fbpx Performance of Native American playwrights/activists Suzan Shown Harjo and Mary Kathryn Nagle’s My Father’s Bones about Olympian Jim Thorpe | HowlRound Theatre Commons

Livestreamed on this page Thursday 12 February at 5:30 p.m. EST (New York) / 4:30 p.m. CST (Chicago) / 2:30 p.m. PST (Vancouver) / 22:30 GMT (London).

Philadelphia, PA, United States
Thursday 12 February 2015

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Performance of Native American playwrights/activists Suzan Shown Harjo and Mary Kathryn Nagle’s My Father’s Bones about Olympian Jim Thorpe

Thursday 12 February 2015
Jim Thorpe at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Jim Thorpe at the 1912 Summer Olympics

 

 

Penn Cultural Heritage Center and the Penn Museum in Philadelphia presented a staged reading and discussion of My Father’s Bones—a short play by nationally renowned Native American writers and activists Suzan Shown Harjo and Mary Kathryn Nagle— livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 12 February at 5:30 p.m. EST (New York) / 4:30 p.m. CST (Chicago) / 2:30 p.m. PST (Vancouver) / 22:30 GMT (London).

To participate in the discussion following the performance, use Twitter hashtag #JimThorpe and direct your questions @MKnagle. Additionally, follow @HowlRoundTV for updates.

The play recounts the ongoing struggle of three sons to recover the remains of their father—the unmatched Olympian Jim Thorpe—from the Borough of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, for reburial with his relatives on Sac and Fox Nation land in Oklahoma. The free program, sponsored by the Penn Cultural Heritage Center of the Penn Museum and presented in conjunction with the Museum’s Native American Voices exhibition, will conclude with a panel discussion and reception.

The first version of My Father’s Bones was selected as a finalist for the 2013 Von Marie Atchley Excellence in Playwriting Award and performed at the Autry Center of the American West in Los Angeles. This revision is staged by Philadelphia-based director Matt Pfeiffer, recently nominated for the 2014 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Direction of Play for his direction of Down Past Passyunk, at InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia. The play features local Philadelphia based actors, in addition to Zack Morris (Sac and Fox) and Joe Cross (Caddo).

Following the play, the Penn Cultural Heritage Center and the Museum host a panel discussion about repatriation and the use of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) as the legal basis to return Jim Thorpe’s remains to his ancestral home. Representatives of the Borough of Jim Thorpe and the Sac and Fox Nation have been invited to attend. To date, panelists include tribal representatives of the Sac and Fox Nation; Attorney John Echohawk, Director of the Native American Rights Fund; and Suzan Shown Harjo, President of the Morningstar Institute. Penn Cultural Heritage Center Director Richard Leventhal moderates.

About HowlRound TV

HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based peer produced, open access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world's performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and to develop our knowledge commons collectively. Participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email [email protected], or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal/WhatsApp. View the video archiveof past events.

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