Under the Sun: Solstice Soundscape with Film, Poetry, & Music
IN PERSON
Celebrate the summer solstice at the Fowler with an evening of film, poetry, music, and performance centering California Indigenous women artists, filmmakers, and storytellers.
The program will open with a screening of Yáamay: An Ode to Blooming, a lyrical short film centering the voices and lived experiences of contemporary California Indigenous women. Built on original poetry, the film unfolds as an intimate journey through identity, memory, and the enduring legacies of Native communities across California. Through a dynamic interplay of contemporary footage, archival material, and animatic sequences, Yáamay moves fluidly between the personal and collective, the past and the possible. The women featured reflect on their relationships to land, culture, family, and futurity, offering perspectives that are deeply rooted and forward-looking. Embracing complexity in all its forms, joy and struggle, history and imagination, Yáamay honors Indigenous women across generations while uplifting stories too often overlooked. Following the screening, join a conversation with co-directors Camaray Davalos and Casse Kihúut, along with poet and producer Avelaka Macarro.
The evening will continue in the Fowler Amphitheater with music and live performance by Genevra Munroa, Alexis Munroa, and Andrew Dyer, followed by poetry readings from Jessa Calderon and Solange Aguilar as the sun sets. Light refreshments will be served as we gather to honor land, light, and community.
Solange Aguilar (Mescalero Apache, Yo’eme, and Filipinx (Kapampángan); They/Ze ) is an award-winning queer Mescalero Apache, Yo’eme, and Filipinx (Kapampángan) multimedia artist, poet, zinemaker, and author of Red Like Earth. They are a 2025 Jack McCarthy Book Prize winner with Write Bloody Publishing, a co-winner of the Corazón de Oro from Raíces for their work on the Mispu Story Signs at Santa Barbara City College, and a first place winner in the Santa Barbara Poetry Slam. They’re also a recipient of The Pachamama Skillshare and Women’s Creative Collective for Change artist scholarship and a 2021 fellow from the Artist2Artist program by the Art Matters Foundation. Their work has been featured in News from Native California, Earth First! Journal, at The Getty, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, and in Harvard Library’s zine collection.
Casse Kihúut Alaniz (Payómkawish) is a queer Indigenous/Mexicana artist and filmmaker who grew up in McAllen, Texas. She is a citizen of the Pechanga Band of Indians. Her work seeks to dismantle racist representations of Indigenous peoples in media and to decolonize filmmaking processes through Native-centered protocols and practices. Centered on the complexities of identity, her projects explore intersections of Indigeneity, sexuality, and belonging.
Jessa Calderon (Tongva/Chumash) is a multidisciplinary artist and creative wellness practitioner. She is a songwriter, poet, hip hop artist, performer, basket weaver, paddler, and published author. She also works as a hypnotherapist, massage therapist, and energy worker & Guided self alignment (mind body energy/spirit) practitioner.
Camaray Davalos (Payómkawichum/Xicana) is a writer and storyteller whose work explores Indigenous social and environmental issues, gender roles, and identity through prose, poetry, film, and collage. A graduate of Humboldt State University with a degree in Native American Studies and a minor in Environmental Management, she won the 2020 Native Voices at the Autry Short Play Festival Audience Prize and received the Achievement in Screenwriting Award at the 12th Annual Native American Media Awards (LA SKINS FEST) for her short film Woman Who Blooms at Night. She is a lead editor of Yáamay: An Anthology of Feminine Perspectives Across Indigenous California.
Alexis Munoa Dyer (Payómkawichum) is a member of the Tóoṣaval clan of the Pechanga Band of Indians. She is a mother, weaver, singer, dancer, photographer, organizer, and waterwoman whose work centers her Homeland and cultivates connections among all relations. Her art has been featured in Yáamay: An Anthology of Feminine Perspectives Across Indigenous California, Emocean, News from Native California, Pechanga Resort Casino, and various photography and music exhibitions. Her work is currently featured in Water is Currency at the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica. Alexis resides in Panáa’o pi Teméeku on her Homeland with her husband, two children, and two dachshunds.
Avelakayawaywish “Avelaka” Macarro (Payómkawish) is a citizen of the Pechanga Band of Indians (Payómkawichum). She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2018 with degrees in Media Studies (emphasis in journalism) and Film & Media Studies. She currently runs the Native Pathways Mentorship Program at the University of Washington and previously oversaw the Riverways Educational Partnerships program, serving as the American Indian/Alaska Native admissions counselor. Macarro is a lead editor of Yáamay: An Anthology of Feminine Perspectives Across Indigenous California, published in Fall 2023.
Genevra Munoa (Payómkawichum) is a singer-songwriter from San Diego, California, whose music blends R&B, pop, and funk. Inspired by her musical family and artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Eloise, and The Beatles, she began writing her own music in 2018. In 2020, she released her debut single, “Roses,” and has since released multiple singles available on streaming platforms. Through her music, Genevra continues to share her unique sound while honoring the influences that shaped her artistic journey.
B. Pacific is a musical collaboration that blends grunge influences with surf jazz vocals to create a distinctly West Coast sound. Formed by guitarist Andrew Dyer and vocalist Alexis Munoa Dyer (Payómkawichum), the project weaves Payómkawichum storytelling, rich chordal textures, and contemporary musical expression. Often joined by Alexis’ sisters, Genevra Munoa and Tishmal, their familial harmonies add layered vocal depth inspired by the movement of seagrass and ocean tides. Through soothing vocal tones, intricate arrangements, and the incorporation of ancestral language, B. Pacific creates music that bridges Indigenous tradition and modern sound.
This program is presented in partnership with Meztli Projects, Quiet Quail Books, and The Chapter House
Graphics designed by Grace Bui-Luu
