Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi

Theater of War Productions is thrilled partner with St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Walk Productions, and KBH Arts to present Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi on September 18 and 19 in New York City. This free, large-scale, participatory public art project will feature forty life-sized buffalo puppets that will run, graze, and stampede through the streets of New York, accompanied by Lenape and Lakota elders, artists, musicians, activists, students, volunteers, neighbors, Native American and First Nations partners, public servants, musicians, marching bands, poets, choirs, dance troupes, and fellow citizens representing the rich cultural diversity and pluralism of our city and country. The project will activate parks, buildings, plazas, and historic sites in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn with live readings and recitations of texts, poems, testimonies, and orations by Frederick Douglass, Mahmoud Darwish, Elvira Arellano, Tecumseh, Walt Whitman, and Tokala Two Elk; live music and dance performances; and powerful ceremonies aimed at ushering in a new time of healing and repair.

Featuring performances by the actors Rosario Dawson, Sam Waterston, Susan Sarandon, Wendell Pierce, Jumaane Williams, Chaske Spencer, and Daphne Rubin-Vega.

Other featured artists include: Rhiannon Giddens, Laurie Anderson, Haley Heynderickx and Max García Conover, Nathalie Joachim and Talie Cerin, Davóne Tines & THE TRUTH, Dither, Caridad De La Luz, Resistance Revival Chorus, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Native Pride Dancers, Pilobolus Dance Company, Fogo Azul, Heather Christian and the Terce Choir, Brooklyn United Marching Band, HONK NYC!, and Fort Hamilton High School’s Concert Chorus.

Join the Herd: Route Details

September 18, 5:00pm - 7:30pm: The herd will march through Lower Manhattan, beginning at Bowling Green Park and ending in Foley Square.

September 19, 2:00pm - 4:30pm: The herd will move through Downtown Brooklyn, traveling from Abolitionist Place to Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi is created by Amir Nizar Zuabi and conceived in partnership with the Elders of the Lenape and Lakota Tribes, Creative Director Bryan Doerries (Artistic Director, Theater of War Productions), Music Director Adam Shore, Nonesuch Records President David Bither, Immediate Medium Artistic Director JJ Lind, and Voices of a People’s History. The Puppetry design is by Ukwanda Puppets of South Africa, and the Puppetry Director is Craig Leo.

Leadership support for Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi is provided by The Jerome L. Greene Foundation.

Additional support is provided by the Office of the Public Advocate/Jumaane Williams; the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME)/Rafael Espinal, Commissioner; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA)/Diya Vij, Commissioner; Alexander Leff, James Armstrong, Stephanie and Tim Ingrassia, Distracted Globe Foundation / Wendy vanden Heuvel, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, NYC Council, Immediate Medium, Speaker Julie Menin and Councilmember Lincoln Restler, Alliance for Downtown New York, Doris Duke Foundation, Cheryl Henson and The H.B. Henson Fund, SHS Foundation, DUMBO Business Improvement District, Paycom, adi: audible difference inc., Brooklyn Commons, and One Liberty.

Media support is provided by NYC Tourism + Conventions, Grapeseed, Posterize, and WNYC.