Amber Bradshaw
Free Flowin’
Masks on, jabronis!
One of the best ways to enforce your 6-foot personal perimeter is to invest in a hoop of about that size and swing it around your body whenever you're near others. Unfortunately, if you get too good, you might attract more gawkers than you intend, defeating the purpose. It's too late: you're a flow artist now.
"[With] hoops, and flow arts in general, you give yourself a space around your body that you're using with your 'dance partner,' so to speak, and that space, nobody else is gonna come into. So as long as your partner is an inanimate object, everybody stays pretty safe," Amber Bradshaw, owner of Rabbit Wheel Studio, tells SFR.
She's a certified Hoop Love Coach, which means not only does she know all the cool tricks, she teaches 'em, too. She also makes her own artisan hoops and hosts a weekly meetup for the flow community.
"I got to Santa Fe and I wanted people to hoop with or flow. I also do poi. …I didn't see anybody in the flow arts community…so I said, I'm just going to take a risk and start it myself."
Bradshaw believes deeply in the healing potential of flow arts for managing things like mental illness and loneliness, and is taking a class that explores the connection between neuroscience, flow arts and healing.
"It's something that I'm very passionate about and I really want to bring it to other people. Especially in light of the pandemic, there are going to be so many people suffering from PTSD and trauma and they are going to need some kind of an outlet and a release," she says. "This is perfect because even if we're still in the middle of the pandemic, you can hoop and be socially distant and enjoy being together, but not, like, y'know, touching each other."
Beginners will find sanitized hoops and cheerful tips to help them get started at the Friday Night Flow events, and the hoops Bradshaw makes start around $20 for those looking to dive in. If you know how to spin fire, there's space for that, too. That'll definitely help people keep their distance. (Cole Rehbein)
Friday Night Flow:
7-9 pm Friday, July 17. Free.
Fort Marcy Park,
490 Bishops Lodge Road.
Doin’ it For the ‘Gram
Lomayumtewa K. Ishii— Courtesy School for Advanced Research
The School for Advanced Research does this cool weekly thing where it turns over its Instagram Live to an artist for insight into their work. This week, SAR features painter Lomayumtewa K. Ishii (Hopi), a member of the Rabbit-Tobacco clan who was raised in a traditional Hopi family and was SAR's 2016 Rollin and Mary Ella King Native Artist Fellow. His work reflects deeply on the values, symbols and practices of his culture and upbringing while engaging with contemporary Indigenous trends in form and color. Hosts Elysia Poon, director of SAR's Indian Arts Research Center, and Felicia Garcia (Santa Ynez Chumash), curator of education, informally interview Ishii while viewers can submit their own questions in the chat. (CR)
SAR Artists Live: Lomayumtewa K Ishii:
6-7 pm Tuesday, July 21. Free.
Online at instagram.com/schoolforadvancedresearch
Mask On
SFR File Photo
COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting Indigenous nations—full stop. While the government might be turning its back to the problem, Pueblo people are coming together to take care of their own. The Pueblo Action Alliance and national organization Seeding Sovereignty are hosting a series of mask giveaways for Indigenous relatives to provide free personal protective equipment and hand sanitizer. This week, they're teaming up with Tewa Women United and Three Sisters Collective to distribute supplies in Tewa territory. Expect snacks, social distancing and community support. And if you're a white settler looking to help, these are four organizations to which you should be donating. (CR)
Northern Community Mask Giveaway:
12- 6 pm Thursday, July 16. Free for Indigenous people.
Valdez Park, 904 E Fairview Lane, Espanola
BLACK LIVES MATTER
Leah Cantor
This movement isn't over. Black lives don't stop mattering when the national cameras turn away from the protests. In fact, movements should become louder when attention wanes, 'cuz the fight for racial justice is just getting started. Black Lives Matter ABQ brings its demands to defund the police and more broadly to liberate Black people from state violence to the capital city this Saturday, after a march scheduled for mid-June was postponed for the safety and health of the organizers. Instead of merely driving by the protest with a honk and raised fist, why don't you actually get in the streets? Social distancing and masks are required. (CR)
It Can't Wait March:
6-10 pm Saturday, July 18. Free.
Santa Fe Plaza,
63 Lincoln Ave.
