven’t been fairly represented on TV and in films. The program is designed to give students experiences in a lot of industry roles, said Jared Rappaport, chair of CSUN’s Department of Cinema and Television Arts (CTVA).

“We pride ourselves on developing new talents, with new voices going out in the industry,” Rappaport said. “We look at ourselves as the CTVA family. So, when our students succeed in Hollywood — we have a lot of success stories — we’re very proud of what they’ve accomplished.”

Zaragoza is already using his voice to help ensure respectful representation in his projects, and he plans to continue telling stories in a variety of ways as his career unfolds. He has starred on stage and screen and successfully ventured into directing and producing.

“CSUN definitely gave me the tools and the space to tell my own stories,” he said.

A Three-Dimensional Ghost

Roman Zaragoza as Sasappis on “Ghosts.” Photo: Bertrand Calmeau/CBS

“Ghosts” stars Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar as a young couple who inherit a haunted estate that they turn into a bed-and-breakfast. Many of the people who died on the property are stuck there as a sort of purgatory — among others, Sasappis haunts the property alongside the ghosts of a Viking, a Prohibition-era singer, a hippie who tried to hug a bear, and a “finance bro” who died without pants on (and now spends eternity without them).

Sasappis — shortened to “Sass,” and that’s Zaragoza’s preferred spelling of the nickname — has a dry wit and a love for pizza. He’s a talented storyteller, a hopeless romantic and a bit of a troublemaker. After being stuck on the property for hundreds of years, he creates drama out of boredom, such as when he discovered one character’s secret crush on another and told everyone almost instantly.

While there’s much more progress to be made, Sass arrived at a moment when Native representation has increased in front of and behind the camera — Zaragoza cited the TV shows “Reservation Dogs” and “Rutherford Falls,” as well as the “Predator” movie prequel “Prey.”

The “Ghosts” showrunners invited Zaragoza’s input on the best ways to craft respectful representation on their show. At his suggestion, they hired a Lenape consultant, Joe Baker. A writer on staff, John Timothy, is Muskogee Creek.

In a season two episode, Sass wants to save an old tree on the property that has personal significance to him. The episode ends with a land acknowledgement, including a discussion about why they’re important.

“The show works because it’s not only funny, but it also makes you feel things,” Zaragoza said. “It’s so healing. There are so many messages and storylines where we dive into death and love and family and loss. I just love the messages.”

The land acknowledgement episode was particularly meaningful to Zaragoza, who was active in CSUN’s American Indian Student Association, took American Indian Studies classes, and attended the campus’ annual Powwow to celebrate American Indian communities of Los Angeles and greater Southern California. In 2020, following conversations between the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians and CSUN faculty and administrators, CSUN began publicly acknowledging the Sesevitam, the first people of this ancestral and unceded territory of Sesevenga, which is now occupied by the university, and the Sesevitam descendants who are citizens of the Tataviam Band. Students advocated for additional recognition efforts on campus.

After graduation, Zaragoza also hosted a video podcast for the American Indian Student Association, interviewing Indigenous artists such as writer Stephen Graham Jones, “Spirit Rangers” creator and showrunner Karissa Valencia, and his sister, recording artist Raye Zaragoza. (Román’s directing credits include some of her music videos.)

“I’m always excited to see the relationship between universities and Indigenous nations,” he said.

‘Your Voice Matters’

Román Zaragoza as Usnavi in a CSUN Department of Theatre production of “In the Heights.” Photo by Anneka Bunnag.

Zaragoza grew up in New York City, the son of actor Gregory Zaragoza and business professor Shirley Zaragoza. He moved to Los Angeles with his family at age 11 when his older sister, Danielle, got into UCLA. He thought he would follow in her footsteps, but he didn’t get into UCLA. CSUN accepted him, and it turned out to be a terrific fit — the CTVA program is highly regarded as one of the best in the country.

He arrived at CSUN in 2014 and took a screenwriting class his freshman year, and he set his mind to learning to direct as well. In spring 2017, he played the lead role of Usnavi in the Department of Theatre’s production of “In the Heights” at The Soraya.

“My freshman year I just really learned, ‘Your voice matters,’” he said. “I’m very grateful for the experiences I had there. It was definitely one of those parts of my life where I felt very lost, and then CSUN really helped me find what I wanted and where I wanted to go.”

Zaragoza also had honed his acting chops in high school. At 15, he joined Native Voices at the Autry, an equity theatre company at the Autry Museum of the American West that develops and produces works by Native artists. Zaragoza’s role in the Native Voices show “Off the Rails” led him to eventually taking a three-year break from CSUN, as the show was selected for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Return to CSUN

He returned to CSUN in August 2020, joining an unfamiliar cohort of classmates on Zoom.

He was one of three producers on the senior film project “This Is Their Land,” written and directed by classmate Michael O’Leary ’21 (Cinema and Television Arts – Film). The film is about the Modoc leader known as Captain Jack, and his tense peace negotiations with the U.S. Army in his ancestral homeland in Northern California and Southern Oregon, during the Modoc War of 1872-73.

Zaragoza filled a wide range of roles on the project, including helping to ensure a respectful telling of the story. He helped with casting, making connections with the descendants of the Modoc people depicted in the film, and finding a translator who could translate much of the script into the traditional Mukluk language.

Zaragoza also has a small role in the film. His father, who has starred on Broadway and appeared in many movies and TV shows — including “Yellowstone” and an episode of “Ghosts” in which he plays Sass’s father — also appears in the short film.

“This Is Their Land” has been screened at festivals and also will get its pandemic-delayed CSUN celebration, at the CTVA 31st Senior Film Showcase (2021 Redux) on May 3.

Zaragoza said he hopes to one day start a production company with friends he made at CSUN.

“There’s just really talented people that came out of that program,” Zaragoza said. “I’m very grateful for the program and all the friends I made from it.”

American Indian Student Association, American Indian Studies, American Indian Studies Program, Cinema and Television Arts, CSUN American Indian Studies, Department of Cinema and Television Arts, Featured