The Yard presents Inuit Throatsinger Tanya Tagaq

Tanya Tagaq's intense, evocative vocalizations, based on Inuit throat singing traditions, help reclaim indigenous identity and dignity from the controversial 1922 film Nanook of the North, one of cinema's earliest documentaries, directed by Robert J. Flaherty.

Tagaq, along with percussionist Jean Martin and violinist Jesse Zubot, perform a live accompaniment to the film's silent images of life in an early 20th-century Inuit community in Northern Quebec. Commissioned by the Toronto Film Festival for their First Nations Film Festival, Tagaq's work with Nanook began with a sonic exploration of the film's imagery - images that spoke deeply to the vocalist. Tagaq's sense of the sound of the Arctic spaces shown in the film transforms the images, adding great feeling and depth to what is a complex mix of beautiful representations and racially charged clichés.

Nanook of the North is considered one of the world's first major works of non-fiction filmmaking, yet it is rife with racial and portrayal contradictions. The film portrays the lives of an an Inuit family in Arctic Canada Its director, Flaherty, lived and worked with the Inuit for years, but he still included staged scenes of buffoonery and feigned Inuit ignorance of modern accouterments. According to Wikipedia, Nanook of the North incorporates many "docudrama" elements, including the "casting" of locals into fictitious "roles" and family relationships, as well as anachronistic, "staged" hunting scenes.

Tanya Tagaq in concert with Nanook of the North was commissioned by the Toronto International Film Festival, where it premiered to critical acclaim in 2012 as part of TIFF First Nations.

Tagaq's latest album, RETRIBUTION, just received 4 starsfrom Rolling Stone, and is available on iTunes.

ABOUT TANYA TAGAQ

Tanya Tagaq's music is like nothing you've heard before. Unnerving and exquisite, Tagaq's unique vocal expression may be rooted in the indigenous tradition of Inuit throat singing but her music has as much to do with electronica, industrial and metal influences as it does with traditional culture. This Inuit punk is known for delivering fearsome, elemental performances that are visceral and physical, heaving and breathing and alive. Her shows draw incredulous response from worldwide audiences, and Tagaq's tours tend to jump back and forth over the map of the world. From a Mexican EDM festival to Carnegie Hall, her music and performances transcend language. Tagaq makes musical friends and collaborators with an array of like-minded talents: opera singers, avant-garde violin composers, experimental DJs, all cutting edge and challenging. Tagaq has won Canada's most prestigious music awards, the Juno and the Polaris, as well as many film awards. She was recently named, without irony, a Member of the Order of Canada, one of the country's highest honors.

The Inuit people live on the cutting edge of the climate emergency. As sea ice dwindles at astonishing rates, they are witnessing the death of the entire Arctic ecosystem, as the colonialist machine rolls on, mining newly uncovered areas for diamonds. And the Inuit know the truth about the contemporary natures of the crimes at the center of Canada's identity. Tagaq herself is a survivor of Canada's infamous genocidal Residential School System, something most Canadians would rather imagine as a dealt-with thing of the distant past, but which is only now coming into the broad public consciousness. Tagaq is a leading First Nation activist in this movement of recovery and retribution.

SEED. GROW. REAP. REPEAT: THE NATURE OF THE ARTIST.
Mission: The Yard supports artists in both their creative processes and social instrumentality through paid research residency, public performance, and long- term educational and community engagement across all ages and diverse cultural populations of Martha's Vineyard, and in broad application to New England and the nation.

In so doing: The Yard promotes creation, education, and community building through artistic practice-with a special emphasis on contemporary dance and related collaborative forms-in the defining rural/island environment of Martha's Vineyard.
The Yard acts, on behalf of its core commitments, as an active collaborator, co- commissioner, and touring partner with other leading institutions across a regional/national/international context to raise up a "culture of cultures" ecology that reflects-and benefits-the demographic life and times of the island of Martha's Vineyard and the country.

TANYA TAGAQ IN CONCERT WITH THE ICONIC AND CONTROVERSIAL SILENT FILM "NANOOK OF THE NORTH"
(Inuit throat-singer and First Nations social activist from Nunavut, Canada)

Performers
Tanya Tagaq, vocals; Jean Martin, drums; Jesse Zubot, violin

Performance will take place at the MV Performing Arts Center
100 Edgartown Rd, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568

Monday, March 13, 7pm

Tickets: $25 General Admission; $15 Seniors, Students, Military; $5 Children under 12
Membership and Behind The Counter discounts apply

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