Embodied Sovereignties: A Creative Salon

Forge Project is partnering with Hudson’s own space of respite, Lil’ Deb’s Oasis, for Embodied Sovereignties, an Indigenous creative salon. Hosted by Sarah Biscarra Dilley, Curator of Indigenous Programs and Community Engagement, the gathering will showcase Nicole Wallace, Dioganhdih, and Arielle Twist who will be sharing creative texts just emerging and well worn.

Come for the creative salon, stay for the dancing! Though not programmed by Forge, Lil’ Deb’s Oasis will be hosting Juice Kiss, highlighting sets by DJs Heavy Pleasure and Scotia from 9pm until ?

Please note that, as this event is happening outside of typical restaurant hours, the kitchen will be closed, but the bar will open for beverage orders of many kinds and a light snack spread will be provided by our generous hosts at Lil’ Deb’s Oasis. 

About the Participants

Nicole Wallace’s first chapbook, WAASAMOWIN, was published by IMP in 2019. They were a 2023 finalist for The James Welch Prize for Indigenous Writers, the June/July 2020 poetry micro-resident at Running Dog, and a 2019 Poets House Emerging Poets Fellow. Nicole is of mixed settler/European ancestry and is a second generation descendent of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe). Their second chapbook, anangoonsag, is forthcoming from auric press (Spring 2024). They currently live and make work on occupied Canarsee and Lenape territory (Brooklyn, NY) where they are the Deputy Director & Grants Manager at The Poetry Project.

Dioganhdih Hall, Mohawk of Akwesasne, is a two-spirit multi-disciplinary artist based in their traditional homelands in upstate NY. Their medium of expression weaves between ancestral food cultivation, community organizing, imaginative storytelling, hip hop lyricism, music production and sound composition. Their primary focus of their work is claiming space for native folks to re-indigenize and find movement and joy in the interconnected liberation of our bodies, spirit and land. Dioganhdih is currently working on a food sovereignty and seed saving project in the Hudson Valley called Iron Path farms (@ironpathfarms) while also working on finishing their third self produced and self released album.

Arielle Twist’s (b. 1994, George Gordon First Nation and Sipekne'katik First Nation, Cree) interdisciplinary practice blends poetics and visual modes of creation to explore the realities and legacy of Indigenous and Trans* life and grief. Exploring and experimenting through mediums such as textiles, painting, performance, literature and language, Twist is reconnecting with the legacy of Indigenous Trans matriarchy and womanhood.