Water is Life benefit at Blue Moose to support Standing Rock water protectors

Indigenous Iowa is presenting another event in support of Standing Rock this weekend in Iowa City, following their co-production at The Mill two weeks ago and a Trumpet Blossom event in October.

The event tonight, Saturday, Dec. 3 starting at 6 p.m. at the Blue Moose, is a hip hop show, featuring both local acts and indigenous rappers from farther afield. Headlining the event are Minneapolis’ Tall Paul and Bazille Dx, out of Philadelphia. Also featured are Jim Swim, who’s latest album Half Woke was reviewed in Little Village last month, and Tack-Fu with MC Animosity. The 6 p.m. show is all-ages; another set at 10 p.m. is 21+. Both are a suggested $10 donation at the door.

This show comes just as winter begins to fall at Standing Rock and veterans from across the country start arriving at the site. There have been recent concerns about an Army Corps of Engineers eviction letter, which it later clarified would not be actively enforced, and an evacuation order from the governor of North Dakota, who also later softened his statements, and confirmed that there would be no blockage of supply lines to the camps.

The artists participating in tonight’s program expressed gratitude for the opportunity to give to the cause in this way. Tall Paul, who’s been on the scene for eight years now, is a strong supporter of the #nodapl movement.

“[K]nowing my various limitations in not being able to actually be there in Standing Rock, I just try to help however I can from afar,” he said in an email. “I don’t often find myself at a crossroads between art and activism but in this particular situation I do.”

Talon Bazille Ducheneaux, better known as Bazille Dx, said he feels just as strongly.

“Personally,” he said in an email, “what brings me to this event is my love and care for the Earth and the Water Protectors everywhere sacrificing to fight for it. I grew up on the Cheyenne River and Crow Creek Sioux Tribes (Lakota and Dakota, to say it better), and thus I grew up holding the Missouri River very close, as well as the land and history that comes with it all.”

Ducheneaux has “made numerous songs about various events in the timeline of this movement,” and adds, “What better moment than this to use art to reflect/stand/voice opinion and spread the news?”