2017 Event is SOLD OUT!! 30 Informational Booths 12 Breakout sessions Social Hour with Concert by Frank Waln & Tanaya Winder Over 200 Native Youth from more than 49 Different Tribes! We hope to see you for NEXT years Event! Please look for information in July about the 5th Annual NERDS Youth Gathering If you are interested in being an event Sponsor, Keynote Speaker, Performer, or having a booth please contact us at once.
Kelsey Janway is a 17 year old member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and senior at Heavener High School where she is involved in many activities, both within her Tribe and community. Kelsey was a founding member of President Barack Obama's Generation Indigenous Inaugural Class where she proudly shared her voice to raise awareness to the everyday struggles Native students face. She has represented Choctaw Nation at two consecutive Tribal Nation meetings and honorably served as President of her youth council for two years and Vice President for one year. Kelsey was also elected Governor during her Page week at the Oklahoma State Capitol along with being nominated Outstanding Page of the week. Kelsey attended Oklahoma Girls State where she was nominated Outstanding Citizen for Knight City. She is currently serving as Student Council President and Yearbook Editor for her high school. Kelsey is Chapter Representative for LeFlore South's chapter. She is also on the Board of Directors for the Kansas City Federal Reserve Oklahoma City Branch. Kelsey is a very dynamic leader and has been employed at KP's Quick Mart for 2 years. When she isn't busy, Kelsey likes to spend time with her family, make blankets, and tell stories. NERDS can't wait to have her share her story with you all! CONGRATULATIONS Kelsey!!! California better be ready for you!
FINAL Agenda
7:30~ Doors Open for Check in
8:30 ~ Morning Blessing – Marie Geisdorff ~ Tuolumne Band of Me-wuk · Breakfast *Students eat first please 9:00 ~ Introduction by Elyssia Maysee & Alex Ramirez Event Hosts Dahkota & Dahlton Brown NERDS Founders
10:00-11:45 ~Booth time, Photo Booth, Breakout Sessions
10:00-10:45 Fire: Johnnie Jae of Native Max Magazine – Flip the Script/Culture in Journalism Rain: Dominic Porras - Film & Media Project of Today’s Gathering!! Cloud: Rachel Alvarez (SNAHC) - Sex, Drugs & Rock n Roll
11:00-11:45 Fire: Isabella Zizi & Dahkota Brown – Activism IS for Everyone!!! Rain: Melissa Leal – Hip Hop Expression Cloud: Natalie Vetter & Andrew Flores – Teen Dating & Healthy Relationships
12:45 ~ Guest Speakers - Tanaya Winder & Frank Waln
2:00-4:00 ~Booth time, Photo Booth, Breakout Sessions
2:00-2:45 Fire: Carlos Geisdorff – Excite & Motivate through Me-wuk Language Rain: Lynnann Yazzie of UNITY – Taking Action as Today’s Native Leaders Cloud: Desiree Adams – Youth Led Talking Circle
3:00 - 3:45 Fire: Various Colleges – Everything You Want to Know about College & More Rain: Marty Meeden – Ethnic Studies & Inappropriate Native Images Cloud: Rocky Twitchell – Anti-bullying & Self Defense
3:45 ~ Student Prize Raffle in lobby – Winners will be POSTED!!
4:00 – 5:30 ~ Frank Waln & Tanaya Winder performing With Special Guest Emcee: Rancheria Radio ~ Large Item Raffle at Start ~ Hors d’oeuvres Served
Announcing this years Key Note Speakers ~ Tanaya Winder & Frank Waln
FRANK WALN Artist/Producer/Performer Frank Waln is an award winning Sicangu Lakota Hip Hop artist and music producer from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Raised by a single mother, Frank taught himself how to produce and record music as a teenager. A recipient of the Gates Millennium Scholarship, he attended Columbia College Chicago where he received a BA in Audio Arts and Acoustics. Waln’s awards include three Native American Music Awards, the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development 2014 Native American 40 Under 40, the 2014 Chicago Mayor’s Award for Civic Engagement, and the 2016 3Arts Grant for Chicago Artists. He has been featured in The Fader, Playboy, Vibe, NPR, Paper Magazine, ESPN, and MTV’s Rebel Music Native America. Frank Waln travels the world telling his story through performance and doing workshops focusing on self-determination and expression of truth.
Tanaya Winder is a writer, educator, motivational speaker, and performance poet from the Southern Ute, Duckwater Shoshone, and Pyramid Lake Paiute Nations. She grew up on the Southern Ute Indian reservation and attended college at Stanford University where she earned a BA in English and the University of New Mexico where she received an MFA in creative writing. Since then she has co-founded As/Us: A Space for Women of the World and founded Dream Warriors, an Indigenous artist management company. She guest lectures, teaches creative writing workshops, and speaks at high schools, universities, and communities internationally. Tanaya writes and teaches about different expressions of love (self love, intimate love, social love, community love, and universal love); she is an advocate of heartwork and believes everyone has a gift they’ve been placed on this earth to share. View her TED talk here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF1z5XHEMaM