The Brainerd Mission Project

October 19, 2024.....put this date on your calendars. What a line up for the Vital Buffalo Farm this year. Come one and all. We have the very well known and loved AniKituwha Warriors from Cherokee, NC, as well as the Ratlesnake Mountain drum from the Eastern Band of Cherokee NC. There will be a Grand Entry of flags and several Native American dancers. Great Bluegrass music. Free bison eats for everyone.
But the best part of all is the blessing of the newest members to the Buffalo Farm that will continue to bring a legacy to the area and to all of us.
I have attached the schedule of events flyer with the address and times....so get there early and enjoy!!!
See you all soon!!!

POST-PRODUCTION BLUES At the first of the month, at Ripple Theater, we just produced the seventh performance of the Brainerd Mission Project. This one was called "A Hopeful Mission' and included some re-telling from "The Trail Was A Circle" but also some New Stories. Becuase I research and write the scripts, like Rimsky-Korsakov famously said, "I try to do something New in every Composition". Once again, developing the material was a great honor and satisfying in every way, from our first production in 2015. to this latest one. But every time I have engaged in this wonderful initiative it has had a tremendous impact on me personally. While I am deeply grateful and honored, I have always inexplicably struggled with depression and usually some kind of sickness. As I am normally an optimistic upbeat person with good health it is impossible to ignore this pattern. But I know that when I walk through this door in our American history I will inevitably experience deep grief, shame and sorrow as I relive the history of the Native American Indian. I also know that there is something incredibly gratifying about pushing on through and taking the tragedy and reaching into it and bringing forth the hope, the success, the survival and the victories of these wonderful enduring persistent triumphant People, Our Nations First Citizens. But I also am forced once again to be confronted with my Nation's dark side so I will be saddened for a while. And that this sadness is nothing like the post-production letdown all Theater folk are used to. I have learned it just takes time for it to ease up. But I never have regrets and I will continue to support telling this wonderful deserving and triumphant story of endurance as long as I am able. Because I know that it is critical that we honestly face our true history straight on as we lived it with the choices, the behaviors and the decisions that we made regardless of how painful or shameful they might have been, or wonderful and inspiring and uplifting. Becuase my research has also beautifully opened up about the lives of so many of the Colonists Newcomers that were never a part of the dark chapters, and lovingly, compassionately risked everything for justice...like the brave Missionaries and Teachers that chose to go on the Trail of Tears in solidarity, with their Native American Friends. When I discover their incredible lights shining through the pages of our History, the darker chapters just seem to pale into insignificance...as they should.🌹🌳