Stepping into the Trickster Cultural Center this past Saturday, I was immediately surrounded by the warm, woodsy smell of copal, an indigenous medicine of Mexico, burned in preparation for regalia and special ceremonies. The Center is preparing the space for a private wedding ceremony on Friday, and is filled with the chatter of community members, children, and extended family as they ready and design dresses for the big day.
Trickster began as a gallery promoting contemporary art of Native American veterans, but rebranded as a Cultural Center to emphasize the space’s focus on culture and healing, explains Gina, CCA’s guide and the Center’s Executive Director. On Saturdays, the Center hosts free Kinam classes, an Indigenous movement-based practice similar to yoga. Every Thursday is a cultural sharing night, offering teachings on Native culture and a casual community space. Members and artists oftentimes bring unfinished pieces of their artwork, from beadwork to sewing, utilizing the space to collaborate and share their respective work.
The first-floor exhibition is a place of teaching. Representing various tribal regions in the United States, it responds to the misconception that all Native American cultures are alike. The Na’wa’his’- Our Relations exhibit displays the art of George, Heather, and Halcyon Levi, of the Southern Cheyenne and Kiowa Tribes of Oklahoma. Their pieces use ledgers left behind from U.S. military massacres in the 1800s on the Great Plains, notably the Sand Creek Massacre of the Cheyenne and Arapaho people in 1864. Survivors of massacres began to write and create art out of these ledgers, and it is still used as a form of resistance today. Exhibits such as the Levi’s help dismantle stereotypes that Native Americans once inhabited the U.S, but have since left. Trickster provides the space, through art and community, for Native American culture and tradition to thrive and practice in contemporary North America today.
You can view photos from the visit on our social media @chicagocultural