Spoken Words Flow
Spoken Words Flow
by Vincent Medina
California Indian stories and song flowed throughout the exposed brick halls at the East Bay Media Center in Berkeley last Saturday night, April 30th, during the California Indian Spoken Word, hosted by News from Native California and Heyday. The night was full of good energy, Indian languages, community, spicy food, and lots of laughter. In the Spring of 2014, we at Heyday organized a Spoken Word held at our Berkeley office and it was a hit! My colleague and friend, Terria Smith (Torres Martinez Cahuilla) had the idea to organize another event, especially to coordinate with our love issue of Spring 2016 – so I got to it. The event took on a different form; we traded Heyday’s office space to the theater space at the East Bay Media Center, which Paul Kealoha Blake and Mel Valpour generously donated to us. Bird songs filled the theater space, and Thai food filled peoples’ bellies.
I was able to start the event in my beautiful Chochenyo language, the indigenous language to where Berkeley is today. Later, I was able to tell in my language “payyanhitkanakše,” a Chochenyo Ohlone story about a wicked monster that gets deceived by coyote. Louis Trevino, Rico Mirando, Gregg Castro, and Isaac Bojorquez — all Rumsen Ohlone — shared beautiful Rumsen gambling songs from the Carmel Valley. Other languages, such as Zapotec and Danish were shared in poem and song. Cody Pata came on the big screen singing the Nomlaki. It was a night of celebration — celebration of the languages we love so dearly.
Terria and myself feel proud that News from Native California can host events like this — events that connect people in our community and give back to those that we love. And with smiles on our faces, we packed up for the night and told ourselves to host another California Indian Spoken Word soon. After all, we know us California Indians have a lot to say.
