“An extremely liberating and expansive and challenging flight,” said Lauren Godla of DiRT and Glitter when asked what vertical dance is. “A totally new perspective on gravity and reality and what kind of movement is possible.”
Godla has been doing vertical dance for 10 years with several productions under her belt and has shared that experience with youth in Del Norte County through the Roots and Wings Dance Camp.
Continue reading Youth Take to the Trees at Roots and Wings Dance CampPhyllis Goodeill sidles around the desk in her office at the back of the Del Norte County Public Library, stepping between cardboard boxes as she does. Her desk is a mess. Piled high with binders, papers and books, it looks exactly how you’d expect the desk of a busy library director to look: Like there are other things more important than an orderly workspace.
“At this point,” Goodeill says, “I don’t have any answers. We’re all just waiting to see what the fallout will be.”
Goodeill, like many others in the world of non-profit, quasi-government agencies, is waiting for the funding waters to clear. Back in Washington, D.C., programs are being cut with abandon, entire agencies shuttered at a moment’s notice, and it’s up to people like Goodeill to translate all the budget slashing into realities on the ground in the often poor, rural communities where the funding cuts will be felt the most.
“It’s concerning,” Goodeill says, taking her seat behind the desk. “Of all the things they could monitor or investigate, why the libraries? Why the museums?”
Continue reading Library Director Fights To Maintain AccessLast year I took a trip and spent nearly 3 months in Poland. After only a few weeks of staying there, I came to the realization that, despite such a large cultural and geographical gap between my home and the Slavic country, I and many others had much more in common than I first thought. What started out as a cultural exchange between me and the many Poles I met quickly turned into a rabbit hole of information I had never even known existed. A one-off conversation about Native American tribes turned into the realization that there was an entire movement about them, spanning generations, all the way across the world. Strangely, it all ties back to a 60’s Americana-based trend. . .
Cowboys and Indians – you’ve definitely heard of the concept. It’s a cliche in American pop culture, most pronounced during the heyday of the Western movie. It sparked a generation of American children’s imaginations, playing as gun-shooting, horseback-riding cowboys fighting Native Americans. However, it wasn’t just American kids during this era that were captivated by this myth. Over 5,000 miles across the world and deep behind the Iron Curtain, Poland — a Slavic Eastern European country — would play Cowboys and Indians too, except it wouldn’t be the “righteous” cowboys in the lead role, fending off Natives. Rather, it was the Natives defending their land from the greedy, destructive cowboys.
Why exactly did this role reversal occur, and how did playing Cowboys and Indians contribute to an informal movement of support for Native Americans in a distant Slavic land?
Continue reading Down the Rabbit Hole of Poland’s Indianist MovementThis article is a guest submission. To submit your own work for consideration, send your piece to redwoodvoicedn@gmail.com. Thumbnail photo courtesy of Focus Features, from the film Nosferatu (2024).
Written and submitted by Urma Fassinger.
This article contains spoilers for the film Nosferatu (2024).
From the streets of Wisborg, Germany to the forest of birch trees in Transylvania, Nosferatu (2024) is strikingly beautiful, haunting, and nauseatingly disgusting. Gothic horror has been on the fringe of cinema until Robert Eggers showed the world how valuable it is. This isn’t the director’s first project that could be described as strange and off-putting—films such as The Lighthouse (2019) and The VVitch (2015) have stunned and mystified audiences who seek out the dark.
Nosferatu (2024) is a faithful adaptation of Nosferatu (1922), which was a creative adaptation of the novel Dracula written by Bram Stoker and published in 1897. Many believe that Dracula is the first modern vampire novel, but it is not; it has two predecessors: Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, published in 1872 and The Vampyre by John William Polidori, published in 1819.
Continue reading The Providence of NosferatuOn December 6th, 2024, the City of Crescent City, California and the Downtown Divas held their annual Christmas Light Parade and tree lighting ceremony in downtown Crescent City.
Del Norte High School performs at the Pride of the Northwest field show in Grants Pass on Oct. 12. | Thumbnail photo courtesy of Dan Sedgwick, video courtesy of Danielle Wood.
Self-competition may be cliché in some circles — a motivational mantra personal trainers use to get clients off the couch.
But it’s why the Del Norte High School’s Band of Warriors triumphed despite coming in last in their category at the Festival of Bands field show in Eugene on Nov. 1.
“Even though we did get last place, the students didn’t feel that way because we had a massive point increase from where we were and the best score we’ve ever gotten in a competition,” DNHS Music Director Daniel Sedgwick told Redwood Voice Community News on Wednesday. “I’m talking [about] any year before this.”
Continue reading DNHS Band of Warriors Breaks Personal Record At Eugene Field Show
Thumbnail image and flyer courtesy of DNACA
(Updated at 7:55 p.m. Tuesday with input from DNACA’s former executive director Stephanie LaTorre)
Managing an organization like the Del Norte Association for Cultural Awareness is akin to plate spinning, treasurer Catherine Balck says.
Pre-pandemic, the executive director had to find and hire instructors for its visual arts programs, organize public exhibits and book acts for DNACA’s annual concert series. The executive director worked with Pelican Bay State Prison and the William James Association to help coordinate Arts in Corrections — a state-funded program that stopped due to COVID. And they had to fundraise.
But the relief dollars that kept DNACA alive during the pandemic have dried up and donations have dwindled, Balck told Redwood Voice Community News on Friday. Its long-time venue, the Crescent Elk Auditorium, was largely unavailable due to major renovations during the last two seasons.
Continue reading DNACA Is Rebuilding After Two Rough Post-Pandemic Seasons; 2024-25 Concert Series Starts Wednesday
Inside the former Bank of America building on H Street in Crescent City resides an abundant collection of abstract mixed media paintings and sculptures by Ukrainian artist Val Polyanin. In 2022, the city became responsible for over 900 pieces of Polyanin’s art. Polyanin donated his collection to the city for safekeeping after rising rent costs forced him to abandon his roadside gallery alongside U.S. 101 south of town.
After debating whether or not to accept the donation, city councilors eventually agreed to allocate $10,000 out of their economic development fund toward obtaining his collection and curating the exhibit.
In May of 2023, the city held a grand opening for this exhibit, aptly named “Safekeeping,” for “First Friday”. These events, organized in conjunction with the Downtown Divas, are designed to draw traffic to local businesses in the downtown area and stimulate economic activity.
Redwood Voice Youth Media had initially been enlisted by the city to produce a short documentary film to be played on loop at this art exhibit. This video detailed Val Polyanin’s background, journey to America, and passion for artistic freedom.
Continue reading Roadside Art Collection Remains in Safekeeping with the City of Crescent CityIn the 2024 Peace and Dignity Journeys run, participants embark on a seven-month prayer run from Fairbanks, Alaska, and Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, converging at El Cuaca, Colombia. This journey emphasizes the commitment to prayer, underlining the obligation to strengthen spiritual connections among Indigenous Peoples across the Western Hemisphere.
Join Rory McCain and Ethan Caudill-DeRego of Redwood Voice as they meet up with and interview the runners from the north during their overnight stay with the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation.
