LAKOTA STAR STORIES
Since 2017, I have taught photography to youth ages 8 to 16 at the Boys & Girls Club on South Dakota’s Rosebud Reservation. While the Rosebud Tribe, also known as the Sicangu Oyate, has a long and rich history, the reservation is located in one of the poorest counties in the nation. The Boys & Girls Club works to counter the effects of poverty on tribal youth by providing them with the tools and support to become healthy, productive members of their community.
In 2018, I received a commission to collaborate with Club youth on artwork for an astronomy festival at San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences. Alongside two other teaching artists, I taught participating students basic photography skills and encouraged them to document themselves, their community, and the surrounding landscape. Using the resulting images, we created 12 large-scale murals exploring the relationship between the young photographers, the natural world, and the sun and stars. Participating youth later traveled to San Francisco to take part in the festival.





