Shows & Events
The Point: Song, Story, Ceremony: Indigenous Artists Shaping the Present

Past Event

Sep 10 | 6:30 pm

Song, Story, Ceremony:Indigenous Artists Shaping the Present

Who gets to tell the narrative of America, and what happens when Indigenous artists are recognized not simply as subjects of that story, but as its authors?

For generations, indigenous artists have resisted erasure from colonial institutions attempting to control how Indigenous peoples are represented within the American story. They have preserved their histories while creating, adapting and imagining what comes next.

The Point: Song, Story, Ceremony brings together three Indigenous artists who practice this through their work. In dialogue with The Carlisle Project, these creators will discuss how art is memory, resistance and possibility.

As the United States continues to mark its 250th anniversary, The Point: Song, Story, Ceremony asks what changes when we understand Indigenous peoples as artists and cultural leaders actively shaping its present and future.

Moderated by

Ronee Penoi, Director of Artistic Programming at ArtsEmerson.

Info

Venue

Jackie Liebergott Black Box, Emerson Paramount Center
559 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111

Dates

Sep 10, 2026 | 6:30 pm

Reception

There will be a post show reception following the event.

Details

FREE w/ RSVP

All Ages

1 Hour 15 mins

PLEASE NOTE: This is a free event. Guests will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis upon arrival. Reserving your tickets does not necessarily guarantee admission, but we rarely turn anyone away from our free events. Please plan to arrive early—ideally 20 to 30 minutes before showtime—to ensure entry.

Tickets

Panelists

Ronee Penoi

Ronee Penoi (Laguna Pueblo/Cherokee) recently joined ArtsEmerson in Boston as Director of Artistic Programming. Previously, she was a Producer with Octopus Theatricals, where she advanced the work of Cherokee artist DeLanna Studi (And So We Walked), Phantom Limb Company (Falling Out), Ripe Time (Sleep), Homer’s Coat (An Iliad by Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson), Theatre for One, and more. She is a two-time ISPA (International Society for Performing Arts) Global Fellow, and has been an APAP (Association of Performing Arts Professionals) Leadership Fellow and TCG (Theatre Communications Group) Rising Leader of Color. Ronee is also a Founding Member of The Industry Standard Group (TISG), a multimedia commercial investment and producing organization with an intentional focus on increasing the presence of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) investors and producers in the commercial producing field and expanding the access and opportunities granted to BIPOC communities within the industry. She is also co-founder (and current core collaborator) of the Groundwater Arts Collective dedicated to climate justice in the arts (recipient of a SPACE at Ryder Farm Residency Grant). She is a proud NEFA (New England Foundation for the Arts) National Theater Project Advisor, and part of the working consortium of First Nations Performing Arts. Ronee is a two-time recipient of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Individual Artist Fellowship, as well as commissions from Baltimore Center Stage and Pittsburgh Public Theater, for her musical composing work with collaborator Annalisa Dias. Previously, Ronee was NNPN Producer-in-Residence at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Senior Producing Fellow and Directing Fellow at Arena Stage, and toured nationally with Anna Deavere Smith’s Let Me Down Easy. She spent three years with the Consensus Building Institute, a non-profit specializing in facilitation and mediation services. Her current anti-racism practice builds upon a decolonization framework and embraces systems change as a key component of that work. She graduated with honors from Princeton University with a degree in Music with certificates in Vocal Performance and Theatre & Dance. She has been invited to guest lecture on producing at Princeton University, CalArts, Howard University, and for American University’s graduate Arts Administration program.

Tess Lukey

Tess Lukey is an enrolled citizen of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah and serves as the Associate Curator of Native American Art at the Trustees of Reservations, where she is based at both Fruitlands Museum and deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum. Her curatorial practice centers on the intersection of historic and contemporary Native American art, with a specialization in pre-20th-century materials. Lukey’s expertise also spans NAGPRA, Mayan art history, and folk art. She holds an MA in Art History with a minor in Museum Studies from the University of New Mexico and a dual BFA in Ceramics and Art History from MassArt.

Lukey has contributed to exhibitions at institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston—including Collecting Stories: The Invention of Folk Art and A Little Bit of the Southwest—and curated recent shows at Fruitlands titled Beauty and Usefulness, Eye of the Beholder, Across Boundaries Across Barriers, Place of Intersection: Survivance in the American West, and A Surreal Place: Sky Hopinka and Cannupa Hanksa Luger, which prioritize Indigenous-led interpretation. Her work is shaping new strategies for museums seeking to engage Native collections through community-driven frameworks.

In addition to her museum work, Lukey is an independent curator who recently completed the Boston Public Art Triennial (May 2025), an inaugural city-wide exhibition of over 15 public art commissions accompanied by hundreds of community-based programs.

She is also a traditional artist, continuing the ceramic and basketry techniques of her Wampanoag heritage, reflecting her commitment to cultural continuity through both institutional and creative practice.

Madeline (Maddie) Easley

Madeline (Maddie) Easley is a New York–based Wyandotte writer and playwright. Her work tells epic stories to offer frameworks for living in decolonial futures. She is a 2025–2027 Venturous Playwriting Fellow at the Playwrights Center, in partnership with the Venturous Theater Fund and Soho Rep; a 2025 First Peoples Fund Performing Arts Fellow; a 2025 American Indian Community House (AICH) Governor’s Island Artist-in-Residence; and the inaugural Four Directions Playwright Fellow. Her plays and films have been presented at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Native Voices at the Autry, the American Indian Community House, REACH at the Kennedy Center, the TCL Chinese Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, and elsewhere. Past residencies, fellowships, and writers’ groups include the New Harmony Project, Peacedale Global Arts, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and the First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellowship. Madeline is a graduate of the University of Evansville and a citizen of the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma. Her play Feast for the Dead will world-premiere Off-Broadway at Soho Rep in the 2026-2027 season.

About

The Point is a conversation series that invites audiences to explore big questions in intimate settings. Hosted by a member of the ArtsEmerson team, local and national luminaries will offer their points of view on the urgent questions surfaced by the artists on our stages. The Point series is built on years of public dialogues addressing the challenges and concerns of our moment.

The Point is in partnership with GBH’s Forum Network—a series of free online lectures that explore a world of ideas. To watch past installments of ArtsEmerson’s The Point, visit the GBH’s Forum Network archives here.

Sep 10 | 6:30 pm

Song, Story, Ceremony:Indigenous Artists Shaping the Present

Who gets to tell the narrative of America, and what happens when Indigenous artists are recognized not simply as subjects of that story, but as its authors?

Info

Venue

Dates

Sep 10, 2026 | 6:30 pm

Reception

Details

FREE w/ RSVP

All Ages

1 Hour 15 mins

Tickets

Panelists

Ronee Penoi

Tess Lukey

Madeline (Maddie) Easley

About

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