BRUSHING UP
LARISSA FASTHORSE
S
he grew up in South Dakota, but Larissa FastHorse’s career has taken her to Hollywood and the United Nations. With experience in dance, choreography and film production, FastHorse is now becoming well known as a playwright. In September and October, she served as artist-in-residence at the Black Hills Community Theatre in Rapid City. Several events based around FastHorse’s play Average Family highlighted the residency. The play centers around two families, one white and one Indigenous, who are challenged to survive in an 1840s frontier setting in order
to win a reality TV competition. In 2023, FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play will open on Broadway, making her the first female Native American playwright to ever appear there. The Thanksgiving Play is one of the top ten most produced plays in America. FastHorse has worked with Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Netflix and others, writing, directing and producing short films. In 2000 she was a delegate to the United Nations in Geneva, speaking on the impact cinema can have on Native peoples. She received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2020.
Jon D & Catherine T MacArthur Foundation
MACARTHUR FELLOW SERVES AS ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE
Larissa FastHorse served as artist-in-residence at the Black Hills Community Theater in September and October.
BLACK HILLS TOWNS JOIN WORLD FEST Small towns and international musicians from across the globe are working together through World Fest, a program of Arts Midwest. This fall Custer is hosting Ghanaian musician Okaidja Afroso and his ensemble for a weeklong residency, which will spread out to Hot Springs and the southern Black Hills. Ensemble members will spend the week sharing their music and culture through school workshops, masterclasses, and a public concert celebration at the end of the week. Okaidja Afroso strives to blend diverse expression in pursuit of global harmony. Storytelling with percussion and dance calls back to his upbringing in a village on the western coast of Ghana. 12 • South Dakota Arts Alive • ArtsCouncil.sd.gov
Other musicians participating during this World Fest cycle are Okra Playground, a folk music group from Finland, and Pamyua, Inuit soul musicians from Alaska. The Custer Area Arts Council and Chautauqua Artisans of the Black Hills are the hosting organizations for this three-year cycle of World Fest. Arts Midwest and the South Dakota Arts Council help sponsor the program. “We believe the creativity and community present in these smaller Midwestern communities make them a perfect place to host artists who work to foster appreciation and understanding of culture through music,” says Torrie Allen, President and CEO of Arts Midwest.