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The Carlisle Project: Artists in Conversation

February 18, 2023

Ronee Penoi (Laguna Pueblo/Cherokee) and collaborator Annalisa Dias, both of Flora Musicals, discuss the development of their new musical song cycle and their archival research process.

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The Carlisle Project, written by Ronee Penoi (music/lyrics) and Annalisa Dias (lyrics), unravels the complicated legacy and trauma of Indian boarding schools in an expressive song cycle. The project uses song, satire and ceremony to tell the harrowing history of the Carlisle Indian School and the brutal assimilation enforced under its motto, “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” In this musical song cycle, Indigenous descendants separated by time, place and experience grapple with the generational trauma and erasure that the Carlisle Indian School caused and explore what it means to be Native American now.  

In their lecture, Penoi and Dias discuss how The Carlisle Project is an act of decolonization and a restorying of our past, while offering a view of an Indigenous future. 

This event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Center on the Future of Native Peoples, Hubbard Hall Center for the Arts and Education (Cambridge, N.Y.) and Dickinson's Department of Theatre & Dance and Center for Civic Learning & Action.

Tickets are free, but reservations are required. Reserve tickets here.

For more information visit: https://www.clarkeforum.org/saturday-febru ary-18-2023/

Further information

  • Location: Mathers Theatre
  • Time: 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Calendar Icon
  • Cost: Free