Angels Studio, a creative agency that produces media and projects to promote racial harmony, announces a new American Indian story-project called SPIRIT & SURVIVAL.

The story is written and performed by professional storyteller and Lakota/Kiowa Apache Dovie Thomason. This hour-long story is set in early America and recalls the infamous “Boarding School History” of the time when many First Nation tribes in America were violated as their children were taken by white populations and put through horrendous re-education programs to become “white”. SPIRIT & SURVIVAL also recalls the heroism and inner-resources of the First Nations peoples at that time, and the tribal heroes of yesterday and today. In particular Dovie weaves a portrait of the heroine Red Bird at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.

Dovie Thomason tells heart-wrenching stories spiced with humor as she recalls the continuing modern chiding to American Indians to “get over it”. Far from “getting over it” SPIRIT & SURVIVAL weaves history and personal memoir in a way that raises current questions for the contemporary American culture : What does true reconciliation mean? How do we move from America’s “I’m sorry” industry to a stance of “What can we learn from this?” and “How do Indian issues affect me today?” Echoing through these personal and community stories is the adamant American Indian cry : “We’re still here.”

Dovie Thomason’s passion for sharing her Lakota and Kiowa Apache heritage through traditional and original stories began when she was ten years old and a teacher taught her history class that
“Indians are extinct.” The desire to give people a clearer understanding of the often misunderstood, often invisible cultures of the First Nations of North America has brought this former high school and college teacher to powwows and Indian Centers throughout North America to the stage of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in London as well as to castles in Belgium and cottages in Ireland. Her well crafted stories are “word-weavings” of personal memories, untold histories and ancient tales that speak profoundly across cultures and boundaries to the modern heart.

Dovie Thomason’s gifts of humor, enlivening imagination and “astonishing vocal transformations” (Penn State) helps her audience become “comfortable with discomfort” and the journey toward true respect and reconciliation. Dovie has performed at many regional and national storytelling gatherings and festivals across the U.S. She has been featured on NPR and Public Television networks, is the chair of The Viola White Water Foundation for Native Culture & Education and lives in Maryland. In October 2004 Dovie performed for the Northbrook, IL Public Schools systems and helped lead a COR (Catholic Schools Opposing Racism) workshop about the First Nations peoples.

Angels Studio works with the professional storytelling community to search out and nurture storytellers who have a devotion to creating personal and community stories about race, diversity and interracial understanding. The JustStories Fellowship of Angels Studio seeks to give artists, storytellers and writers the space, time and support to create new works that are engaging and challenging for audiences today. Angels Studio, based in Chicago works with storytellers from around the USA. Angels Studio is a communications ministry of the Chicago Province of the Society of the Divine Word.

For further information and more detail about the story SPIRIT & SURVIVAL return to this site.
Dovie Thomason : dovestory@earthlink.net