SparkNight: Celebrating Native American Heritage Month

This event begins at the Kirkpatrick Chapel located directly across the street from the Zimmerli. Following the performance, guests are invited back to the Zimmerli for a light reception and to explore the exhibition.

SparkNight is the free monthly art party at the museum inviting everyone to explore art, engage their creativity, and have fun!

Rescheduled to our November SparkNight celebrating Native American Heritage Month is Bently Spang's Tekcno Powwow Jr.²: To the Second Power, a special performance in conjunction with our current exhibition Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always.

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Tekcno Powwow Jr.²: To the Second Power is a multi-disciplinary performance artwork, a continuation of Tekcno Powwow Jr., a scaled-down version of the groundbreaking Tekcno Powwow performance series created by Northern Cheyenne artist Bently Spang.  The Tekcno Powwow series is a cultural mash-up that, since 2004, has brought together multiple dance forms including powwow and break dance and powwow drum and DJ to explore how cultures interact and influence each other in the realm of creative expression. Bently Spang, is an internationally known artist, curator, educator and writer who works in a multi-disciplinary format that includes video, performance, installation, drawing, and mixed-media sculpture.

EVENT PROGRAM

Doors open at 5:00 PM. Please arrive by 5:30 PM, when doors close. Performance concludes at 7:00 PM and is followed by a light reception across the street at the Zimmerli Art Museum.

EVENT PERFORMERS

• Bently Spang
• Spotted-Elk Collective Dance Company
  • Powwow Dancers: Katy Isennock, Chaske Hill
• Umami Playground
  • Street Dancers: Guangmin Shen, Kevin Chen, Roflow (Roni Flores), Wan Rong Tseng, Byron Cox
  • DJ: Debset (Deborah Jungin Kim)
• Brooklyn Jumbies
  • Drummers: Iyedun Ince, Sheldon Johnson, Christopher Johnson
  • Dancers: Carla Nisbett, Kamille King, Kcydiima Zahir

Bently Spang 2020 Promo still, on location doing a video shoot near the Tongue River on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southeastern Montana.

Bently Spang is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, curator, and educator. An enrolled member of the Tsitsistas/Suhtai Nation (a.k.a. Northern Cheyenne) in Montana. He works in a variety of media including video, mixed media sculpture, performance, photography, and installation. His work confronts and confounds the persistent, romantic, and inaccurate role crafted for Native peoples in the false narrative of "The West." His work has been exhibited and collected widely in North America, South America, and Europe.

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PARKING INFORMATION

Register for FREE special event parking permission in Lots 16, 26, 30 & College Avenue Deck. Click the button below. On the parking portal, click “Visitor” then enter required fields to complete registration. Once completed you will receive an email and/or text confirmation. If you have any problems registering, please send an email to dotshelp@rutgers.edu.

Parking Registration Portal

The Zimmerli’s operations, exhibitions, and programs are funded in part by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and income from the Avenir Endowment Fund and the Andrew W. Mellon Endowment Fund. Additional support comes from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the donors, members, and friends of the museum.

Generous support for bilingual text was provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.

Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. For information on events, go to MiddlesexCountyCulture.com