An Evening with Razelle Benally, Tania Larsson & Migizi Pensoneau: In-Person & Online
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Sasha LaPointe Presents

An Evening with Razelle Benally, Tania Larsson & Migizi Pensoneau: In-Person & Online

Past Event: Monday, January 23, 2023

At Town Hall Seattle—The Forum

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In Person & Online

Although this event has passed, you can still buy a digital pass to watch the recording through Monday, January 30 at 7:30 p.m. (PT).

Join Sasha and three more Institute of American Indian Arts alumni as they discuss decolonizing Native image in art and pop culture, and the power of representation.

Razelle Benally, an Oglala Lakota/Diné film director and writer, is dedicated to creating stories with strong Indigenous female protagonists. Tania Larsson, a Gwich’in and Swedish creator of fine jewelry, uses materials from her home in the Canadian Arctic. Migizi Pensoneau, an Ponca/Ojibwe writer and producer, works on the shows Reservation Dogs, Barkskins, and Rutherford Falls.

Razelle Benally is an Oglala Lakota/Diné film director and writer who holds a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts and an MFA in Film Production at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She was a 2015 Sundance Institute NativeLab Short Film Production Fellow with her first short narrative “I am Thy Weapon.” In 2017, her two-hundred dollar budgeted thesis film “Raven” traveled the international film festival circuit and found local success winning several awards including best short narrative at: the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, Native Cinema Showcase, and the New Mexico Film Foundation.

Tania Larsson designs Gwich’in Fine Jewellery created with land-based materials. She is innovative, driven, and dedicated to her art. Through social media, she promotes her culture, work and her passion for reclaiming Indigenous knowledge. She earned a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts, with a focus in jewelry and digital arts. She was the apprentice to renowned jeweler Keri Ataumbi during two years. Tania is one of the founding members of Dene Nahjo, an Indigenous innovation collective in Denendeh (Northwest Territories) working to advance social and environmental justice for northern peoples and promote Indigenous leadership.

Migizi Pensoneau (Ponca/Ojibwe) was born and raised in Minnesota and attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Migizi has worked for both major and independent production companies as a writer and a producer for film and television. He is the recipient of awards, commissions, fellowships, and grants from ABC/Disney, the Institute of American Indian Arts (where he currently teaches screenwriting in the MFA program), the Sundance Institute, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (with the 1491s, where they received a commission to do an original play, “Between Two Knees”), among others. Migizi has also covered scripts for Warner Brothers and the Sundance institute and has written several published pieces on the interaction of Native Americans and popular culture.

Sasha LaPointe, our Community Curated Series director, is from the Upper Skagit and Nooksack Indian Tribe. Native to the Pacific Northwest, she draws inspiration from her coastal heritage as well as her life in the city. The author of Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk, LaPointe writes with a focus on trauma and resilience, ranging topics from PTSD, sexual violence, the work her great grandmother did for the Lushootseed language revitalization, to loud basement punk shows and what it means to grow up mixed heritage. Her memoir Red Paint has received starred reviews from Kirkus and Shelf Awareness and has been named an NPR Best Book of the Year, A Nylon Must-Read Book of the Month, and more.

Event Details

Town Hall Seattle—The Forum

1119 8th Ave
Seattle, WA 98101

View directions.

Know Before You Go

COVID-19 Policies

The safety of our patrons, artists, community partners, staff, and volunteers continues to be important to us. At this time, facial masks are encouraged but not required for entry, and proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 test is no longer required. However, health and safety protocols are subject to change. Before attending events, please check your pre-event email for the most up-to-date information.

Can't find your tickets?

ll tickets have been emailed for this event, so be sure to check your inbox for an email from [email protected]. Call us at 206-621-2230 x10 if you can’t find them.

For in-person attendance: Your e-tickets come attached in a PDF with your ticket order confirmation email. Present on your mobile device or bring your printed ticket to the venue the night of the event. Check your pre-event email for details on COVID safety precautions.

For online attendance: If you purchased a digital pass, SAL will send a pre-event reminder email with instructions to log in and access the online stream two days before the event. The night of your event, return to lectures.org/event/iaia and enter the password where prompted. The program begins at 7:30 p.m. (PT) and will be available for viewing for a week after the event.

SAL will also send an email the day of the event, containing the same information. If you have opted out of receiving SAL emails, you will miss this important information—please email us at [email protected] and we will assist you.

Have a question for the speaker?

Want to ask the author something? Send your question to SAL at [email protected]—it might be asked onstage!

Books

Our partner bookstore, Phinney Books, will have books available for purchase at their table in the lobby and on their website.

Patrons & Grand Patrons, Have a Drink on SAL!

Patron & Grand Patron seating includes a pre-event drink ticket! Check your pre-event email for details.

Transportation & Parking

Town Hall Seattle is centrally located at 1119 8th Ave, on the corner of 8th and Seneca. Their venue is served by frequent bus routes, is near access to light rail stations, and close to a number of parking options nearby. Please see their website for more details.

Accessibility

Open Captioning is an option for people who have hearing losses, where a captioning screen displaying the words that are spoken or sung is placed on stage. To make a request for open captioning, please contact us at [email protected] or 206.621.2230×10. Please note: for in-person events at Town Hall Seattle, we appreciate a two-week advance notice to allow us time to secure captioning services. 

Closed Captioning is an option for people who have hearing loss, where captioning displays the words that are spoken or sung at the bottom of the video for online events. Captioning is available for all online events; click the “CC” button to view captions during the event.

Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs) are devices that people with hearing loss use in conjunction with their hearing device (hearing aids or cochlear implants). Town Hall Seattle has a hearing loop system, so you can switch your T-coil hearing aid to telecoil to have the stage’s microphones transmitted directly to your hearing aids. To pick up a headset, check in with any Town Hall usher when you arrive.

Sign Language Interpretation is available upon request for Deaf, DeafBlind, and hard of hearing individuals. To make a request for interpretation, please contact us at [email protected] or 206.621.2230×10, or select “Sign Language Interpretation” from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process and we will contact you to confirm details. Please note: we appreciate a two-week advance notice to allow us time to secure interpretation.

Wheelchair Accessible Seating and Accessible Restrooms are available in all sections at Town Hall Seattle, which is fully accessible to ticket holders with physical mobility concerns. Town Hall Seattle recommends that visitors use the 8th Avenue Entrance for events in the Great Hall, and elevators with Braille signage go to all levels within the Hall. The venue has all-gender, ADA-accessible restrooms on the lobby and Forum level. To reserve seating for a specific mobility concern, please contact us at [email protected] or 206.621.2230×10, or select “Wheelchair Accessible or Alternative Seating Options” during ticket checkout, and we will contact you to confirm details. For more details on accessibility features at Town Hall, click here.

Guide and service dogs are welcome.

All-gender restrooms are available.

We are pleased to offer these accessibility services at our venues, and they are provided at no additional cost to ticket holders. Please contact us with any questions and feedback about how we can be more accessible and inclusive. Our Patron Services Manager is available at [email protected], or Monday-Friday from 10:00am – 5:00pm at 206.621.2230×10.

For more accessibility information, please head to lectures.org/accessibility. If you would like to make accessibility arrangements you do not see listed here, please contact our box office or select “Other Accommodations” from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process, and we will contact you to confirm details.