COYOTE MAKES A WORLD

THE FOREST in collaboration with čnaq’ymi (LONE EAGLE)

CONTACT

info@continuumculture.org        
917.828.4951

COYOTE MAKES A WORLD is a multimedia performance ritual that interweaves Native American and other musical traditions using percussion, storytelling, song, electronic music, and projected photographic and video imagery.

Performed by The Forest —a cooperative percussion ensemble consisting of Gustavo Aguilar, Leah Bowden, Andrew Drury, and Michael Wimberly, with guest artist Lesley Mok on the recording —in collaboration with Native storyteller/musician čnaq’ymi (lone eagle) Coyote Makes a World explores a contemporary world in environmental and political crisis. Lone Eagle’s insightful reworking of his Spokan people’s traditional Coyote stories, music, and concept of ceremony brings a powerful, healing perspective to audience members of all backgrounds. 

album tracks

As the central figure within Indigenous storytelling traditions of the Interior Northwest, Coyote navigates the tenuous and tumultuous present in Coyote Makes a World.

Emerging from stories that embody the qualities of long held Native storytelling traditions, here Coyote encounters the contemporary crises of our times, oblivious to the consequences of his actions in ways that are familiar, unsettling, and often humorous. Set within a dynamic rhythmic landscape layered with songs, stories, electronic sounds, and words from the Spokan language, Coyote Makes a World reflects the world we’ve made while taking the listener to places they’ve never before encountered.

At its explosive in-progress performance at the Globalquerque World Music and Culture Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Coyote Makes a World left the audience spellbound. Embodying Coyote’s more outlandish qualities through movement, spoken word, mask work, and songs, lone eagle introduces audiences to a visceral sense of spirituality normally found within sacred Native American ceremonies. More than groundbreaking music, Coyote Makes a World is a ritual that possesses the power to transport and transform.

COYOTE/FOREST HISTORY

COYOTE MAKES A WORLD is a collaboration between The Forest and lone eagle (čnaq'ymi) combining elements of Native American, African diasporic, and Hindustani singing and percussion with electronics and storytelling.

Coyote was presented as a work-in-progress at the Interference Series in Flagstaff, Arizona, and at Globalquerque (world music and culture festival) in Albuquerque, New Mexico in September, 2024. It will premiere at Springfield College in Massachusetts in October, 2025.

In October, 2024 The Forest led a five-day, $15,000 residency at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana performing the compositions of legendary percussionist and co-founder with Max Roach and others of M’Boom, Warren Smith, at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. The Forest received a $40,000 Jazz Road Creative Residency grant from South Arts in 2022 for the (D)RUMINATIONS Ed Blackwell tribute project. The Forest has received multiple grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs ($10,000+).

The Forest has performed in nine cities across the US at venues including Roulette Intermedium, Lincoln Center, and Soup & Sound (New York), Edgefest (Ann Arbor), Cal Arts (LA), Bread & Salt (San Diego), The Century Room (Tucson), The Chapel (co-presented with The University of Washington in Seattle), and Bennington College.

PERFORMER BIOS

THE FOREST is a cooperative percussion ensemble featuring GUSTAVO AGUILAR, LEAH BOWDEN, ANDREW DRURY, and MICHAEL WIMBERLY—four artists who possess deep experience performing, improvising, and composing in dialogue with a range of African, Asian, and Indigenous diasporic musical and cultural practices. Aguilar, Bowden, and Wimberly are professors at NYU Tisch, Springfield College, and Bennington College.

Based in Brooklyn, The Forest has done three projects that have resulted in two recordings and performances across the US: (D)ruminations for Edward Blackwell, The Compositions of Warren Smith, and Coyote Makes a World.

  • GUSTAVO AGUILAR is an interdisciplinary artist whose approach combines the archive (preconceived elements such as notation, texts, documents) and the repertoire (present-conceived elements such as gesture, orality, aurality). A Brownsville, Texas native, Gustavo has performed at major festivals throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. Gustavo is Co-Artistic Director of Tug an interdisciplinary arts collective that creates contact zones where people can generate insights about, and produce actions around, contemporary social issues. Gustavo is Associate Arts Professor at the Tisch School of the Arts/NYU and faculty in the MFA Art Practice at the School of Visual Arts, NYC.

  • LEAH BOWDEN (D.M.A.) is a drummer/percussionist, music scholar and educator. She has recorded and toured with The Forest, red fish blue fish, William Winant Percussion Group, Kid Millions, Secret Drum Band, International Contemporary Ensemble, Cosmo Gold, and Baby Bushka, among others. After completing an ethnographic dissertation study of Max Roach and M’Boom at UC San Diego, Leah became the official archivist for M’Boom co-founder, Warren Smith. She also arranged and recorded the music of M’Boom with El Otro Lado, a bi-national percussion ensemble (USA/ Mexico). Leah is an Adjunct Music Professor at Springfield College.

  • ANDREW DRURY grew up near Seattle and mentored with Ed Blackwell from 1983-92. Drury has pioneered extended wind and friction techniques for drums, performing in 30 countries and on 80 recordings with musicians including Wadada Leo Smith, Myra Melford, Frank Lacy, Tomeka Reid, Annea Lockwood, Jason Kao Hwang, Satoko Fujii, Michel Doneda, and James Brandon Lewis. Drury has led over 1,500 workshops with vulnerable populations in shelters, prisons, Nicaraguan villages, refugee communities, and in 20 universities on three continents. He has produced over 200 Soup & Sound concerts every where from his home to Lincoln Center. He directs the non-profit organization, Continuum Culture & Arts.

  • MICHAEL WIMBERLY (percussionist, composer, producer, educator) has performed with George Clinton and Parliament Funkedelic, Paul Winter Consort, Steve Coleman, Henry Rollins, D'Angelo, Dionne Warwick, Valerie Simpson, Charles Gayle, and David Murray. Wimberly has been featured with Vienna’s Rundfunk Symphony, Tonkuntsler Symphony, and Leipzig Symphony. His compositions for dance are in the repertory of Urban Bush Women, Joffrey II, Alvin Ailey, Philadanco, Complexions, and The National Song and Dance Company of Mozambique. Two of his film scores appear on HBO productions and his latest CD “Afrofuturism” is on Temple Mountain Records. Since 2012 he has been fulltime faculty at Bennington College.

*Lesley Mok appears as a special guest on the recording but not in live performances.

  • čnaq’ymi (lone eagle) is an Indigenous musician, storyteller, and educator dedicated to preserving and sharing the rich musical and cultural heritage of his people. In addition to being a traditional singer in his Spokane tribal community, lone eagle is a north Indian classical vocalist who studied under Pandit Rajeev Taranath, his teacher of 30 years. As a performer, he emphasizes the spiritual and healing dimensions of music, weaving ancient practices with contemporary songs and stories that connect deeply with a range of audiences. lone eagle appears in the groundbreaking film, Rumble: Indians Who Rocked the World, which highlights the critical contributions of Native American musicians to multiple musical genres, including jazz, blues, and rock. In addition to his performances, he is a respected scholar in Indigenous studies and advocate for Indigenous cultural revitalization. 

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  • INSTRUMENTS: electric marimba, 2 laptops, drum set, djembe, congas, balafon, auxiliary percussion, vocals

    *The Forest can provide instruments

    STAGE PLOT: available on request

    SOUND:

    • 5 vocal mics (all five musicians sing)

    • 3 D.I.s

    • If percussion instruments need to be mic’d we will provide a detailed rider. 

    IMAGE PROJECTION: Performance will include video throughout. 

FOREST RECORDINGS 

The Forest released its first studio recording—(D)ruminations (Different Track Recordings)—in 2024, featuring special guests Warren Smith (percussion) and J. D. Parran (multi-winds).

“....[(D)ruminations is]an extraordinary manifestation of size in flux and diversity matched only by the breathtakingly vivid recording."

–Marc Medwin in the NYC Jazz Record, June 2024

Coyote Makes a World is their next recording. To be released in 2025.