Songs of the Earth: Celebrate Indigenous Languages
Canciones de la tierra: Un festival dedicado a celebrar idiomas
Saturday, November 8, 2025
2 - 4 p.m.
Central Library
Songs of the Earth seeks to highlight the vibrant Indigenous communities within Los Angeles and their cultural contributions. Many Indigenous people in Los Angeles have been forcibly disconnected from their ancestral languages and traditions. However, what remains—or is being relearned—still carries the breath of countless generations. Songs of the Earth aims to create a space where people can share their truths, in any form or language, and be embraced by a community that recognizes the beauty and strength of Indigenous survival and presence. Join us for Garifuna drum and dancing, a Zapotec brass band performance, and a presentation by Pilele Project focused on Pacific Island cultures and their diasporas.
Maqueos Music
The Maqueos Music Philharmonic Band is known for preserving traditional Oaxacan culture, music, and values for hundreds of children who have passed through its doors, bringing pride to the community and representing Mexico in the United States at the highest level of performance.
Pilele Projects
Pilele Projects was founded by Mariquita “Micki” Rivera Davis (familian “Pilele” Gadas yan Dådi) and Edward Sterrett, as an exhibition and workshop space dedicated to supporting projects by artists, cultural practitioners, curators, and scholars emerging from and focused on Pacific Island cultures and their diasporas. Central to our mission is cultivating funding channels to support the development and presentation of the work of community-engaged artists working across Pacific diasporas with significant presence in Southern California.
GAHFU (Garifuna American Heritage Foundation United)
GAHFU's mission is to foster cultural understanding and appreciation of the Garifuna people through music, arts, and the sharing of our unique history. Cheryl L. Noralez, President & Founder, is a renowned cultural presenter who has led workshops and presentations at educational institutions across the country, bringing to light the rich heritage and vibrant traditions of the Garifuna community.
- Songs of the Earth calendar of events listing
- Questions? Contact ycabrera@lapl.org
Join us in celebrating the diversity and richness of local and worldwide indigenous and ancient languages. Enjoy videos of readings and copies of writings from writers throughout the world about the importance of language visibility.
Acompáñanos a celebrar la diversidad de las lenguas indígenas y ancestrales locales y mundiales. Disfruta de lecturas de escritores locales y copias de escritos en varios idiomas que entablan conversaciones sobre la importancia de la visibilidad de lenguajes.
Kakaw
Susuw tumi ho te sɛ momone
Yell’liw
Ibùgbé
Maa
برای ایران
Jk’an ko’nton
Ma Tsogi
(Ewe Hakpapa) Dzioƒoƒo
Jts’un K’opetik
Nokal Yenkuik
Michaela Paulette Shirley
Michaela Paulette Shirley (Diné), MCRP, identifies with the Water Edge and Bitter Water clans, with her maternal grandfather from the Salt clan and her paternal grandfather from the Coyote Pass clan. She was raised in Kin Dah Lichii in northeastern Arizona on the Navajo reservation. With over ten years of experience in Indigenous planning, community development, community engagement, qualitative research, conference planning, and technical assistance training and workshops, she is now serving as the KSU Tribal TAB Program Manager. Currently, Michaela is pursuing a PhD in the UNM American Studies Department.
Àkpà Árinzèchukwu
Àkpà Árinzèchukwu is a 2023 Oxbelly Writing Retreat Fellow, a winner of the 2021 Poetry Archive Worldview Prize, a Best of the Net nominee, Pushcart, and Geoffrey Dearmer Prize, shortlisted for the FT/Bodley Head Prize, and a finalist for the 2020 Black Warrior Review Fiction Prize, his works appear in Kenyon Review, Adda, Transition, Black Warrior Review, Prairie Schooner, The Rumpus, Poetry Review, and elsewhere. He is the curator of Muqabalal, a bilingual conversation series, co-host of Muqabalal’s Poem a Day in Translation, and the Church of Poetry.
