Complimentary One Day Festival
indoors & outdoors at 7 Stages!
In the stillness of history, certain dark experiences have been ignored for the ease of moving forward. We let these stories float by and end up building our future around them. Eventually, it will all come back to us, and we must choose to either illuminate all of our past or stay in the stagnation of our silence.
7 Stages honors the work of US Poet Laureate and Mvskoke (Muscogee Creek Nation) Artist, Joy Harjo. Her collection of poetry, An American Sunrise, prompted vital conversations and fierce artistic responses. We continue to ask:
If you could listen to the past, how would you design tomorrow’s sunrise?
What we speak always returns…”
-Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise
Details
We invite you to our Human Sunrise Festival on May 28th, from 3 – 7 PM in our lobby and outdoors. An eclectic range of artistic responses to Harjo’s journey encourages audiences and L5P visitors to honor the Muscogee and Creek people and their land. As we shed light on colonialism and complacency, we celebrate all of our ancestors and commit to future generations through art making and story sharing.
An immersive installation explores the four classical elements and our stories’ relationships to them. Visual art created by our students, teaching artists, community members, as well as local, national and international artistic associates decorates our gallery. Spoken word poetry, music, dance, aerial performances, and a screening of selected films create a flurry of activity, engagement and connection throughout the event.
Join us for an artburst of sunrise and possibility!
History
On May 28, 1830, President Andrew Jackson unlawfully signed the Indian Removal Act to force move southeastern peoples from our homelands to the West. We were rounded up with what we could carry. We were forced to leave behind houses, printing presses, stores, cattle, schools, pianos, ceremonial grounds, tribal towns, churches. We witnessed immigrants walking into our homes with their guns, Bibles, household goods and families, taking what had been ours, as we were surrounded by soldiers and driven away like livestock at gunpoint. There were many trails of tears of tribal nations all over North America of indigenous peoples who were forcibly removed from their homelands by government forces. The indigenous peoples who are making their way up from the southern hemisphere are a continuation of the Trail of Tears.
May we all find the way home.”
-Excerpt from the introduction to An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo
Community Resources
New Georgia Project will be with us providing voter resources. New Georgia Project is a non-partisan effort to register and civically engage Georgians.
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Click here to reserve a time for your donation!
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The Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition will provide health screenings and resources. AHRC is a community-based wellness organization committed to promoting health and dignity by reducing the impact of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, STI, and Substance Use within vulnerable communities.
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