Iconic Indigenous theater company celebrates with a a free Block Party Pow Wow
Saturday, August 15 in Brooklyn

More info HERE.

Spiderwoman Theater -- the oldest, continually running, Native feminist theater company in the Americas -- will celebrate its 50th Anniversary with SPIDERWOMAN THEATER’S BLOCK PARTY POW WOW: AN INDIGENOUS CELEBRATION on Saturday, August 15. This family-friendly afternoon of art, culture, heritage and neighborhood unity will be held on DeGraw Street between Court and Smith Streets on the border of historic Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill (easily accessible from the F & G lines at Carroll Street Station) from 1pm - 5pm. It is free and open to the public, no reservations required. For more information visit www.spiderwomantheater.org.

In the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s, Boerum Hill, Red Hook, and Cobble Hill were home to a vibrant Native community: Mohawks from Kahnewake, who built New York’s bridges and skyscrapers, and the Western tribes, all found freedom in NYC to practice their songs, dances, and ceremonies in the community where founding members of Spiderwoman Theater, the Miguel sisters, were born and grew up. Now, the Miguels will open up their childhood block for SPIDERWOMAN THEATER’S BLOCK PARTY POW WOW: AN INDIGENOUS CELEBRATION, a look back at the history of the community and the neighborhood where Spiderwoman was born... and Gloria, the eldest Spiderwoman, will be féted as she marks her 100th birthday.

On August 15, in the heart of Brooklyn, SPIDERWOMAN THEATER’S BLOCK PARTY POW WOW: AN INDIGENOUS CELEBRATION will be a sea of color with Indigenous dancers, drummers and singers including the NYC drum, SilverCloud Singers; MC Louis Mofsie of the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers; and neighborhood vendors and speakers. There will also be screened excerpts of Spiderwoman’s work and on Spiderwoman’s stoop, an excerpt of "Tipi Tales from the Stoop," Murielle Borst-Tarrant’s one woman show. This event is curated by Josephine Tarrant.

SPIDERWOMAN THEATER’S BLOCK PARTY POW WOW: AN INDIGENOUS CELEBRATION kicks off a year-long celebration that will continue in Autumn of 2026 as Spiderwoman Theater takes over La MaMa’s main East 4th Street location for two weeks, highlighting Indigenous artists from across Turtle Island and the world for a unique mixture of performances, workshops and a visual arts exhibit that will be open to the public.

SPIDERWOMAN THEATER is the oldest, continually running, Native feminist theater company in the Americas and is situated in the NYC Indigenous and arts communities. Activism, self- determination and storytelling are at the core of Spiderwoman’s programming and is rooted in an urban Indigenous sensibility. Live theater performance and production are the vehicles by which those core principles and values are shared with our communities and audiences. Since 1976, our body of work has addressed critical cultural, social and political issues in the Indigenous and women’s communities. Our work is informed by traditional artistic expression, teachings and values which bridge traditional cultural practice and Western theater sensibilities. The practice of creating our theater is “storyweaving”, where personal and traditional stories are layered with movement, text, sound, music and visual images. This weaving of stories is the foundation upon which we build Spiderwoman productions and a framework for our training and outreach activities. www.spiderwomantheater.org

GLORIA MIGUEL is an elder from the Guna and Rappahannock nations and an actor, playwright, and educator. She is a founding member of Spiderwoman Theater.  She has toured Europe, Australia, New Zealand and to Beijing, China for the 4th World Woman’s Conference. She toured Canada as Pelaija Patchnose in the original Native Earth production of The Rez Sisters. She was Coyote/Ritalinc in Jessica (Northern Lights Productions) and nominated for a Sterling Award for best supporting actress.Recent acting credits include Chocolate Woman Dreams the Milky Way with daughter, Monique Mojica; Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue and Misdemeanor Dream. She has a Honorary DFA from Miami University in Oxford, OH and is a lifetime member at the Lee Strasberg Institute.

MURIEL MIGUEL (Kuna/Rappahannock) is the founder & Artistic Director of Spiderwoman Theater. She is an award-winning activist artist, director, choreographer, actor and educator and has worked and toured extensively across the globe for over sixty years. She is a United States Artists Fellow, a Doris Duke Artist and has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She holds an honorary DFA from Miami University in Ohio and an honorary Doctor of Letters from Trent University in Canada. Muriel has developed storyweaving, Spiderwoman Theater's signature Indigenous performance practice and she is active in the training of Indigenous actors in this culturally based method. She has presented Making the Connections: A Retrospective alongside storyweaving workshops and residencies in theaters and universities in the US, Canada and Europe.

JOSEPHINE TARRANT, known artistically as Ms. Josephine, is a singer/songwriter and theater administrator/producer. A lifelong NYC community member from the Rappahannock, Ho Chunk, and Kuna nations, her work is deeply informed by her background in Pow Wow music and her Musical Theater training from the American Musical & Dramatic Academy. Through songwriting, Josephine explores themes of grief, rebirth, empowerment, sexuality, and Indigenous cosmologies. Her original music has been featured at Lincoln Center’s Out of Doors Festival (2021), We Are the Seeds Philadelphia (2022), Bearded Ladies Cabaret at Philly Fringe (2023), Pawanka Fund’s 10th Anniversary (2024), La MaMa’s Annual Gala (2025), and most notably the Relative Arts Runway Show for Indigenous New York Fashion Week (2025). Josephine’s theater career includes performances in Red Moon Blues (NYTW Next Door), DOGFIGHT (Second Stage), Ajijaak on Turtle Island (New Victory), and Don’t Feed the Indians: A Divine Comedy Pageant (La MaMa). She is also a featured vocalist on the soundtrack for Dawnland (composed by Jennifer Kreisberg) and is a 2021 Native Arts & Cultures Foundation LIFT Awardee. In addition to her artistic work, Josephine serves as the Managing Director and Creative Producer at Safe Harbors NYC (SHNYC), where she supports Indigenous theater artists. She continues to conceive and record new music, new works, and produce new Indigenous centered work with her team. Follow her on Instagram at @chiefjosephine and @safeharborsnyc

DARYLINA POWDERFACE – SHABADA is an interdisciplinary artist and storyteller from the Iyarhe Nakoda Nation, including one of the four nations of the Blackfoot Confederacy, the Siksika Nation. Over the last few years, she’s performed in ensemble works with Safe Harbors NYC and Spiderwoman Theatre. Her latest experimental short how it used to be screened at ICA Boston in 2025 and 2026, the Blue Sky Documentary Film Festival in February 2026, and at the e-flux Screening Room in Brooklyn. She recently earned her MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University, culminating in a thesis exhibition twelve components at the Wallach Art Gallery. Last summer she participated in a group exhibition Fault Lines at the Blanc Gallery and presented a short stop-motion film wiley in Growth Postures at Tutu Gallery earlier this year.