Peri DeLorenzo (fiddle), Mark Dobbyn (guitar), and Erin Lobb Mason (upright bass) are Rhode Island based acoustic trio “The Whelks”, whose three-part singing is inspired by classic American harmony groups and whose approachability and goofiness are all their own. I’ve seen how their music fills a room with joy and nostalgia, all at once. They […]
Wanda Hopkins is a citizen of the Narragansett Indian Tribal Nation, mother of three adult children and grandmother of three. She has served in Tribal Government and has ministered at the Narragansett Indian Church for twenty-five years. She and her family participate in Indigenous cultural arts education, civic activism, and community service. Wanda is a […]
During Taquônk, Autumn, we reflect on the harvest of corn, beans, squash, and pumpkins while contemplating food sovereignty – the right to access healthy foods tied to culture and community. As a citizen of the Narragansett Nation, I emphasize the importance of having access to our homeland’s foods. Our ancestors thrived for thousands of years […]
The year is 1989, and I am perched on the floor of my grandparent’s parlor. Around the room, I am surrounded by an intergenerational assemblage of relatives and friends. A baby, the newest addition to the family, is passed from one adult to another, lovingly cooed over and adored by all. My gregarious grandmother, our […]
There are a lot of problems with being a Native American in Rhode Island. For one thing, there are buildings I can’t enter because my headdress keeps getting tangled up in ceiling fans. Okay, I don’t really wear a headdress, but maybe I should. That way, people would realize that I am a proud member […]
ince time immemorial, we have looked to the moon and turtle to aid in our telling of time and the seasons(1). Taqôk, or autumn, is one of the most important times of the year for Wôpanâak/Wampanoag people and our sister tribes across the Dawnland (New England). For some, taqôk marked the time of the most […]
EvErybody has a heartache — This silence in the noise of the terminal is a mountain of bison skulls. Nobody knows, nobody sees — Unless the indigenous are dancing powwow all decked out in flash and beauty We just don’t exist. We’ve been dispersed to an outlaw cowboy tale. What were they thinking with all those guns […]
The Westerly School Committee is rewriting its Transgender, Gender Diverse, and Transitioning Student Policy. It is the only municipality in Rhode Island actively working to weaken the RIDE (Rhode Island Department of Education) policy that has protected all public school students in the state for seven years without incident. For this reason, I watched the […]
Growing up in Rhode Island, I learned New England was always a bastion of freedom. This was especially true of Rhode Island, the initial English colony to protect the freedom of worship and the first American state to outlaw slavery. In history class, I was taught to believe that the problems that befell the nation […]
I worked for Flor all through my teenage years. She paid me well too, for the mundane errands, like delivering groceries, but also for the Santeria work that I had come to admire and respect; not for its sound reason or logic, but for its rejection of societal norms. The imagery and the lore behind […]