Among the joys of living in Lawrence, Kansas are inspiring opportunities to strengthen connections in our community while rekindling relationships with natural places. Earth Day is nearly here and if you have yet to decide how you’re going to celebrate, let me interest you in the following.
Wakarusa Wetlands Celebration
The Wakarusa Wetlands Celebration is an outdoor event which features local authors and artists sharing their creativity while honoring the natural world. This is the fourth year Dr. Daniel Wildcat and I have collaborated to offer this gathering on the beautiful Haskell Indian Nations University campus. Join us on Saturday, April 19 at the Medicine Wheel Earthwork south of the Haskell Campus buildings. We'll be outside, so bring a lawn chair or blanket, and a water bottle. In case of inclement weather, the event will be held April 26.
We'll begin at 9 AM with a special land recognition. Plan to arrive at least 15 minutes early to allow time to get to the Medicine Wheel Earthwork from the parking area. It’s a pleasant walk, but a Land rover will be available for mobility assistance to elders and others over the uneven ground. As we start I anticipate that Daniel Wildcat will encourage everyone who is comfortable to walk together around the perimeter of the earthwork, then stand forming a large circle in the center of the Medicine Wheel. I expect this will include inspiring singing and drumming. Everyone not comfortable with all this walking and standing is welcome to watch from the area designated for sitting during the presentations from local authors and artists which will follow, nearby south of the earthwork and shade trees.
I’m grateful to Haskell Indian Nations University, opens a new window and Raven Book Store, opens a new window for partnering with Lawrence Public Library to offer this celebration of the wetlands. My heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Daniel Wildcat and every author and artist participating in the Wakarusa Wetlands Celebration for generously sharing about their creative work while honoring the lands we share with this more than human Earth!
Link to full details, including driving directions: Wakarusa Wetlands Celebration 2025, opens a new window. Invite friends and family to join us via the library's Facebook page, opens a new window. Read on to learn about the local authors & artists you'll meet.
The authors and artists presenting at the Wakarusa Wetlands Celebration
Dr. Daniel Wildcat, Yuchi Member of the Muscogee Nation, Author
Daniel R. Wildcat shares his powerful work on Indigenous scholarship and environmental advocacy locally and also globally at major conferences. He is a Distinguished professor of Haskell Indian Nations University. And a Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma with deep Lawrence roots.His service as teacher and administrator at Haskell Indian Nations University spans thirty-eight years and counting! His latest book, On Indigenuity: Learning the Lessons of Mother Earth teaches we must be attentive, reconnect, and adapt with our more-than-human relatives -- especially locally. Wise and hopeful provocative philosophy centers the many varieties of Indigenous wisdom and the essays are bridged with powerful poetry.
Steve Laravie, Jr., Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, Singer
Steve Laravie Jr. is an enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma. He is Executive Director of the Indian Center in Lincoln, Nebraska and an alum of Haskell Indian Nations University. Steve's great-great-great-great-grandfather is Ponca Chief Standing Bear. Chief Standing Bear is a celebrated civil rights leader who successfully won his freedom in a 1879 landmark legal decision.
Alex Kimball Williams, Aleut, Author and Artist
Alex Kimball Williams (she/they) is a protest musician and community researcher working at the intersections of social and environmental justice, public policy, and grassroots methods. Her "Bad Alaskan" project reimagines traditional melodies and rhythms on contemporary synthesizers, joining together tradition with creativity. She manages a large-scale climate justice grant based at Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) with Dr. Daniel Wildcat to support diverse Indigenous communities in taking action to protect their lifeways. And she is an alum of HINU. Alex’s album Red & Black is available on Bandcamp & SoundCloud for listening & downloading.
BLACK Lawrence, their arts & literature collective, will host an open mic with the Lawrence Arts Center on April 11th. At the Wakarusa Wetlands Celebration they will share poems/songs from their upcoming album, which is expected to be released this summer. It would involve the acoustic baritone ukulele & singing or speaking.
Tokeya Waci U Richardson, Oglala Lakota and Haliwa-Saponi Tribes, Artist
Tokeya Waci U is an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota tribe and is affiliated with the Haliwa-Saponi tribe. He started his art career 8 and a 1/2 years ago with the intention of utilizing the positive outlooks and morals from stories that were told by the elders to children as a means of shaping a child's lifestyle as well as reminding and empowering adults about who they are and where they come from. Even though Tokeya Waci U uses stories from his cultural backgrounds, the meanings behind the stories are fluid in nature and can apply to anyone with any background because the messages of love, positive human decency, and connections to spirituality/earth are behind all backgrounds. Tokeya Waci U is an award winning artist for his style and the way he conveys his art. He has illustrated 3 children's books, as well as decorated the city of Lawrence with murals, designing 2 of the bus shelters, as well as some of the buses that you see in the public. His website is: www.coupcountdesignz.com, opens a new window
Summer Powell, Diné, Author and Artist
Summer Powell shared these words: “Yá'át'ééh shik'èí dóó shidine'è, Shí éí Summer Powell yinishyé, Naakai Dine’é nishłį́, Na'ahiłii bashishchiin, Tsi’naajinii dashicheii, Naahiłií dashinalí. Hello, I am Summer Powell born to the Mexican People (mother’s clan), born for Black people (father’s clan), my Cheii (maternal grandfather) is from the Black Streak Wood People and my Nalí (paternal grandfather) is Black. I am from Window Rock, AZ, the capital of the Navajo Nation, and a citizen of the Navajo (Diné) Nation. I am a graduate student/graduate research assistant (GRA) at the University of Kansas in the Indigenous Studies Program in Lawrence, KS. I am currently researching water rights Diné people have to the Colorado River and water sources within the Navajo Nation. I did my undergraduate at Haskell Indian Nations University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous and American Indian Studies. I have four sisters, Danielle, Autumn, Shawntai and Shyla; one brother, Kenny; my mom, Charlene; my aunt, Sandra; and grandparents, Gladys and Dennis Blackgoat. I just co-authored an article with Sarah Deer titled "Annie Dodge Wauneka and Women’s Leadership in the Navajo Nation.", that will be released this year. I published a guest column in the Navajo Times, titled "Tó éí ííńá: Arizona v. Navajo Nation and Diné Water Rights."
Tyler Kimbrell, Muscogee Creek Nation, Author
Tyler Kimbrell, TK, is an instructor of Communication Studies at Haskell Indian Nations University and doctoral student at KU. He is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, a graduate of Haskell and former student of Dr. Wildcat. TK's master’s thesis, Searching for the Spirit of Crazy Horse: A Rhetorical Analysis of Competing Myths features: Biography, History, Community, Leadership, and War & Conflict for First Nations, Tribes, and Reserves.
Annette Hope Billings, Author
Annette Hope Billings is an award-winning poet, actress, and storyteller from Topeka, Kansas. In addition to poetry, prose, and short fiction, she delights in creating stories for and with children. A recipient of an ArtsConnect ARTY Award in Literature, her publications include four collections of poetry. Her most recent book is Just Shy of Stars (Spartan Press). Annette plans to reissue her first collection of poetry, Hope's Wife (2002), this year as well as a fifth collection in the Fall. Billings also co-hosts Speak Easy Open Mic, a monthly poetry event now in its eleventh year, in Topeka's historic NOTO Arts District.
On May 4th along with Dr. Jennifer Rodgers Gordon of Topeka, Annette will be performing in an original production, "MotherSong: A Poem Play By Two Daughters". This is a benefit for Topeka Doula Project. For additional information and to view performance videos, visit her website: www.anetfullofhope.net, opens a new window.
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Author
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is the former Kansas Poet Laureate, the founder of Transformative Language Arts, and the author of more then 20 books of poetry, memoir, and fiction. Her forthcoming book, The Magic Eye: A Story of Saving a Life and a Place in the Age of Anxiety, tells the twined tales of journeying through a deadly and rare cancer while working with her husband, Ken Lassman, to save family land and put it in a conservation easement. A beloved workshop facilitator, coach, and consultant, she offers Brave Voice writing and singing retreats with Kelley Hunt and other collaborative projects. See her blog and Patreon at her website: CarynMirriamGoldberg.com, opens a new window. A founding member of the Kansas Area Watershed Council, Caryn finds her way through learning from and loving the living earth and sky. She will be sharing some recent poems rooted in that love.
Kelly Kindscher, Author
Kelly Kindscher is a professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Kansas and a senior scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey. He is well known as a passionate advocate for native plants, native landscapes and wild places. Kelly is also a conservationist, teacher, mentor and environmental problem solver, and the author of Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie: An Ethnobotanical Guide and Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie: An Ethnobotanical Guide and coauthor of The Nature of Kansas Lands. And he is one of the founders of the Kansas Land Trust and a current board member, and is involved in other non-profit, environmental, and community groups.
Chloe Chun Seim, Author and Artist
Chloe Chun Seim is a writer and artist living in Lawrence, KS. Her fiction has appeared in LitMag, Potomac Review, McNeese Review, and Split Lip Magazine, among others. She earned her MFA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Her illustrated novel-in-stories, Churn, won the 2022 George Garrett Fiction Prize and was published by Texas Review Press in late 2023. Churn was also a finalist for the 2024 Publishing Triangle Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction.
Chloe will be reading at a joint book launch for two Kansas-based novels April 26 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at Torn Label Brewery in Kansas City, MO. There will be readings from Nothing Good Ever Happens In A Flyover State by Colin Brightwell, Oakaville by Cody Shrum, and Churn by Chloe Chun Seim. More information via Facebook, opens a new window.
Ken Lassman, Author
Ken Lassman is a fifth generation, lifelong resident of Douglas County and is author of Wild Douglas County (2007) and Seasons and Cycles: Rhythms of Life in the Kansas River Basin (1985), and has a weekly online nature calendar at Kaw Valley Almanac, opens a new window, which also includes online climate resources and various essays. Ken is also an occupational therapist working with Minds Matter, LLC. He is the recipient of the Imagination and Place Environmental Award in 2007, and participates in local organizations such as the Lawrence Ecological Teams United for Sustainability (LETUS).
Ken leads free nature walks at the Prairie Park Prairie on the third Saturday each month and has given presentations to a wide number of organizations over the last four decades.He helped found and is a member of the Kansas Area Watershed Council. Ken and his wife Caryn Mirriam Goldberg live on land that has been in his family since the 1860s, land preserved in perpetuity through a conservation easement from the Kansas Land Trust.
Related Local Happenings
The Haskell Indian Nations University Land Tour, hosted by the Haskell Greenhouse, is scheduled on April 19 from 4:00 to 6:00 pm. As noted on the Haskell Greenhouse Facebook event post, opens a new window, "The lands at Haskell Indian Nations University are beautiful, historical, and culturally and ecologically rich. The Haskell Greenhouse has been working since 2023 to restore the land to emulate pre-colonization habitats while (re)connecting Indigenous Peoples with culturally significant species. We want to share our work with you and walk the lands to tell about their histories, cultures, and ecologies. We will get to immerse ourselves in the woodlands, wetlands, and prairies on campus while learning about the plants, animals, soils, and waters on HINU lands. Please come prepared with a water source and wear close-toed shoes and long pants. Bug spray and sunscreen will be provided. If you have any questions, be sure to reach out to us. Grab your hiking boots and join us!"
The City of Lawrence hosts a webpage, opens a new window with many opportunities to honor Earth Day all month -- from a Kansas riverbank cleanup to informational fair in South Park, community trails event at the Burroughs Trail and more activities.
Lawrence Public Library is hosting our first Green Employment Resource Fair on April 26; get the full scoop here, opens a new window.
Kansas Land Trust is also hosting several events; find details on their website, opens a new window.
Happy Earth Month and best wishes to you, dear reader, as you find your inspirations and greater connections to local natural places and people here in our home town!
Acknowledgments
Being near the Wakarusa and Kansas (Kaw) Rivers, I want to honor and acknowledge local traditional Native lands of the Dakota, Delaware (Lenape), Kansa (Kaw), Kickapoo, Lakota, Osage, Sac and Fox, Shawnee, and actually hundreds more tribes who find connection here with Haskell Indian Nations University. As Ken Lassman (author of Wild Douglas County and Kaw Valley Almanac) noted: “Haskell Indian Nations University is the United Nations of tribes, with members of hundreds of tribes coming here over the lifetime of its existence."
Appreciation to author Denise Low, opens a new window for helping me make sure I acknowledged each Native American tribe by their preferred name.
Cover image credit: An aerial photo the Medicine Wheel Earthwork on the Haskell Indian Nations University Campus, created by students, faculty, tribal elders, and Stan Herd, photograph by Jon Blumb.
-Shirley Braunlich is a Readers' Services Assistant at Lawrence Public Library.
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