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In this insightful panel discussion, leading contemporary Native artists dive into what drives their art-making and process. Panelists include Tazbah Chavez (co-creator behind the award-winning FX series Reservation Dogs), Danielle SeeWalker (artist, writer, activist and co-founder of The Red Road Project), and Tommy Orange (Oakland based novelist and 2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist). Moderated by Jackie Keliiaa (Netflix).

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About the Panelists

Tazbah Chavez
Tazbah Rose Chavez (Dinè, Nüümü, San Carlos Apache) is a performance poet turned WGA-nominated television writer and director from the Bishop Paiute Reservation. Tazbah is a Co-Executive Producer/episodic Director on FX’s Reservation Dogs. She has worked on SyFy’s Resident Alien, Peacock’s Rutherford Falls, directed on HBOMAX’s Sex Lives of College Girls and is a Writer/Director on FOX’s new series, Accused.

Tazbah has written ads for Nike N7, directed health and cultural preservation campaigns and PSAs for tribes throughout California. She has performed her poetry in acclaimed spaces such as the Smithsonian - National Museum of the American Indian, Meow Wolf and the Grand Performances Stage to name a few. She holds a degree in American Indian Studies from UCLA and is the former co-chair of the Writer’s Guild of America Native and Indigenous Writers Committee. Additionally, Tazbah was awarded the 2023 Changemaker Award by Film2Future, is the inaugural recipient of the 2024 Sundance Graton Fellowship for California Native Artists and has been recognized by the California Tribal Leaders Association and the city of Los Angeles for her work in film and television.

(Instagram) @tazbah

Danielle SeeWalker 
Danielle SeeWalker is a Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation in North Dakota. She is a mother, artist, writer, curator, activist and businesswoman and is currently based in Denver, Colorado. Her visual artwork often incorporates the use of mixed media and experimentation while incorporating traditional Native American materials, scenes, and messaging. Storytelling is an integral part of her artwork and pays homage to her identity as a Lakȟóta wíŋyaŋ as well as her passion to redirect the narrative to an accurate and insightful representation of contemporary Native America while still acknowledging historical events.

Danielle is also a freelance writer and recently published her first book, Still Here: A Past to Present Insight of Native American People & Culture. She is very dedicated and involved in the Native American community and has served the past two years as Co-Chair for the Denver American Indian Commission. Through her work on the Commission, she has been involved in several pieces of legislation impacting the Native American community including; a law to abolish derogatory Native American mascots (2021) and an effort to create an Office and Liaison for Missing & Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) investigations (2022 and 2023). Danielle considers herself an “artivist” as she is able to voice many important topics through her artwork and also be boots on the ground to make change happen. Danielle’s exhibition Re-Discovering Native America: Stories in Motion with The Red Road Project runs from April 13 – June 23, 2024 at the Lesher Center for the Arts Bedford Gallery. 

(Instagram) @seewalker_art 

Tommy Orange
Tommy Orange is an author and filmmaker born and raised in Oakland, California. His debut novel, There There was a New York Times bestseller and named as one of the paper’s 10 Best Books of the Year for 2018. Its many honors include the 2018 PEN America Hemingway Award, The National Book Critics’ Circle John Leonard Prize and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize; it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. His newest release, Wandering Stars, a follow up to There There, is a prequel and sequel following the lives of the beloved characters centered in his debut novel. He earned his MFA at the Institute of American Indian Arts, where he now serves as faculty. Orange is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma.

Jackie Keliiaa (Moderator)
Jackie Keliiaa (Yerington Paiute & Washoe) is a comedian, writer, and actor. She has been featured on Comedy Central, Team Coco, Amazon Prime’s First Nations Comedy Experience and she voiced the character Bubble on Spirit Rangers (Netflix). Jackie wrote for the web series You're Welcome America and was featured in the book, We Had a Little Real Estate Problem. She produces and hosts Good Medicine, an all-Native comedy show which has sold-out theaters in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Jackie is a regular at Bay Area venues and has performed at San Francisco SketchFest, Punch Line San Francisco and Cobb's Comedy Club.

(Instagram/X)@jackiecomedy 

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