Festival Sefardí

05/20/2025

Laura Rebolloso y Las Flores del Valle with Carlos Arellano and friends closing Festival Sefardí 16. Holy smokes!
What a band! What a weekend! ¡Gracias a todos!

05/15/2025

Hanging incredible art with brother Lee and his bullet level.
The show is called "Within and Among All Things" and it features the work of 70 young students at the Native American Community Academy in Albuquerque. The middle school and high school classes read the poem "Mid America Prayer" by Simon Ortiz and got to work drawing and painting.
You've got to see what they came up with.
The show opens Festival Sefardí this Friday.
Gracias a hermana Sandra for the photos.
https://www.nahalatshalom.org/festival-sefard-2025

05/12/2025

UNBOUND at Festival Sefardí!
We contain multitudes!
Sarah Hogland-Gurulé, Gabriel Carrion-Gonzales and Lupita Salazar will lead a community movement workshop to help us connect with our ancestors, give a dance performance and lead a discussion too! It's about history, unity, identity.

Festival Sefardí opens this Friday with an art reception for students at the Native American Community Academy at 5pm followed by a pot luck vegetarian Sefardic Shabbat ceremony at 7pm. Friday events are free and everyone is welcome.
Tickets for the weekend, schedule and more information: https://www.nahalatshalom.org/festival-sefard-2025
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Please share!
¡SIN LÍMITES en el Festival Sefardí!

¡Contenemos multitudes!

Sarah Hogland-Gurulé, Gabriel Carrión-Gonzales y Lupita Salazar impartirán un taller de movimiento comunitario para conectar con nuestros ancestros, ofrecerán una presentación de danza y también dirigirán un debate. Se trata de historia, unidad e identidad.

El Festival Sefardí inaugura este viernes con una recepción de arte para estudiantes de la Academia Comunitaria Nativa Americana a las 17:00 h, seguida de una ceremonia vegetariana de Shabat sefardí a las 19:00 h. Los eventos del viernes son gratuitos y todos están bienvenidos.
Entradas para el fin de semana, horario y más información: https://www.nahalatshalom.org/festival-sefard-2025
No se rechazó a nadie por falta de fondos.

¡Por favor, compartan!

05/09/2025

Festival Sefardí in today’s ABQ Journal. Read all about it—and get your tickets today!

Albuquerque’s Festival Sefardí returns for its 16th year, exploring the complex heritage of Sephardic Jews in the Southwest with a series of talks by prominent scholars, as well as music, dance, poetry, art, workshops and food.

05/09/2025

Look who showed up at the Nahalat Shalom woodshop with a gift for the new Sefardic Learning Center!
Our friend Dr. Enrique Lamadrid, co-editor of Nación Genizara will be giving a fascinating talk about Genízaro communities in New Mexico at Festival Sefardí, just one week away! Nahalat Shalom Director Esteban Rael was there for the history lesson!
Complete schedule and tickets here:
https://www.nahalatshalom.org/festival-sefard-2025

05/09/2025

Happy Birthday Joy Harjo!

I Give You Back
I release you, my beautiful and terrible
fear. I release you. You were my beloved
and hated twin, but now, I don’t know you
as myself. I release you with all the
pain I would know at the death of
my children.

You are not my blood anymore.

I give you back to the soldiers
who burned down my home, beheaded my children,
r***d and sodomized my brothers and sisters.
I give you back to those who stole the
food from our plates when we were starving.

I release you, fear, because you hold
these scenes in front of me and I was born
with eyes that can never close.

I release you
I release you
I release you
I release you

I am not afraid to be angry.
I am not afraid to rejoice.
I am not afraid to be black
I am not afraid to be white
I am not afraid to be hungry
I am not afraid to be full
I am not afraid to be hated
I am not afraid to be loved

to be loved, to be loved, fear.

Oh, you have choked me, but I gave you the leash.
You have gutted me but I gave you the knife.
You have devoured me, but I laid myself across the fire.

I take myself back, fear.
You are not my shadow any longer.
I won’t hold you in my hands.
You can’t live in my eyes, my ears, my voice
my belly, or in my heart my heart
my heart my heart

But come here, fear
I am alive and you are so afraid
of dying.

*Harjo, Joy. How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems, 1975-2001. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002. 50-51.

Hear this poem and seven others by great Native American poets read in English by Phoenix Luna and in Spanish by Sandra Marroquín-Evans during Festival Sefardí 16, just one week away!

https://www.nahalatshalom.org/festival-sefard-2025

05/08/2025

At Festival Sefardí May 16-18
"Earth and Sky Called by the Same Name". A bilingual reading of ten of the greatest Native American poets, read by Sandra Marroquín-Evans and Phoenix Luna.

Here's Simon Ortiz:
Standing again
within and among all things,
Standing with each other
as sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers,
daughters and sons, grandmothers and grandfathers―
the past and the present generations of our people,
Standing again
with and among all items of life,
the land, rivers, the mountains, plants, animals,
all life that is around us
that we are included with,
Standing within the circle of the horizon,
the day sky and the night sky,
the sun, moon, the cycle of seasons
and the earth mother which sustains us,
Standing again
with all things
that have been in the past,
that are in the present,
and that will be in the future
we acknowledge ourselves
to be in a relationship that is responsible
and proper, that is loving and compassionate,
for the sake of the land and all people,
we ask humbly of the creative forces of life
that we be given a portion
with which to help ourselves so that our struggle
and work will also be creative
for the continuance of life,
Standing again, within, among all things,
we ask in all sincerity, for hope, courage, peace,
strength, vision, unity and continuance.

St. Louis, Mo., May 1989
https://www.nahalatshalom.org/festival-sefard-2025

05/07/2025

Don’t miss Laura Rebolloso and Las Flores del Valle in concert on May 18! Experience a one-of-a-kind fusion of Son Jarocho and Sephardic music. https://www.nahalatshalom.org/festival-sefard-2025 .rebollosoo

****

¡No te pierdas a Laura Rebolloso y Las Flores del Valle en concierto el 18 de mayo! Una fusión única de Son Jarocho y música sefardí. https://www.nahalatshalom.org/festival-sefard-2025

04/30/2025

On the last day of National Poetry Month, here's a poem from N. Scott Momaday that you can hear read in English and Spanish at Festival Sefardí!
https://www.nahalatshalom.org/festival-sefard-2025

The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee

I am a feather on the bright sky
I am the blue horse that runs in the plain
I am the fish that rolls, shining, in the water
I am the shadow that follows a child
I am the evening light, the luster of meadows
I am an eagle playing in the wind
I am a cluster of bright beads
I am the farthest star
I am the cold of the dawn
I am the roaring of the rain
I am the glitter on the crust of the snow
I am the long track of the moon in a lake
I am a flame of four colors
I am a deer standing away in the dusk
I am a field of sumac and the pomme blanch
I am an angle of geese in the winter sky
I am the hunger of a young wolf
I am the whole dream of these things
You see, I am alive, I am alive
I stand in good relation to the earth
I stand in good relation to the gods
I stand in good relation to all that is beautiful
I stand in good relation to the daughter of Tsen-tainte
You see. I am alive, I am alive

🔥 A VERY WORTHY READ 🔥
N. Scott Momaday (1934–2024) is a Native American novelist, poet, and scholar of Kiowa heritage.
❤️ Get your books: https://thynkbook.com/products/1491-pdf
He is widely regarded as a foundational figure in Native American literature and was the first Native American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his debut novel, House Made of Dawn (1968). His work has received numerous accolades, including the National Medal of Arts, for his contributions to American letters and Indigenous storytelling.
Momaday is known for his lyrical and deeply reflective writing that explores Native American identity, oral tradition, and the sacred relationship between land and culture. Some of his most notable works include The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969), The Names: A Memoir (1976), and In the Bear’s House (1999). His storytelling blends history, myth, and personal memory, creating a rich literary tapestry that preserves and honors Kiowa heritage while challenging Western perceptions of Native history.
In addition to his literary achievements, Momaday is a distinguished academic, having taught at institutions such as Stanford and the University of Arizona. His influence extends beyond literature, inspiring generations of Indigenous writers and scholars. Through his work, he has played a pivotal role in elevating Native American voices and preserving cultural narratives, making him a towering figure in American and Indigenous literary traditions.
❤️ Thank you for reading and liking the article
🔥 Proud to be a Native American: https://thynkbook.com/products/1491-pdf

04/30/2025

Great interview on Espejos de Atzlán last night. Thank you DJ Agua! Great music too!

04/28/2025

Tune in tonight at 7PM!

The Pueblo Revolt, the Genizaros, and the Sefardic diaspora in New Mexico.

And get your tickets now for Festival Sefardí May 16-18 at Nahalat Shalom. https://www.nahalatshalom.org/festival-sefard-2025

04/25/2025

Sefardic and Pueblo People collide!
Host DJ Agua interviews Jon Ghahate, Sarah Hogland Gurulé, and Las Flores del Valle (Carol Vigil and Leila Flores-Dueñas)!
The Pueblo Revolt, Genizaro culture and dance, Sefardic music, confronting difficult issues for unity!
Catch Espejos de Aztlán this Monday, 4/28/2025 at 7:00 PM MT on KUNM-FM, 89.9 FM or kunm.org.
Festival Sefardí 16 Info and Tix here: https://www.nahalatshalom.org/festival-sefard-2025