YIPAP Artists Featured In International Festival of Arts and Ideas

June 23, 2020

On June 9th, the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven presented a panel on “Stories, Sovereignty, and Imagining Forward,” as part of their Ideas Series. The panel featured some of Native Theater’s brightest young minds and YIPAP’s beloved collaborators who discussed the future of Native Theater, their interdisciplinary arts practices, what sovereignty means to them in their work, and how they are thinking about indigenous furturisms. 

This online session provided an opportunity for an extended discuss from many current and former YIPAP members. Facilitated by YIPAP Executive Director Madeline Sayet, it featured an engaging dialogue between an acclaimed panel of Native Theater Artists, including: Mary Kathryn Nagle (Founding YIPAP Executive Director; Playwright of Manahattaat Yale Rep ‘20), Ty Defoe (Movement Director for Manahattaat Yale Rep ‘20; YIPAP Guest Actor ‘19), Asa Benally (Yale MFA ‘16), Kinsale Hueston (YIPAP Contest Winner ‘17, Yale ‘22), and Tara Moses (YIPAP Contest Winner ‘19, YIPAP Guest Director ‘20). 

Each reflected on their artistic practice, the need for decolonization, and the understanding that healthier alternative models for storytelling already exist within our communities. 

YIPAP has been truly lucky to collaborate with these artists over the years, as each is doing transformational work in the theater field, and the fight toward sovereignty on our stages. 

To learn more about the event or to watch a recording of the panel please visit this tremendous article from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven covering the event. 

See:

https://www.newhavenarts.org/arts-paper/articles/indigenous-theater-imagines-forward