Studio CNS / Counter Narrative Society

¿Me Escuchas? Can you hear me? Listening to Indigenous Erasure in Lenapehoking – (with One Book, One Philadelphia 2020)

Workshops are free to the public; feel free to register for one or all sessions. RSVP HERE: https://bit.ly/2ROpDov

About this Event

The One Book, One Philadelphia selection, There There, shows how historical Indigenous erasure—the deliberate and systematic destruction of cultures and violent displacement of peoples—continues today.

Join the Counter Narrative Society (CNS) and collaborators for a workshop series exploring the history and impacts of pan-Indigenous erasure here in Philadelphia. Dialogues will center the lived, hyper-present experiences of Lenni-Lenape today—whose traditional homeland is where Philadelphia now stands—as well as the experiences of Taino (Indigenous Caribbean) and other Native communities living in the region. Non-Native participants are invited to listen, learn, and join in collaborative conversations about healing.

WORKSHOP ONE: PHILADELPHIA in LENAPEHOKING

Saturday, February 1, 1:00 PM at Penn Treaty Park and FISHTOWN COMMUNITY LIBRARY

This workshop will begin at what is now Penn Treaty Park, a significant place where the Great Elm Tree of Shackamaxon once stood and where many sachems of the Lenni-Lenape and other tribes from the Lenapehoking territory met for council. Conversation will continue at the Fishtown Community Library, guided by Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape voices and opened up to all pan-Native experiences as well.

WORKSHOP TWO: TAINO IN LENAPEHOKING

Saturday, February 22, 1:00 PM at KENSINGTON LIBRARY

This workshop will focus on the Taino Arawak peoples who are indigenous to the Caribbean and have made huge contributions to modern society yet they and their descendants continue to experience cultural erasure, including here in Philadelphia’s Boricua community. This workshop will explore Taino culture, with conversations guided by contemporary Taino and Lenape experiences as well as by Native communities in the diaspora.

WORKSHOP THREE: SOUTH PHILLY IN LENAPEHOKING

Saturday, March 14, 1:00PM at SOUTH PHILADELPHIA LIBRARY

Participants will engage in conversation with members of Philadelphia’s Lenape, Taino, pan-Native, and Italian American communities and explore the impacts of Indigenous erasure through complicity with settler colonization, as well as what can be done to repair wrongdoings and support the existence of Indigenous futures.

Workshops will be facilitated by TRINITY NORWOOD, MABEL NEGRETE (CNS) and PRISCILLA BELL. Events are open to the public; feel free to register for one or all workshops.

Photo of Trinity Norwood by Zein Nakhoda.