First Storyteller’s Festival: Dibaajimo (s/he tells, tells a story)

dibaajimo (s/he tells, tells a story) is a community-created performance event centered on sharing, carrying, and moving our stories forward as Native people. Created and performed by families from Boulder’s Native community, the piece involves text, spoken word, movement, as well as engagement and interaction with spectators. dibaajimo is best described as a relational work – in that it is about human relationships, relating our stories, and relating to one another (becoming relatives) in the moment.

dibaajimo (s/he tells, tells a story) is the second event in an ongoing series of community-based performance works created by Shannon Epplett. The first, Sunset on the Longest Day, took place in Normal, IL on the Summer solstice 2023, and explored Native perspectives on the practice of land acknowledgement, in collaboration with interdisciplinary artist Ruth K. Burke.

“… what you and the performers shared on the Solstice embodied what I hoped theatre would be when I first began my studies … Heart, courage, skill and a message profoundly connected to the larger world. You brought back to me a vision deeply rooted in lived experience and the needs of people that have yet to be addressed by an oppressive culture…” – audience response

This event will take place in the Dairy Arts Center Lobby and is free and open to the public.