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Stjukshon: An Indigenous Reading Series
w/Adrian L. Jawort, Cinnamon Spear, Luella N. Brien, & Pumpkin Vyne Singers

Friday, September 26
7 p.m.
$5 Suggested Donation

The word “Stjukshon” is one of the ways that the Northern Piman term for Tucson can be written. It translates to “Spring at the foot of a black mountain.” Curated by Blackfeet tribal member, Bill Wetzel, Stjukshon is a reading series that seeks to celebrate the work of indigenous writers and artists working in a variety of creative mediums.

Join us for a night of stories, literature, and music featuring visionary publisher and journalist, Adrian L. Jawort, talented prose writers Cinnamon Spear and Luella N. Brien, and the always entertaining southern drum group, Pumpkin Vyne. Materials from the artists will be available for purchase and signing after the event. Refreshments will be served.

Adrian L. Jawort, Northern Cheyenne, has been a journalist for some 12 very odd years. As well as writing for various indie newspapers, he’s written for several nationally distributed publications that include Cowboys & Indians and Native Peoples magazines, and is a continual correspondent and columnist for Indian Country Today Media Network. When not writing articles, he also works construction like Jesus and hones his craft in creating the art of fiction and poetry. He also has a dark fantasy novel under his belt, Moonrise Falling, and is the founder of Off the Pass Press LLC which aims to find unconventional beauty in literature off the beaten path. Some say he writes to heal a broken heart and the ink droplets on the page represent years of tears, but he claims that’s fanciful malarkey and it’s simply a gratifying soul cleansing exercise that makes him feel more alive. So they say.

Cinnamon Spear is a Northern Cheyenne woman, writer, and documentary filmmaker. She was raised in a large family on the reservation in Lame Deer, Montana. She earned her Bachelors and Masters degrees from Dartmouth College. Being the only student from Lame Deer High School to receive an Ivy League education, she regularly returns as a motivational speaker for the youth. Spear has contributed to The Journal, a Dartmouth publication, as well as A Cheyenne Voice, Native Sun News, LastRealIndians.com, and Native Max Magazine. As an artist, Cinnamon regularly beads, sews, paints- but wishes she knew quillwork. Writing is her sanctuary, her freedom, but also her duty. As she flew back and forth between poverty and privilege (both states existing on and off the reservation), Spear realized that her superexposed, bi-cultured hybrid state allowed her to teach the world about the Northern Cheyenne people, and likewise, to teach her people about the world.

Luella N. Brien, Apsáalooké (Crow), graduated from The University of Montana School of Journalism in 2006, where she was the first student editor and contributor for UM's trailblazing reznetnews.org. A 2002 graduate of the Freedom Forum’s American Indian Journalism Institute, Brien was also the president of the Native American Journalism Association's (NAJA) first student chapter, chartered in 2005. She's alumni of the prestigious Chips Quinn Scholars Program and the Associated Press’s Diverse Voices Program, both aimed at increasing minority presence in the newsroom. After working stints at the Ravalli Republic and The Billings Gazette, she now serves her community as a communication arts instructor at Little Big Horn College in Crow Agency. Brien lives with her three children, who have taught her there are infinite ways to view the world.

Pumpkin Vyne Singers are a southern style intertribal group of the northern and central plains. Their songs roots are from the Skidi Pawnee. Started by Elliot Gover and his sons in 2004, the members are Elliott, George, Wil, Aaron and Daniel Gover, Dwayne Pierce, David Yazzie, Lee Jackson, Casey Thornburg and Mike Spotted Wolf.