Why We Dance US premiere is this Sunday April 12th at 7pm featuring a live performance by Canku Onestar
Get your tickets before they sell out in the link in our bio
I have not been home for over a month. To witness the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and the violent attacks on my community from afar while not being there to support everyone has been heartbreaking.
But I have never been more proud of Minneapolis.
Working on a documentary with Amira Adawe in Mogadishu during this moment changed me forever. The juxtaposition of the lies we’re told and the reality of my experience was that I was more safe in Mogadishu than Minneapolis. The Somali community expressed so much love to me and everyone in Minnesota. This reminded me that the whole world is in solidarity with us. Our pursuit of truth and justice is connected and more powerful than the attacks against us.
Experiencing the joy from the community in every corner of Mogadishu, and to see them rebuild homes, infrastructure and industry gives me hope when things so often feel relentlessly dark. Somalia is in a time of peace, with new beautiful beach hotels, homes and apartments, and investment in energy, the possibilities of what this new era can create are endless. The people of Somalia and the Somali diaspora will thrive. The people in Minnesota will have justice and liberation. We will win.
Thank you to all of the organizers and fighters back home. I’m coming back to carry water, cook food, give rides, show up and throw down in every way I can.
Join us for a special edition of Open Screen: Film featuring 3 talented local filmmakers.
Open Screen: Film
Thursday, May 21. 6pm.
PF Studio 247
Free
Spanning genre, style, and stories, Ajuawak Kapashesit, Martín Blanco, and Uzoma Ngwu all have deep experience and insight into filmmaking, from ideation to distribution.
The filmmakers will share work samples, present their process, and connect with the audience through an open community conversation facilitated by Ryan Stopera.
ajuawak
@uzotheartist@martin_a_blanco@ryan_stopera
Link in bio for RSVP
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This Cultural Districts Arts Fund activation is funded, in part, by the City of Minneapolis Arts& Cultural Affairs Department.
In 2022 I made a photo book with the intention of having critical conversations about Asian American identity and masculinity, from a nuanced perspective, embracing the complexities of people speaking on being mixed race and transracial adoptees. At the time I could see the excitment of Asian American representation in media, after years of yellowface, limited, problematic characters, and outright erasure. However, the momentum quickly moved into similar trends of fetishization, colorism centering East Asian stories, and other concerning tropes.
Four years later my feed is filled with wasian content, a word placing white supremacy in front of countless identities and narratives, excluding mixed identities outside of a false binary. In 2026 we continue to retreat intellectually. What does white asian even mean? I proudly share that I am Chinese and Polish, as someone who celebrates both cultures in my life. I challenge those hyping Hudson Williams, Eileen Gu, and Alyssa Liu, who are all brilliant, to have deeper conversations, and to open up the affirmation beyond this limiting perspective. Challenge what you are actually celebrating and who you are leaving out of what could be opportunities to build across communities.
I’m absolutely open to all the smoke. Let’s talk about it.
We are so thankful for everyone who has supported Why We Dance. In April we had our US premiere and screened the film 5 times in 3 festivals to sold out theaters and hosted performances, panels, Q&A’s and created space for Indigenous vendors to share goods.
Our intention with this film is to not only continue our festival tour, but to carry out our impact plan to share these stories and education with schools, reservations and communities across the world. If you would like to support our impact plan or partner on a screening event reach out to our team on our website in our bio.
Photos by @shotbyhaadiya and @itsdrw
With overflowing theaters and more requests coming in, @mspfilmsociety added another screening for @whywedance_doc for today April 19 at 4:45 PM. All those who want to share what you experienced, witnessed, heard with your mothers, sisters, friends and family members to watch. Let them know there is an additional screening today, April 19 at 4:45 PM. Tickets are in my Bio!
See y’all there!
Due to popular demand we’ve added two encore screenings of your festival favorites!
WHY WE DANCE
Sunday, April 19 • 4:45pm at The Main Cinema
World Premiere
Director Oogie_Push and Special Guests Attending!
THE CHRISTOPHERS
Sunday, April 19 • 4:50pm at The Main Cinema
Director Steven Soderbergh’s latest
Tickets are available at mspiff.org
Tickets on the @mspfilmsociety website are live. Why We Dance is screening twice at the festival
Sunday April 12 at 7pm
Saturday April 18 at 4:15pm
/show/why-we-dance/
Why We Dance is screening Sunday April 12th and Saturday April 18th at the Minneapolis Saint Paul International Film Festival.
We are planning a day of programming in addition to the screening. Follow for more details coming soon.
Gratitude to everyone that has contributed to making this film.
DANCERS AND STORYTELLERS:
CANKU ONESTAR
OOGIE_PUSH
PUALEILANI PAIEA KAMAHOAHOA
LOA MILES SIMOES
SERGIO CENOCH QUIROZ
MARY ANNE LIGERALDE QUIROZ
FEATURING:
JIMMY PAPAKEE
PAISLEY PAIEA KAMAHOAHOA
GERI ROY
DELONDA PUSHETONEQUA
WAYNE PUSHETONEQUA
ADRIAN PUSHETONEQUA
MAESTRA RITA
MAESTRO JUANITO
AUNTY LUCY KEKELA “KELA” MILLER
IKAIKA ANDERSON
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: OSP PRODUCTIONS
PRODUCER, DIRECTOR OF CULTURE AND HISTORY: JEROD PUSHETONEQUA
DIRECTOR: OOGIE_PUSH
PRODUCERS: RYAN STOPERA, BHAVANA GOPARAJU
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: RYAN STOPERA
CAMERA OPERATORS:
FRANCISCO SANCHEZ, MAX LOPEZ, SEQUOIA HAUCK, IKAIKA ANDERSON
PHOTOGRAPHER: DREW ARRIETA
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: JIMMY PAPAKEE
EDITOR: RYAN MCGUIRE, RYAN STOPERA
COLORIST: DAYMIAN MEJIA
POSTPRODUCTION SOUND ENGINEER: RYAN SHAW
ORIGINAL MUSIC: GUNNER JULES SR. AND GUNNER JULES JR.
JIMMY PAPAKEE
THANK YOU:
THE ROSEBUD RESERVATION
MESKWAKI NATION
MESKWAKI CULTURAL CENTER & MUSEUM
SKY BROTHERS COLLECTIVE
INDIGENOUS ROOTS CULTURAL ART CENTER
KALPULLI YAOCENOXTLI
ST PAUL NEIGHBORHOOD NETWORK
RAYMOND I CHRISTENSEN FOUNDATION
THE ST PAUL FOUNDATION
TYLAN BEAR
JAIDA GREY EAGLE
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First photo by the talented @imanim_photography
Second photo by my dad on a road trip to the Tetons. Looking at my sister’s hat I think it was around 89.
Back of House has officially sold out!
The last month and a half has been such a ride from the amazing launch party, press coverage from MPR, Sahan Journal, Racket, MSP Mag, BLCK Press, Eater, and Almanac, intentional partnerships with local shops in MN and Now Serving in LA, and hundreds of affirming messages about the book. Thank you to every single person that has supported this project. Diana Albrecht @dalbrecht3 you are a creative giant and I have grown so much from the opportunity to collaborate with you for the last 2.5 years.
I hold a layered, heavy gratitude for the invitation to share these stories about our immigrant communities while we face an unprecedented deterioration of our democracy into authoritarianism and inhumane violence against the very people we are celebrating in this book. The duality of this moment has reaffirmed many things for me; most importantly it has reminded me that in all types of ways, we take care of each other. Whether you cook a meal for your people, organize the neighbors on your block, become a legal observer, intentionally change the way you spend your money, create anti fascist art, or just speak out against what is happening, keep doing it. Unfortunately this is just the beginning, and whether or not they have come for your friends or family yet, everyone’s rights are under attack. Keep growing your circle, keep protecting each other, and continue to practice noncooperation in the way that feels right for you.
You can still get a few of the remaining copies @benchpressed in Seward.
Photos by @shotbyhaadiya
