Art of the Rural

Uplifting Two-Spirit Stories and Cultural Healing with Penny Kagigebi (5 Plain Questions)

This two-part episode was produced in partnership with5 Plain Questions [https://www.elevenwarriorarts.com/] and Eleven Warrior Arts. Hosted by Joe Williams [https://www.elevenwarriorarts.com/about-native], 5 Plain Questions is a podcast that proposes 5 general questions to Native American and Indigenous artists, creators, musicians, writers, movers and shakers, and culture bearers. In this episode, meet Penny Kagigebi. Penny is a Two-Spirit queer artist, curator, and community collaborator. She is Crane Clan from White Earth Nation Ojibwe in northwestern Minnesota. For years, Penny has worked at the intersection of queer activism and cultural healing, teaching and practicing porcupine quillwork and birchbark basketry to continue the lineages of these practices.  Recently, Penny curated Queering Indigeneity [https://mmaa.org/queering-indigeneity/] in collaboration with the Minnesota Museum of American Art. This multi-year, multi-generational project celebrates the vision and diversity of Two-Spirit, Native queer, gender expansive artists in the Upper Midwest. Her work has been shown across the Upper Midwest since 2018, supported by grants from the Region 2 Arts Council Anishinaabe Arts Initiative, the Lake Regions Arts Council, and the Minnesota State Arts Board, and recognized with fellowships like First Peoples Funds Cultural Capital and the Emerging Curators Institute. She also serves as co-vice chair for the Mahnomen Arts Initiative in Mahnomen, Minnesota, quietly doing the patient necessary work for tending culture back to life. Episode Resources * Episode transcript [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sI_AYfQwEpeRzAnBoyoUAqpMGLdtN3xH88uEdnN2fSc/edit?usp=sharing] * Episode webpage [http://artoftherural.org/podcasts/penny-kagigebi] * Penny Kagigebi’s Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/quill.everlasting.1] & Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/pennykagigebi/] * Queering Indigeneity [https://mmaa.org/queering-indigeneity/] at the Minnesota Museum of American Art * Two-Spirit Stories [https://textilecentermn.org/two-spirit-stories/] at Textile Center (Minneapolis) * Rural-Urban Exchange [https://www.artoftherural.org/initiatives/rural-urban-exchange], an initiative of Art of the Rural * Artists mentioned: * Sadie & Zoe Allen [https://www.instagram.com/lightningstonearts/] * Sharon Day [https://indigenouspeoplestf.org/about-iptf/staff/sharon-m-day-executive-director/] * Chewie Mason [https://www.instagram.com/chewiemonster_101/] * Albert McLeod [https://albertmcleod.com/] * Mel Losh [https://www.firstpeoplesfund.org/community-spirit-award-honorees/mel-losh] * Noah Polk [https://www.instagram.com/p/DRFNVrejzN7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==] * Delia Touché [https://deliatouche.com/] Subscribe to 5 Plain Questions wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/5-plain-questions/id1510487029] and Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/5hNLbrZlEuRCucRV2RIoX9?si=503f46175cfc4242]. Art of the Rural [https://artoftherural.org] is honored to support 5 Plain Questions. We are grateful to individual donors across the country, the Ford Foundation, and Good Chaos for making these conversations possible. Learn more about our work and show your support at artoftherural.org [https://artoftherural.org]

“Get Dirty, Eat Well, and Make Art”: Reflecting on 25 Years of Wormfarm Institute with Donna Neuwirth & Jay Salinas

Meet Donna Neuwirth and Jay Salinas, co-Founders of Wormfarm Institute, a cross-sector arts and culture organization rooted in Sauk County, Wisconsin, in the heart of the Driftless region of the Upper Midwest. Over thirty years ago, Jay and Donna made a leap of faith, leaving behind Chicago, and the city’s vibrant arts scene, for a forty-acre dairy farm in Wisconsin. Out of this experiment grew one of the most inventive and influential models for artistic, cultural, and agricultural stewardship in rural communities, a way of seeing connections embodied in Wormfarm’s notion of the cultureshed. From this foundation, Jay and Donna built a residency program rooted in the simple, generative idea of invitation – welcoming artists to visit, stay, and pitch in with the labor of a working farm. As we learn in this conversation, all of the work that has garnered Wormfarm such attention and respect continues to be rooted in those relationships and conversations that can be exchanged across a bean row. As we learn, this ethos led to some of the Institute’s most well-known work: the Farm/Art DTour, a ten-day, fifty-mile, self-guided drive across Sauk County, punctuated by temporary art installations, pasture performances, and roadside poetry; and Fermentation Fest, a celebration of the deep connections between food, land, and culture. Across all these efforts, Wormfarm has cultivated a web of cross-sector partnerships that weave together farmers, ecologists, choreographers, sculptors, and community members across the Midwest. This conversation scans from Wormfarm’s history forward into their visions for the future, and what can emerge out of deep attention to place, culture, and ecology – and where those soundings might take all of us. Learn more and support Wormfarm Institute at wormfarminstitute.org [http://wormfarminstitute.org]. Episode Resources * Episode transcript [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ge-UjcvmsA_lp-tZDKZs3gZAwJhc5n0eWF3bgz5FS_E/edit?usp=sharing] * Wormfarm Institute website [https://www.wormfarminstitute.org/] * The notion of "cultureshed [https://www.wormfarminstitute.org/about/mission]" * Artist Residency Program [https://www.wormfarminstitute.org/programs/artist-residency-program] * Farm/Art DTour [https://www.wormfarminstitute.org/programs/dour-10years] * Fermentation Fest [https://www.wormfarminstitute.org/programs/fermfest] * Hay Rake Ballet [https://www.wormfarminstitute.org/programs/current/hayrake] * Decomposium [https://www.wormfarminstitute.org/programs/current/decomp26] * Aldo Leopold archives [https://www.aldoleopold.org/teach-and-learn/leopold-archives] * Dr. Evermor [https://www.worldofdrevermor.com/] We are grateful to folks across the country who have made tax-deductible contributions to Art of the Rural to make this conversation possible, and to the Ford Foundation and Good Chaos Foundation for their support of Art of the Rural’s media programs.

Championing Native Rights with Suzan Shown Harjo, Part 2 (5 Plain Questions)

This two-part episode was produced in partnership with5 Plain Questions [https://www.elevenwarriorarts.com/] and Eleven Warrior Arts. Hosted by Joe Williams [https://www.elevenwarriorarts.com/about-native], 5 Plain Questions is a podcast that proposes 5 general questions to Native American and Indigenous artists, creators, musicians, writers, movers and shakers, and culture bearers. Suzan Shown Harjo is a Cheyenne citizen of Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes and Hodulgee Muscogee. She is a six-decade champion for Native rights, Founder and President of the Morning Star Institute, and former Executive Director of the National Congress of the American Indians and Native American Rights Fund. Her poetry has been published widely in several journals and anthologies, including Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writings of North America [https://birchbarkbooks.com/products/reinventing-the-enemys-language] and The Remembered Earth: An Anthology of Contemporary Native American Literature [https://www.unmpress.com/9780826305688/the-remembered-earth/]. In Part 2 of this conversation, Suzan continues to reflect on her work in media & journalism and her transition to Native rights advocacy. Throughout this journey, she stresses the importance of representing Native arts & culture on a national level. Suzan also shares more stories and perspectives from her youth, including her involvement in the No Mascots movement. The episode closes out with Suzan’s advice for young folks, a continuation of her ancestors’ and elders’ guidance. Throughout her advocacy work, Suzan has helped win landmark laws, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1979, the National Museum of the American Indian Act of 1989, and the Native American Graves Protection Act of 1990. She has also led campaigns to end Native mascots, helped return over a million acres of Indigenous land, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. She remains a leading voice for Indigenous culture and legal rights. Stay tuned for part 2! Episode Resources * Episode webpage & part 1 [https://artoftherural.org/podcasts/suzan-shown-harjo] * Episode transcript [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MbQQDe-wjYXa8i-QqdPS17ep0LSipH7jhW5-8jxxjC4/edit?usp=sharing] * 5 Plain Questions website [https://elevenwarriorarts.com] Subscribe to 5 Plain Questions wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/5-plain-questions/id1510487029] and Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/5hNLbrZlEuRCucRV2RIoX9?si=503f46175cfc4242]. Art of the Rural [https://artoftherural.org] is honored to support 5 Plain Questions. We are grateful to individual donors across the country, the Ford Foundation, and Good Chaos for making these conversations possible. Learn more about our work and show your support at artoftherural.org [https://artoftherural.org]

Championing Native Rights with Suzan Shown Harjo, Part 1 (5 Plain Questions)

This two-part episode was produced in partnership with5 Plain Questions [https://www.elevenwarriorarts.com/] and Eleven Warrior Arts. Hosted by Joe Williams [https://www.elevenwarriorarts.com/about-native], 5 Plain Questions is a podcast that proposes 5 general questions to Native American and Indigenous artists, creators, musicians, writers, movers and shakers, and culture bearers. Suzan Shown Harjo is a Cheyenne citizen of Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes and Hodulgee Muscogee. She is a six-decade champion for Native rights, Founder and President of the Morning Star Institute, and former Executive Director of the National Congress of the American Indians and Native American Rights Fund. Her poetry has been published widely in several journals and anthologies, including Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writings of North America [https://birchbarkbooks.com/products/reinventing-the-enemys-language] and The Remembered Earth: An Anthology of Contemporary Native American Literature [https://www.unmpress.com/9780826305688/the-remembered-earth/]. In Part 1 of this conversation, you will hear about Suzan’s early life, family influences, and the experiences that have shaped her decades-long advocacy work. From her transnational upbringing & education, including in places like Hawaii and Italy, she underscores the presence of shared values across cultures, including intergenerational respect, kinship, and resilience. Her elders’ teachings about tribal treaties and her background in both language arts & journalism influenced and informed her transition to Native advocacy. Throughout her advocacy work, Suzan has helped win landmark laws, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1979, the National Museum of the American Indian Act of 1989, and the Native American Graves Protection Act of 1990. She has also led campaigns to end Native mascots, helped return over a million acres of Indigenous land, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. She remains a leading voice for Indigenous culture and legal rights. Stay tuned for part 2! Episode Resources * Episode webpage [https://artoftherural.org/podcasts/suzan-shown-harjo] * 5 Plain Questions website [https://elevenwarriorarts.com] Subscribe to 5 Plain Questions wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/5-plain-questions/id1510487029] and Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/5hNLbrZlEuRCucRV2RIoX9?si=503f46175cfc4242]. Art of the Rural [https://artoftherural.org] is honored to support 5 Plain Questions. We are grateful to individual donors across the country, the Ford Foundation, and Good Chaos for making these conversations possible. Learn more about our work and show your support at artoftherural.org [https://artoftherural.org]

Tending Our Circles: The Long Conversation with Fire in the Village's Annie Humphrey & Shanai Matteson

In this episode, meet Annie Humphrey and Shanai Matteson of Fire in the Village, a collective of artists and cultural organizers that build and sustain spiritual fires of connection where they live in Anishinaabe territory, or rural northern Minnesota, and with arts and music communities around the region. As we learn, Fire in the Village isn't what we might conventionally call an organization or a program. As Shanai shares in this conversation, Fire in the Village is better understood as a work of art in itself — one that is always evolving, always changing, and deeply tethered to the places and people from which it springs. One of the most resonant images in this conversation is the one that gives this collective its name. Annie describes the circles that Fire in the Village builds as little fires — distinct, local, and belonging to their particular lands and community, but capable of connecting to other fires across the region and beyond, growing and growing until what once seemed isolated becomes a network of warmth and light. Recorded in November 2025, this conversation raises many complex and multilayered questions with depth and honesty: What does it mean to stay? What does it cost, practically and personally, to choose to remain in and work from the communities where you were shaped, rather than accept the art world's logic of moving away? What futures are possible in terms of intercultural exchange and community resilience when artists and culture bearers are genuinely of a place and not just visitors to it? This episode is presented in a format that we call the Long Conversation, an unmoderated space that allows for individuals to cultivate a depth of conversation that shares the textures of creativity and intercultural exchange that are often hard to express in conventional interviews. Episode Resources * Episode transcript [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vpT49JCskLX_B3OI0vMIpG0VSxayWwv9WHBik-vhC-Q/edit?usp=sharing] * Fire in the Village website [https://www.fireinthevillage.org/] & Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/fireinthe_village] * Shanai Matteson's website [https://shanai.work/] * Annie Humphrey's website [https://www.anniehumphreymusic.com/] * John Trudell archive [https://www.johntrudell.com/] More Long Conversations * Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange & Kentucky Performing Arts, The Golden Thread [https://www.kyrux.org/blog/golden-thread-2025-recap] (2025) * Dyani White Hawk & Jovan C. Speller, High Visibility: On Location in Rural America & Indian Country [https://www.artoftherural.org/podcasts/the-long-conversation-dyani-white-hawk-jovan-c-speller] (2021) We are grateful to folks across the country who have made tax-deductible contributions to Art of the Rural to make this conversation possible, and to the Ford Foundation [https://www.fordfoundation.org/] and Good Chaos Foundation [https://goodchaos.com/] for their support of Art of the Rural’s media programs.