The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, along with thirty local groups including choirs, instrumental ensembles and dancers, gather together in musical meditation and a celebratory parade. This enveloping musical experience is free for the community and extends from Ziegler Park through Over-the-Rhine, and culminates in Washington Park for a full orchestral experience. Performing music co-created with composer Shara Nova and with direction by Mark DeChiazza, artists and audience become one as they move throughout the neighborhood, inviting friends and neighbors to join in, simply listen, or...look around.

The title of the work is taken from Siri Imani’s poem “Lost Generation” which begins with the words, “I need you to care not about yourself or obtaining your wealth / I need you to look around”. Text for the music will be derived from interviews Nova will conduct with local community members focusing on identity, emphasizing our cultural diversity and reflecting on what it means to have a sense of home.

In 1996, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th Generation Keeper of the White Buffalo Calf Pipe Bundle, began conducting annual World Peace and Prayer Day (WPPD) ceremonies to encourage people of all faiths and all nations to offer prayers for the planet on the summer solstice, June 21st. Across cultures, the solstice is considered a powerful time to pray, especially at sacred sites. For the past 23 years, WPPD has been held at sites across the US and around the world. This year, the gathering comes to Ohio to honor the sites sacred to the Indigenous Peoples of this region.

The 24th annual multicultural honoring of sacred sites will be held at Fort Ancient in Lebanon, Ohio. Fort Ancient is one of the most extensive earthworks sites in the country and has been described as "one of the most extensive, if not the most extensive, work...in the entire West", Fort Ancient has been nominated for potential submission by the United States to the UNESCO World Heritage List, and has been used for many centuries by Indigenous People as a place to gather together for the spiritual ceremony.

Chief Looking Horse leads this annual commemoration to emphasize significant Indigenous sites in Ohio and to inspire youth. Educators, artists, faith-based and civic leaders, and all concerned with the health of our environment will have opportunities to learn during this event. “We all rely on the spirit of Mother Earth, of her waters and lands, along with all living beings, many who are in a place great urgency, because all things are connected,” writes Chief Arvol Looking Horse.

This event is being hosted by the Urban Native Collective, and Miami Council of Native Americans.

April 23, 2019, Antioch College of Yellow Springs, Ohio hosted an Indigenous Water Protector’s Panel and live-streamed the event on Facebook and Youtube. The panel served to bridge the Indigenous community of the greater Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus region with the Indigenous allies, activists, and community members local to Yellow Springs.

The panel went in depth into the need to listen to front-line Indigenous Activists when creating decision making bodies as we create a model to be used nation wide that goes past land acknowledgements and consultations and moves toward Indigenous consent.

After discussing in depth the natural relationship between Indigeneity and water protection, the panel opened up a Q & A with the audience to discuss roles of allies and activists beyond performative allyship. Panelists took advantage of opportunities to create awareness around tendencies for groups to co-opt movements and Indigenous Identity.

The panelists shared impassioned histories of Indigenous Peoples and our relationship to the Earth. These histories served to underline our extensive collective history as water protectors above all other things and brought into focus our responsibilities as stewards of the environment informing our roles as activists.

Water unites all Indigenous peoples and therefore transcends all nations and borders around the world. Protecting our water, is protecting our lands, language and culture and this unity gives us strength in battling the ecological crises facing our planet today.

The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County has partnered with the The Mercantile Library and Urban Native Collective for a discussion of the award-winning novel "There, There" by Tommy Orange. Join us in the Huenefeld Tower Room at the Main Library on April 15th for a discussion of the book, followed by a panel discussion with local Native American community leaders.

The book discussion will begin at 6:30 p.m., and the panel discussion will begin at 7:30. Feel free to attend either session or both!

”Watch as a group of liberal artists walk the fine line of political correctness in this fresh, satirical comedy. Armed with progressive lingo and questionably good intentions, they attempt to devise a culturally sensitive Thanksgiving play for local elementary schools. Slowly but surely, the well-meaning plans dissolve into an outrageous sendup of PC behavior. The Thanksgiving Play treads the minefields of appropriation to inject some laughter into activism, apathy and all the assumptions in between.”