Harvest Moon Cultural Festival

Date and Time for this Past Event

• Sunday, Oct 23, 2022  4pm - 9pm

Location

visit website

Details

Luxxarte Artist Collective 
Humanity 360 (501c3)
Present

The 1st Annual 

HARVEST MOON CULTURAL FESTIVAL

Sun, Oct 23rd, 2022 at Old Town Artisans

201 N Court Ave, Tucson, AZ 85701

Join us for a Mural Unveiling which honors the Art and Traditional Culinary Heritage of our Southwest Indigenous Communities through an evening of celebration with World Famous Tohono O’Odham Waila bands Gertie and the T.O. Boyz and Papago Warriors, Yaqui Classical Guitarist Gabriel Ayala, Storytelling and Food Demonstrations featuring local knowledge keepers. 

In Collaboration With

Luxxarte Artist’s Collective (www.luxxarte.com) 
Humanity 360 (www.humanity360.org)
Old Town Artisans (www.oldtownartisanstucson.com) 
Overview
The 1st Annual Harvest MooCultural Festival 

The Harvest Moon Cultural Festival, led by T.O. Community leaders, cultural ambassadors, and activists from the Luxxarte Artists Collective, are partnering with Old Town Artisans and Humanity 360 in the heart of historic downtown Tucson on Oct. 23th, 2022 for an evening of celebration, dance, food, & art. The event will showcase world famous Tohono O'odham Nation Waila Musicians Gertie & the T.O. Boyz and Papago Warriors as well as Yaqui artist Gabriel Ayala, the unveiling of the ‘Old Town Artisans/Humanity 360 Mural Project’, and a powerful cultural and educational exchange of local food, music, and presentations by key cultural ambassadors.

This event aims to bring education, activism and the arts together in a time of celebration as we honor the Sonoran Desert harvest and its diverse, local food while showcasing  the 100+ year old Tohono O’odham folk dance music tradition.

Whether you are a local native, Tucson resident, or just a visitor to the area, you are welcomed to share in these cross-cultural experiences. Bring your open hearts and empty stomachs, don your dancing shoes and join your neighbors for an exciting evening of desert harvest festivities!

Harvest Moon Cultural Festival  - The Visitor Experience:

Featuring World Famous musicians Gertie and the T.O. Boyz, along with Papago Warriors and Gabriel Ayala, the Harvest Moon Cultural Festival gives visitors the opportunity to experience the work of performers and food ambassadors from all over Arizona. 

Visitors will also get to experience Luxxarte’s Old Town Artisan’s Mural Project, honoring the heritage of our tribal neighbors throughout Arizona through images, stories & practices of indigenous knowledge keepers. The Old Town Artisan’s Mural Project partnered with Humanity 360 with an award from the Arts Foundation For Tucson & Southern Arizona’s “Project Creosote Grant'' which was awarded to local artists Johanna Martinez, Luck Salway & Serena Tang to help embellish the archways and walls around the complex with murals and paintings that depict the culinary and ceremonial traditions of the Southwest. The murals aim to create awareness and recognition of the Southwest’s more marginalized peoples' stories & will connect viewers via www.Humanity360.org ‘s  educational unit titled ‘Indigenous Life & Modernization’. Augmented reality components will be embedded permanently (through QR codes) in plaques located on the walls of OTA and will enable visitors to discover and connect to interactive digital features using their devices while onsite (and/or download for later use)

Sunday Oct. 23th, 3-9 pm at Old Town Artisans 

Main Stage:

Gertie & The T.O. Boyz - Music

Papago Warriors (P-Dub) - Music

Keynote Speakers from AZ indigenous community members

Courtyard/Patio Stage:

Gabriel Ayala - Music

Live Art Demonstrations

Native Food Demonstrations & Discussions

Tabling for community organizations

GOALS of the Harvest Moon Cultural Festival:

The Harvest Moon Cultural Festival organizers are led by a grassroots coalition of Tohono O’odham cultural ambassadors and other members of Luxxarte Artists Collective, and are seeking financial support for their unique and impactful arts, music and cultural heritage programming. These programs foster cross-cultural community engagement that directly benefits the Tohono O’odham Nation, and other underrepresented communities in  Southern Arizona. A portion of the proceeds will be shared among the following groups:

Alexander Poncho Memorial Farm, Cowlic Community, Tohono O’odham Nation. Funds will be used to support traditional food production & programming.
Luxxarte Artist Collective, Global Justice Center. Funds will help create arts & cultural programming in underserved communities in and around Tucson.

The Backstory 

During the Covid 19 Pandemic, Old Town Artisans’ owner, Jo Schneider hired local artists and historians to bring a sense of hope and community to her neighborhood to embellish the walls of three blocks of her historic OTA building with murals depicting and telling the stories of the local culinary and botanical heritage of the Sonoran Desert.

The mural project proved a long and arduous journey, especially through the tragic loss of collaborative friend, partner & historian Andre Newman of AZ Heritage Tours. Fortunately community member Taya Pocock reached out and offered a solution moving forward. Taya is the founder and executive Director of an online virtual educational program Humanity 360 (www.humanity360.org). An existing educational unit focusing on Indigenous Life and Modernization seemed to resonate with the stories of the foodways project and Taya and Johanna regrouped after this loss with a renewed focus moving forward. 

Johanna brought fellow Luxxarte Collective member and Tohono O’odham artist Lucky Salway into Phase II of the mural after receiving the Project Creosote Grant through the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern AZ. The funds supported the continuation of the murals as well as the creation of interviews and videos of 14 tribal community members facilitated by T.O. community organizer, Luxxarte member and activist Amy Juan. Stories will be relayed via street side plaques as well as virtually through Humanity 360’s website. 

We will be celebrating this collaborative effort this fall by bringing the Harvest Moon Cultural Festival to the presidio, a barrio that holds the familiar stories, struggles and history in the adobe walls that surround and protect it. It’s truly a time to celebrate the fruits of our labor, our struggles with life, death and rebirth and the beautiful coming together of the community we all call home here in Tucson.

____________________________________________________________

LUXXARTE 

Luxxarte is an artist collaborative based in Tucson, AZ whose goal is to provide social and cultural impact projects through storytelling, murals, art-making, cultural events, and film projects. Current members include Johanna Martinez, Luck Salway, Amy Juan and Kairand Bellinger. 

HUMANITY 360

Humanity 360 is a compassion and resilience-based educational curriculum that brings greater global social awareness to students of all ages through interactive media (incl. virtual and augmented reality), mindfulness and conflict resolution, and social engagement practices. Humanity 360's mission is to broaden students’ perspectives about the lives of others around the globe, shed light on socio-economic and globally pressing issues that pertain to aspects of our shared humanity, and channel heartfelt responses and resolve of youths into meaningful action. 

For more information, please respond to taya@humanity360.org or contact Johanna Martinez at luxxarte@gmail.com.