On the 10th episode of Voice Seeker, we have a wide-ranging discussion with Elexa Dawson: musician, songwriter, speaker, mother, gardener, Potawatomi Citizen, and all around awesome human being.
Elexa Dawson is a practitioner of the soul. Her red-dirt honey vocals and rhythmic guitar style deliver a sound that hits home. Both familiar and intriguing, her songs speak of the earth and community, and celebrate all relationships, from mother and child to friend and lover.
Kansas-based and Oklahoma-born, Elexa is a songwriter, educator, community organizer, Folk Alliance Region Midwest's Board President, and serves on the Board of Directors of Music to Life. Elexa is a Kansas Touring Roster Artist, Music to Life's Juried Artist, and Mid-America Arts Alliance Interchange Fellow. Former fellowships include First Peoples Fund and Western Arts Alliance Native Launchpad.
Elexa is the founder and director of Good Way Gardens, a land-based arts organization, and is co-founder of Weda Skirts, one of Kansas' best-beloved female folk ensembles. She runs an independent label, Turns Out Records. She’s also a founding member of popular folk groups The Power Lilies and Heyleon.
https://www.elexadawson.com/
https://www.patreon.com/elexadawson
Native Heritage and Place in the Flint Hills presentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJPFaBuC73c
(00:00:00) - INTRODUCTION
(00:04:10) - PRACTITIONER OF THE SOUL
(00:08:19) - SINGING TOGETHER
(00:10:47) - MUSICAL BACKGROUND
(00:15:14) - WINFIELD
(00:17:42) - THE CITIZEN POTAWATOMI NATION
(00:26:30) - INDIGENOUS EARTH
(00:32:40) - INSPIRATION, APPROPRIATION, FETISHIZATION
(00:42:22) - SHAPED BY NATIVE HERITAGE
(00:42:44) - INDIGENOUS FOODS MOVEMENT
(00:47:10) - FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
(00:52:11) - A WORLD OF ABUNDANCE
(00:57:38) - ABANDONING THE PATRIARCHY
(01:02:58) - IF EVERYONE'S A MILLIONAIRE, WHO'S SPECIAL?
(01:05:24) - WOMEN'S HOMES
(01:09:24) - EDUCATION
(01:18:35) - POTAWATOMI LANGUAGE
(01:21:07) - MUSICAL MEMORY
(01:22:58) - GOODWAY GARDEN AND MORE
(01:26:10) - PETER OVIATT, STANLEY HOTEL
(01:31:30) - ARTIST RECOMMENDATIONS
(01:33:44) - WORDS OF ADVICE FOR YOUNGER CREATIVES