Indian Summer Festival

Good things, my friends, good things, indeed.

The festival itself is just ok for so many reasons, but this was a very good year for so many others.

We had a booth in The Gathering tent, and performed A Tribute to Native Authors four times on Friday, three on Saturday, and they are still going strong over there today. I particularly enjoyed hanging out with Carol, and thanks, to her, our readers theater adventures went well. In case you missed it, imagine Waiting for Guffman as directed by Fellini and produced by David Lynch. One of the highlights was the custodian rolling through with the trash bin between the audience and the stage during the afternoon reading of "The Clicks." Sadly, no midgets.

We read from soaking wet scripts on Saturday. Matt gave a very "thorough" telling of the story of how FNTRC got its funding in the afternoon, and I nearly matched his "thoroughness" that evening. Adrienne joined us on-stage on Saturday evening, as a ringer from the audience for the early show and as an on-stage performer for the late one. Our nieces were there for one of the performances, and Connie and Marty even made an appearance at the late one.

I got to catch up with Tom Metz, which is always a good thing. Hung out with Anne TC over at the Ho-Chunk Nation booth. Matty and Xong arrived after the last reading - great timing my friend. Richie and Lily were there, and we got to visit a bit, which was great, of course. There was even a Waubano sighting! He's doing well recovering from his stroke. He uses a wheel chair these days and was sharp enough to tease me. "I know who you are, but have no idea what you are talking about. I never do, so that's the same." I was too glad to see him to even fire back.

Grama Greene arrived on Saturday, and I always enjoy seeing her. Ran into Kalana and the girls, and everyone is doing well. Spent quite a bit of time hanging out and catching up with Forrest over at his booth, which was great. His dad, John Mohawk, has long been one of my heroes, so I always enjoy hearing stories about him. Had a brief visit with Sheri Mousseau, too.

There's some big news, and potentially, some very exciting developments that will come from all this. First, there are some discussions with Tom Metz about several of us taking over the HONOR Resource Center, which would mean buying up the inventory and becoming responsible for selling books at conferences and powwows around the area.

Second, and I learned this on stage on Saturday, is that there is interest in our project from the Oprah Winfrey Show. Grama Greene, as only she can, was apparently chatting with a woman who stopped by the booth about who we are and what we do. As it turns out, the visitor was a producer for Oprah and she was going to talk with the big boss about our project. We'll see what comes of it, but the recognition of the worth of our efforts is really gratifying.

Be well, all.