Electric Powwow: Westcoast Potlatch Edition Weekend

The Electric Powwow hit the west coast with A Tribe Called Red on February 25th, 2012 as part of the Talking Stick Festival.

The ever-famous Electric Powwow headed by the DJ trio A Tribe Called Red made its debut in Vancouver  as a part of a very musical weekend. With the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards in town, Beat Nation opening at the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Electric Powwow rolling through as part of the on-going Talking Stick Festival, the weekend of February 24th was an important time for Vancouver's Indigenous music and arts scene.

Friday the 24th marked the opening of the Beat Nation exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery with the Fuse event that brought over 2000 visitors to the gallery to check out the new exhibit as well as musical performances by Silver Jackson, Skeena Reece, Vancouver legendary B-boy and artist Nelson "Dedos" Garcia, Raymond Boisjoly, Jackson Two Bears, A Tribe Called Red, and myself Ostwelve.

After rocking the fourth floor venue with A Tribe Called Red, we made our way to the "Indigenous Afterdark" after party at W2 Media Cafe where an unofficial after party for the Fuse event and National Aboriginal Achievement Awards would be held.  Hosted by Ojibway comedian Ryan McMahon, the night consisted of performances by DJ Muk Luk, Lorenzo aka Leonard Sumner, JB The First Lady, Silver Jackson, myself Ostwelve, an ever-deadly performance by the Skookum Sound System and a surprise teaser set by A Tribe Called Red.

People danced the night away til the early hours in a packed venue with some of the most amazing natives around. (Yes...that was Gino Odjick ripping up the dancefloor!)

Saturday the 25th was another day of musical mayhem in Vancouver after some rest and preparation, we headed back to the W2 Media Cafe for Vancity's first taste of the Electric Powwow: Westcoast Potlatch Edition. This event was a part of the Talking Stick Festival and was geared to bring some of Turtle Island's best performers out.

The night started with DJ Muk Luk warming up the dance floor. First on the stage was Sto:lo hip-hop duo Rapsure Risin' followed by East Van's own Starmakerz bringing their deadliest tracks out to rock. Soundvibe Records and Vancouver legend Emotionz brought his best to the stage followed by our dearest friend Kinnie Starr whom I had the pleasure of backing up for her set. The night closed with an amazing set by Jackson Two Bears bringing his powerful video enhanced DJ set to the staged followed by a thumping set that closed the night by A Tribe Called Red.

After much planning and promoting, it was awesome to see these events come together and creating space for people to dance as hard as they did was an awesome sight to see. A huge thanks goes out to all the artists that participated and also to the people who came out to support. As well as the Talking Stick Festival, Fuse at the Vancouver Art Gallery and of course our beloved people at W2 Media Cafe for helping to make it all possible!

My voice is finally back to normal and my dancing feet are ready to rock!

Got any photos or comments about these events? Send them to ron@rpm.fm or leave your comments below.

The 11th Talking Stick Festival in Vancouver BC

The annual Talking Stick Festival is once again celebrating and showcasing Aboriginal artists across Vancouver from February 20-March 4th. Yes! Two weeks of live music, dance, theatre, powwow, workshops and more will be happening in venues citywide. Created by Full Circle: First Nations Performance, the festival is a unique showcase and forum for contemporary Indigenous artists to share their work. From fullcircleperformance.ca:

Since its inception, the festival has become a place to honour Aboriginal tradition in contemporary forms, the artistic wealth of the people, and the promise of their future in Canada. The festival is a smorgasbord of Aboriginal artistic expression including, but not limited to music, dance, and spoken word and provides a stage for emerging and established artists.

This year, the musical highlights of the festival include Native by Nature: The Aboriginal Music Project with Dave Larocque and Kinnie Starr on February 25th at VCC and, later that night, A Tribe Called Red's Electric Powwow which will be thumping at W2.

Spoken word artists will go head to head on February 22 at Cafe Deux Soleils in From Talking Stick to the Microphone Vol. 2 and Mohawk poet Janet Rogers is presenting on February 28th at the First Nation House of Learning, UBC.

There's also a number of compelling and potentially very useful workshops for artists being presented including How We Define Traditional & Contemporary Practice on February 27th and Grant Writing How-To on February 28th.

I could go on - there's events happening every day for two weeks! For a complete listing of all of the events, visit fullcircleperformance.ca and The 11th Annual Talking Stick Festival on Facebook.

See you there Vancouver!