Ideas for Turtle Island Resources

For many IBPOC people, the geographic boundaries between Canada and the U.S.A are incidental, particularly for Indigenous people, for whom North America as a whole represents Turtle Island.* With this in mind, we include notable resources from wider Turtle Island.

Raven Chacon, Report (excerpt, 1:00) Report (2001/ 2015) is a piece scored for an ensemble of firearms of varying calibers, composed by Indigenous American (Diné) artist and composer Raven Chacon spiderwebsinthesky.com. Chacon, trained with an MFA in classical composition, is also a performer of experimental noise music and an installation artist. His work was shown at the 2017 Whitney Biennial, and at Documenta 14. This iconic piece speaks volumes about the anger and resilience of Indigenous people who, after having been brutally repressed for so long, use one of the most violent settler weapons to create music.

Institute for Composer Diversity An award-winning database housed the State University of New York at Fredonia dedicated to the celebration, education, and advocacy of music created by composers from historically underrepresented groups.

SPHINX Composer Resources Directory Resources promoting Black, Latin-American, and BIPOC composers compiled by the Sphinx Organization, a Detroit-based social justice organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts, founded by Aaron P. Dworkin, and currently led by Afa S. Dworkin. Check out their extensive programs here: www.sphinxmusic.org

Composer’s Equity Project A list of ALAANA (African/Black, Latinx, Asian/South Asian, Arab/Middle Eastern, and Native American), Women, and Gender Non-Conforming Composers compiled by Chamber Music America, with highlighted names linking directly to composers’ websites.