MANAHATTA Presented at the 2013 United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous People
Staged reading will feature retelling of indigenous land-taking, the 1626 “sale” of the Lenape’s sacred Manahatta island to the Dutch for $24
NEW YORK, NY — Together, Intersections International, Gray Panthers, the Public Theater, and Eagle Project will host a staged reading of MANAHATTA at the Church Center for the United Nations, 777 United Nations Plaza (corner of 1st Avenue and 44th Street), at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, as a parallel event to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous People. The performance is free and no RSVP is necessary; doors open at 6:00 p.m.
When a modern day Lenape woman returns to her ancestral land to work on Wall Street, she must reconcile all that her people have lost with what she now attempts to gain. MANAHATTA simultaneously tells the story of the Lenape Indians who lived on the island of MANAHATTA in the 1600’s, when Peter Minuit and the Dutch claim to have purchased the island for $24, and explores how contemporary concepts of indigenous identity, ownership, and the entire system of American capitalism have made us who we are today.
The reading of MANAHATTA will be followed by a question and answer session with three highly esteemed panelists: Chief Oren Lyons, a Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation; Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee), President of The Morning Star Institute in Washington, DC, and a poet, writer, curator, lecturer and policy advocate; and Murielle Borst-Tarrant (Kuna/ Rappahannock Nations) author, playwright, director, producer, cultural artist, educator, and human rights activist. The panelists will discuss the contemporary aspects of indigenous land loss that mirror the historical depictions in the play.
Turtle Talk 
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