4 NATIVE WOMEN

As part of the annual OK EARTH DAY CELEBRATION, we’re proud to present a song swap by several of Oklahoma’s finest singer-songwriters in both English and the artists’ Native tongue. All three Cherokee artists — MONICA TAYLOR, KALYN FAY and  KEN POMEROY contributed original songs to Anvdvnelisgi (Horton Records), a contemporary album with original songs performed in the Cherokee language. Chef NICO ALBERT WILLIAMS (who is also Cherokee AND a singer AND a contributor to the Anvdvnelisgi record), is widely known for her traditional, sustainable Native cuisine. She will  serve some complimentary samples at the event.

Red Dirt singer-songwriter MONICA TAYLOR grew up in the small farming community of Perkins, Oklahoma. The Cimarron river flows just a mile to the south, the sky is big and full of colors in the early morning, and during those last few minutes of the day. Her life was filled with rodeos, church, swimmin’ holes, baling hay, kids meeting each other on a dirt road to ride horses, picnics, and great country & western swing music on Monday nights. And these things  inform her music today. She released her first record, Cotton Shirt, in 2009. Her latest is 2023’s Trains, Rivers & Trails. She is also a member of the Cherokee Maidens, an all-women western swing group.

KEN POMEROY’s earthy sound resonates with fans who value raw talent and intimate connection. Many discovered the young Oklahoman’s folk-Americana through the Netflix series Reservation Dogs, in which Pomeroy’s gorgeous original, “Cicadas,” was featured in the best scene of the most intense episode of that groundbreaking series. Like the show, Pomeroy’s music is anchored in her Native American heritage. Last year, before she’d even turned 21, Pomeroy teamed with fellow Native artists Samantha Crain, Kalyn Fay and chef Nico Albert Williams for an evening of music and traditional Native cuisine at LowDown (this concert marks the second installment of that series). The three women swapped songs, several in their native tongues. Among Pomeroy’s contributions was “Galvladi” (Grey Skies), an original sung in the Cherokee language. She has lent her musical ability to projects by Wilderado, Kyle Nix of the Turnpike Troubadours, J.R. Carroll, and others. Pomeroy and her band will also play the mainstage at this year’s OK Earth Day Celebration on Guthrie Green on 4/20 (see schedule below).

KALYN FAY has loved and lost, walked the line between her upbringing and her Cherokee roots, traveled and come back home to Oklahoma, questioned her faith, and figured out how to process and express all that through her art. A butterscotch tenor voice carries candid, intimate, often confessional lyrics reflecting a measured sorrow and vulnerability; they know when to say thank you, goodbye, or nothing at all. As the Tulsa Voice so deftly wrote, Fay “sings, pleads, intones birdsong, laughs and wanders through a young woman’s faith and memory with a simple wisdom.”

NICO ALBERT WILLIAMS, the Executive Chef of Burning Cedar Sovereign Wellness, began her culinary education in her mother’s California garden and kitchen, preparing family meals. After relocating to Northeastern Oklahoma, the post-removal homeland of her mother’s people, she embraced the opportunity to re-establish a relationship with her Cherokee community, first and foremost through the language of food. Her journey to learn traditional Cherokee ways, dishes, and the wild and cultivated ingredients involved in their preparation, expanded into an embrace of Indigenous cuisines from many tribes, and to activism in Indigenous food revitalization and food sovereignty movements. Her work centers on the revitalization of ancestral Indigenous foodways to promote healing and wellness in the Native community. Her efforts to steadily expand her knowledge of traditional ingredients and techniques continue through research and collaboration with Indigenous chefs and traditionalists from all Nations. Nico is the recipient of the 2021 Greater Tulsa Indian Affairs Commission Dream Keeper’s Award for Leadership in Business, and the 2022 Cherokee Nation Phoenix Seven Feathers Award for Culture. Her work has been featured on Food Network Magazine, USA Today, Hulu, BBC, Cherokee Nation’s OsiyoTV, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Atlas Obscura, and PBS, among others.

2024 OK EARTH DAY CELEBRATION SCHEDULE

Thursday, April 18, TICKETED @ LowDown Jazz Club (108 N. Detroit Ave., Tulsa)
7:00-8:00 – Sustainable/organic wine tasting is Sold Out.
8:30-10:00 (doors open @ 8PM)– Indigenous artists swapping songs in their Native tongues. Featuring Cherokee artists KEN POMEROY, KALYN FAY & MONICA TAYLOR. With traditional, sustainable Native cuisine samples by Chef NICO ALBERT WILLIAMS of Burning Cedar Sovereign Wellness. GET TICKETS (concert only)

Friday, April 19 – TICKETED @ Tulsa Farm Lab (330 W. 41st St. N., Tulsa)
6:30-8:30 – Farm-to-fire locally sourced dinner. GET TICKETS

Saturday, April 20 – FREE @ Guthrie Green (111 E. Reconciliation Way, Tulsa)
ALL DAY  – Community, educational & crafts booths, Electric Vehicle displays, kids & family arts activities, face painting, INSPYRAL CIRCUS, free Native cuisine samples all day by Burning Cedar Sovereign Wellness, live environmental art.
3:00-4:00 – BRING THE KIDS! DRUM CIRCLE land acknowledgement, Children’s Museum Discovery Lab, kids arts & crafts, Tulsa Public Seed Library, face painting, chalk art, circus fun & more.
4:00-5:00 – Speaker: Chef NICO ALBERT WILLIAMS (Cherokee) of Burning Cedar Sovereign Wellness on sustainable, traditional Native-based foods. Music by WHEAT PENNY.
5:00-6:00 -Speakers: OK Sierra Club Director KARA JOY McKEE on renewables & REVEREND GERALD DAVIS on climate change & environmental justice in Oklahoma. Music by MOTHER EARTH STRING BAND.
6:00-7:00 – Speaker: Environmental journalist MOLLY BULLOCK on Arkansas River issues. Music by KEN POMEROY BAND (Cherokee).
7:00-8:30 – Speaker: Activist-actor CASEY CAMP HORINEK (Ponca) on rights of nature. Music by RED DIRT RANGERS.

Sunday, April 21 – FREE @ Circle Cinema (10 S. Lewis Ave., Tulsa)
1:30-2:00 – Music & refreshments, beer & wine bar, and music.
2:00-5:00 – Meet Me at the Creek (acclaimed OK-based documentary short) & Dark Waters (feature film on corporate pollution starring Mark Ruffalo). Meet Me at the Creekdirector Loren Waters will say a few words. Films are followed by panel on OK water issues moderated by hydrologist Bert Fisher, with clean water advocates Rebecca Jim(featured in Meet Me at the Creek) and Pam Kingfisher, investigative journalist Molly Bullock & engineer Charlie Pratt.

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OK EARTH COALITION is comprised of many OK environmental & cultural organizations, including Green Country Sierra Club, Carrie Dickerson Foundation, Tulsa Area Arkansas River Advocates & OK Roots Music.

BIG THANKS TO THESE SUPPORTERS – George Kaiser Family Foundation, OK Sierra Club, Public Radio Tulsa, Tulsa People, LowDown, Guthrie Green, and Chimera.