Location: Harvard Divinity School, Campus Green

To conclude his year-long residency at the ArtLab, musician Frank Waln will create a participatory gathering of music and storytelling intended for healing and inspired by elements of Lakota culture. Native students and staff from Harvard will join Frank for this public gathering.

As part of We gather in the Spring to help in our healing / Waná Wétu Owíčhota Owášta, Frank Waln will premiere a new song that he has written to honor the complex and disturbing ways that his own family’s Lakota history is intertwined with the history of Harvard University, anthropological collections, and colonialism.

Frank Waln or Oyate Teca Obmani (“Walks with Young People”) is an award-winning Sicangu Lakota Hip Hop artist and music producer from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Frank uses his music to speak about social issues and injustices affecting the Native community and as a method for healing. 

A recipient of the Gates Millennium Scholarship, Frank attended Columbia College Chicago, where he received a BA in Audio Arts and Acoustics. His awards include three Native American Music Awards, the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development 2014 Native American 40 Under 40, the 2014 Chicago Mayor’s Award for Civic Engagement, and the 2016 3Arts Grant for Chicago Artists. Frank has been featured in Buzzfeed, The Fader, Playboy, Vibe, NPR, ESPN, and MTV’s Rebel Music Native America. He has written for various publications, including Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education, Society, and The Guardian. Frank travels the world telling his story through performance and doing workshops focusing on self-empowerment and expression of truth.

This public artwork has been commissioned by the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA) in collaboration with the Harvard University Native American Program (HUNAP). It is part of the university-wide initiative ArtsThursdays.

More about Frank Waln’s residency at Harvard.

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