2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Pow Wow hits Main Green for first time
Robin Steele
Issue date: 4/21/08 Section: Arts & Culture
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The seventh-annual Spring Thaw Pow Wow took over the Green on Saturday and Sunday, presented by the student group Native Americans at Brown. The two-day event included dance competitions, storytelling, songs and vendors selling crafts, clothing, jewelry and food.
A pow wow is a large social gathering of Native Americans, which features traditional dances blended with contemporary elements and include "drum music, feasting and dance competition," according to the event's program. Pow wows are historically rooted in the traditional dances and gatherings of the Omaha people, spreading to other tribal groups, resulting in its modern incarnation, which dates back 50 to 70 years, the program said.
This year's pow wow was the first to be held on the Main Green, said Mikel Brown '08, a member of the 2007-08 Pow wow Committee. In previous years, the pow wow locations have included Sayles Hall, the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center and the Pizzitola Sports Center.
The annual pow wow was started seven years ago by NAB under the guidance of Elizabeth Hoover MA'03 GS, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology. Hoover said she first started doing pow wows as an undergraduate at Williams College and then discovered an interest in holding a pow wow among NAB students when she came to Brown. NAB's current membership is 15 to 25 students, Brown said.
"Turnout was incredible," Brown said, crediting the change in location. Brown said she counted 330 attendees at lunch time, usually one of the slower times of day. Both Brown and Hoover said they were particularly pleased for this year's good weather, which allowed them to hold the pow wow outside.
The new location allowed the vendors and performers to share a single space. Tents displaying clothing and crafts encircled the performance space in the center of the Green.
Hoover is a founding member of the group Native American Women in Providence, which works with Native American Providence youth. She said she was happy to see the kids she has worked with in NAWIP at the pow wow, wearing the shawls that she has helped them make.