Announcing the 2020 Native Launchpad Awardees
Portland, OR – Western Arts Alliance (WAA) has awarded five Native Launchpad Artist Awards to Dakota Alcantara-Camacho, Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti, Shelley Morningsong, Kalani Pe’a, and brooke smiley. Each award is valued at $40,000 over three years, in the form of cash grants, travel support, mentoring/coaching, showcasing, promotional benefits, and networking opportunities.
Established in 2018, Native Launchpad is now in its third cycle. The program aims to further the careers of US-based Indigenous artists and ensembles by deepening their connection to the worlds of arts presenting and management. The program is the cornerstone of WAA’s Advancing Indigenous Performance (AIP) initiative to build audiences for Indigenous performing arts through educational and career development resources for artists and presenters.
Meet the 2020 Native Launchpad Award Recipients
Dakota Alcantara-Camacho
Tribal Affiliation: Matao (CHamoru)
Artistic Discipline: Multidiscipline
dxʷdəwʔabš Territory (Seattle), WA
Born, raised, and based in Coast Salish Territory, Dakota Camacho is a Matao/CHamoru multi-disciplinary artist / researcher working in spaces of Indigenous life ways, performance, musical composition, community engagement, and education.
Camacho holds a Masters of Arts in Performance Studies from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Arts in Gender & Women's Studies as a First Wave Urban Arts and Hip Hop Scholar.
Camacho is a chanter, adjunct instructor, and core researcher for I Fanlalai'an Oral History Project based at the University of Guåhan.
Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti
Tribal Affiliation: Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian)
Artistic Discipline: Music
Honolulu, HI
Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti is a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) musician dedicated to the music of our time. A "leading composer-performer" (The New York Times), her compositions often deal with unique instrument-objects. As a recording artist, she has played viola on albums from Björk's Vulnicura Live and Joan Osborne's Love and Hate, to Dai Fujikura's Chance Monsoon and David Lang’s anatomy theater. Lanzilotti is a co-founder and Artistic Consultant for Kalikolehua — El Sistema Hawai‘i, a free orchestra program for underserved youth, and is Curator of Music at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Shelley Morningsong
Tribal Affiliation: Northern Cheyenne
Artistic Discipline: Music
Zuni Pueblo, NM
Singer/songwriter and Native American flute player Shelley Morningsong (Northern Cheyenne) is a seven-time Native American Music Awards winner, including 2019 “Artist of the Year”. She has recorded seven albums of her soulful contemporary compositions and has written theme songs for nonprofits One Nation Walking and Electro-Magnetic Health. Shelley teaches online and conducts workshops at festivals. In performance she is joined by her husband, Fabian Fontenelle (Zuni/Omaha), an original member of the American Indian Dance Theatre. Her latest project is the upcoming children’s book, “She Talks to the Animals”, based on a song by the same name from her award-winning album, “Love Medicine”.
Kalani Pe’a
Tribal Affiliation: Native Hawaiian
Artistic Discipline: Music
Hilo, HI
Kalani Pe’a, made Hawaiian music history when his debut album, E Walea, took home the 2017 Grammy Award for Best Regional Roots Music Album. In 2017, he was awarded the Na Hoku Hanohano Award (Hawai’i’s Music Awards) for Best Contemporary Album, becoming the 1st Hawaiian recording artist to receive both awards for the same project. His second album, No ’Ane’i, won the Regional Roots Grammy in 2019 & topped the iTunes and Billboard’s world music charts. In 2020 he made his New York City debut for the Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, the first Hawaiian artist to be featured on the series.
brooke smiley
Tribal Affiliation: Osage
Artistic Discipline: Dance, Multidiscipline
Los Osos, CA
brooke smiley is a body and earth artist living in California. She invites collaborative spaces of remembering, creating experiences that span the disciplines of dance, somatics, public art, sculpture, and sustainable architecture. Through performance, workshops, exhibitions, and community engagement, brooke guides choice, agency and freedom in the body, in relationship with one another, and nature. With a strong background in contemporary, post modern dance, and earth architecture, brooke’s choreographic and earth works are embodied acts of change catalyzing awareness for environmental and Indigenous justice. A multiracial, First Nation (Osage) woman, she is a licensed California contractor, certified Superadobe earth builder, and BMC® Somatic Movement Educator. She currently teaches dance and embodiment practices at University of California at Santa Barbara.