The Cheyenne River Youth Project® has announced that its signature RedCan gift items are now available for purchase online through its website at lakotayouth.org; from the home page, simply click “RedCan” and then “Shop.” All proceeds from RedCan gift purchases will benefit the nonprofit youth organization’s programming and services.
Gift items include RedCan 2017 T-shirts, posters, coffee mugs, and special edition whole bean and ground coffee. All feature this year’s RedCan logo, created by acclaimed Kansas City, Missouri-based artist Scribe, who is returning to Cheyenne River this year for his second RedCan experience.
Scribe is well-known for his animated public murals and gallery shows throughout the United States as well as in Canada and Mexico. His playful and often humorous work features a menagerie of animal characters that he has developed over many years. Scribe currently serves as art director for Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, and he is the author of a chapter book for kids ages 8-13 titled “The Scribble Squad.”
RedCan, Indian Country’s invitational graffiti jam and eagerly anticipated arts and culture festival, is just around the corner. It’s scheduled for June 29-July 1 in Eagle Butte, South Dakota.
Thirteen headline artists from eight states and Switzerland will be painting in CRYP’s groundbreaking Waniyetu Wowapi (Winter Count) Art Park, as well as at carefully selected sites around the city of Eagle Butte. More than half have indigenous heritage, including Taino, Hawaiian, O’odham, Yacqui, Cherokee and Lakota.
“Now in its third year, RedCan has become so much more than a graffiti jam,” says Julie Garreau, CRYP’s executive director. “It’s a cultural exchange and a valuable growth opportunity for our young people. Our visiting artists will be painting alongside our local native artists, attending our teen art interns’ exhibition as honored guests, leading youth art workshops, and giving our kids a chance to paint alongside their heroes. Each year, we are profoundly changed by what happens here.”
Featured artists this year are Estria from Hawaii; East from Denver; Serval from Switzerland; Scribe from Kansas City, Missouri; Kazilla and ER from Miami; Cyfi, Wundr and Biafra Inc. from Minnesota’s Twin Cities; Scape Martinez from San Francisco; Dwayno Insano from Tucson, Arizona; and Siamese and Rehst from Rapid City.
Also on deck: Lakota cultural exhibitions and drum groups, Rolling Rez Arts classes for 10- to 18-year-olds, youth art classes for 4- to 10-year-olds, a special edition of CRYP’s Leading Lady Farmers Market, a community Glow/Color Run, and the RedCan concert. Scheduled for 7-10 p.m. on Saturday in the Waniyetu Wowapi Art Park, the concert will include performances from Anishinaabe and Oneida hip-hop artist TallPall as well as from the Lakota hip-hop artists of Dakota South Records.
“It’s free,” Garreau said. “We’re inviting community members and guests to bring their own chairs and join us for an evening celebration of music and art!”
RedCan remains Indian Country’s first and only graffiti jam, and it’s the main annual event for CRYP’s Waniyetu Wowapi Lakota Arts Institute. RedCan gives Cheyenne River’s young people, and the community at large, an unparalleled opportunity to experience the contemporary graffiti art movement, learn about different techniques and styles, paint alongside master artists, and explore their own unique voices and identities as they share their stories through the visual arts.
The public is welcome to attend RedCan. Lodging is available at area motels; since rooms do tend to book out quickly, CRYP is offering camping for up to 50 people at its East Lincoln Street campus.
Staging such a significant event is a monumental task. and in these final weeks prior to RedCan’s official opening, CRYP is seeking to raise $10,000 for paint, art supplies, youth programs supplies, food and beverages, and to help cover the artists’ travel expenses. To make a tax-deductible contribution to CRYP’s RedCan fundraiser, please click “Donate Now,” and include the note “RedCan 2017.”
For information about this year’s RedCan, please click “RedCan” in the navigation bar; here, you can view the teaser trailer for RedCan 2017, documentaries from the first two annual events, and more. CRYP also is sharing more information about planned activities and performances through its website and through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram—hashtag #RedCanRising.
The Cheyenne River Youth Project, founded in 1988, is a grassroots, not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing the youth of the Cheyenne River reservation with access to a vibrant and secure future through a wide variety of culturally sensitive and enduring programs, projects and facilities that ensure strong, self-sufficient families and communities.