Intertribal Noise Symposium this weekend (September 19-21) at Joshua Tree Retreat Center

Yucca Valley Material Labs will be co-hosting the Intertribal Noise Symposium September 19-21 at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center’s Sanctuary building. This groundbreaking event will feature film screenings, poetry, discussions, and immersive sound performances aiming to amplify Indigenous voices, explore land-based sonic practices, and foster cultural exchange in our hi-desert setting.

Curated by renowned Native artist, scholar, and Intertribal Noise Symposium founder Nathan Young, the festival is on its third year, with past locations at CalArts; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and in spring of this year in Marfa, Texas, the last two which Monypeny attended and was subsequently inspired by.

“I attended both of those and got really excited about what was going on and I really wanted to bring it out here. So I worked with Nathan Young and we were able to make this happen.” 

Friday’s film-based program starts at 5:00, with 5:30 panel discussion with Nathan Young and two filmmakers: Albert Chacon, whose film “We Are Birds” about the Cahuilla Bird Singers will screen after, along with Blackhorse Lowe’s “Chasing the Light” and “Metal Belt.” Based in Oklahoma, Blackhorse Lowe will be known to more mainstream audiences from his directing several episodes of the hit TV series “Reservation Dogs.”

Monypeny says Saturday is an all-day event from 2:00-10:00 p.m., with musicians and poets coming from all over the country along with some locals:

“Some of the artists performing are Mateo Galindo; Hidhawk y Panica who are based in LA—so it’s going to be a mixture of all native artists but there’s also a Latinx and then there’s we have White Boy Scream, who’s the moniker of Micaela Tobin, a Filipina American who was based in LA for a long time and now is in Oklahoma. We have two poets: one based here in the high desert, Alexandra Martinez, and then we also have Camaray Davalos, who is a prominent up and coming Native poet based in the LA area. We’ve got an Oklahoma-based experimental artist Warren Realrider, and Nathan Young will be performing as well.”

Sunday will be a shorter program, starting at 9:30 with coffee, 29 Loaves Bagels, and Galaxy Pies, followed by a performance from Torres Martinez Bird Singers at 11:00.

“We’re just really excited to bring the Intertribal Noise Symposium here––it is very much in line with what I’m trying to do as music director at Yucca Valley Material Lab, which is to open the high desert community up to the voices that are beyond what we typically hear in the in the mainstream world, beyond the western music canon.”

While the festival is free to attend, Monypeny says they’d prefer you RSVP so they know the size of crowd to accommodate. To register, please visit: yuccavalleymaterial.org and click on the Intertribal Noise Symposium link.