Join us for the launch of tah-kōx: Indigenous Stages, the world’s first interdisciplinary academic journal dedicated primarily to Indigenous authors writing about the theatrical and cultural performance of Indigenous artists and communities around the globe.
Published by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the CUNY Graduate Center, the journal provides a forum for Indigenous scholarship and cultural performance practices, publishing work in English or in Indigenous languages with English translation. Founded by GC CUNY PhD candidate Opalanietet (Ryan Victor Pierce) and co-founder Frank Hentschker, Tahkox: Indigenous Stages will release its inaugural issue in November 2026. The evening will include a conversation with Opalanietet, guest speakers Tammy Hailiʻōpua Baker (Kanaka Maoli) & Pililuaikekaiohilo M. Q. Keala (Kanaka Maoli) (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa), Ty Defoe and music from Jon Ray.
AFTERNOON, 2:00 pm TALK 1: Tammy Hailiʻōpua Baker (Kanaka Maoli) Title (TBC): About ‘Ahahui Noi‘i No‘eau ‘Ōiwi–Research Institute of Indigenous Performance (ANNO) at at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
2:30 pm TALK 2: Pililuaikekaiohilo M. Q. Keala (Kanaka Maoli) Title (TBC): Kuanaʻike ʻŌiwi Hawaiʻi (Indigenous Hawaiian Worldview) and the educational needs of nā moʻo ʻike kuʻuna ʻōiwi Hawaiʻi
3:00pm Moderated discussion with Tammy Hailiʻōpua Baker and Pililuaikekaiohilo M. Q. Keala, Q&A. Moderated by Opalanietet.
EVENING, 6:30 pm 6:30pm Welcome: Frank Hentschker, Opalanietet (Ryan Victor Pierce) 7:00 pm TALK: Tammy Hailiʻōpua Baker (Kanaka Maoli), Pililuaikekaiohilo M. Q. Keala (Kanaka Maoli), Ty Defoe (Indigiqueer citizen of the Oneida and Anishinaabe Nations) 7:50 pm MUSIC: Jon Ray
Opalanietet (Ryan Victor Pierce) is a member of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape tribal nation of New Jersey. Upon graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Opalanietet has performed in workshops and productions at such renown New York theatrical institutions as New Dramatists, LaMaMa E.T.C. and New York City Opera at Lincoln Center. In November of 2020, Opalanietet made history by giving the first-ever Lenape Land Acknowledgement at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC. In July of 2021, Opalanietet made history again by delivering the opening performance at Lincoln Center after the pandemic with GALLIM’s performance installation, You Are Here. In 2012, Opalanietet founded Eagle Project, a theater company dedicated to exploring the American identity through the performing arts and our Native American heritage. Through his leadership, Eagle Project has collaborated with and performed at Theatre Row, the Public Theater, and Ashtar Theater in Palestine. In April of 2020, Eagle Project collaborated with the American Indian Community House of New York City and First Nations Theatre Guild to create Native Theatre Thursdays, a virtual reading series of new Native work. Opalanietet is currently studying for his doctorate in Theatre & Performance Studies at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, and has been a teacher of Contemporary Indigenous Theatre & Performance at The New School in New York City and SUNY Purchase. His article, “The Natural Landscape of Native Puppetry,” has just been published by the journal, Puppetry International Research (PIR). Opalanietet is the founder and editor INDIGENOUS STAGES, an open access academic journal housed at the Segal Theatre Center.
Tammy Hailiʻōpua Baker (Kanaka Maoli) is a playwright, director, researcher, and educator from Kapaʻa, Kauaʻi whose work is dedicated to the revitalization of Kanaka Maoli moʻolelo (Native Hawaiian history and narratives) through Hawaiian-medium theatre, Hana Keaka. She holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) and a PhD in Māori and Indigenous Studies from the University of Waikato in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Hailiʻōpua oversees the Hawaiian Theatre and Playwriting Programs at UHM where she is a co-director of ‘Ahahui Noi‘i No‘eau ‘Ōiwi–Research Institute of Indigenous Performance (ANNO).
Pililuaikekaiohilo M. Q. Keala (Kanaka Maoli) is from Manaʻe, Molokaʻi but currently resides in Kapālama, Oʻahu with her two daughters and husband. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Hawaiian at Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language in the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Pili also serves as the Vice Chair on the ʻAha Hoʻokō (Governing Board) of the ʻAha Kauleo (Hawaiian Language Immersion Statewide Consortium). Prior to her current position she was an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and has been a secondary kumu for over 15 years in Ka Papahana Kaiapuni, Kamehameha Schools, as well as community education. Dr. Keala’s dissertation work focused on discovering the educational needs of nā moʻo ʻike kuʻuna ʻōiwi Hawaiʻi, Native Hawaiian children raised exclusively in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi through hoʻomana Hawaiʻi with traditional Hawaiian loina and cultural practices. Her research focuses include Kuanaʻike ʻŌiwi Hawaiʻi (Indigenous Hawaiian Worldview), Kaiapuni education, programming and pedagogies, Hawaiian language medium and culture-based education, and traditional Hawaiian pedagogies of learning and teaching.
Ty Defoe (Giizhig) is a proud citizen of the Oneida Nation and the Anishinaabe Tribe who moves through the world as a writer, playwright, interdisciplinary artist, and sovereign storyteller. As a story-trickster, ty conjures worlds where liberation, resilience, and Mother Earth are at the heart of his creative practice. His work glitters with interconnection, braiding ancestral knowledge, futurist imagination, and community-based practices into performances, installations, and story architectures that illuminate Indigenous and decolonial futures. A Grammy Award–winning artist, Ty has received numerous prestigious fellowships, commissions, and honors from the 2026 United States Artist Fellow, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, MacDowell, Sundance Institute, First Peoples Fund, Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC), the Binger Center for New Theatre at Yale University, and Pop Culture Collaborative’s Trans Futurist Fellowship for their collective imagination, and world-building. He is the co-founder of Indigenous Direction (with Larissa FastHorse on Native Nation Theater Project at ASU) and a member of All My Relations Collective. Across these endeavors, he advances Indigenous/Native creative innovation, storytelling, and emerging technologies. Ty currently serves as Writer-in-Residence at Pace University and resides in NYC. tydefoe.com | allmyrelations.earth | @tydefoe
Jon Ray, a working DJ in NYC, DC, and Santa Fe, Jon Ray sees his DJing as an extension of his upbringing in the Laguna Pueblo homelands, where people come together through music, dance, and relations. As an artisan, curator, and student of DJ culture, he shares his vinyl collection a few crates at a time.
Photo: Ondinnok’s Xajoj Tun Rabinal Achi, directed by Yves Sioui Durand at Montreal’s Excentris Art Center. (Courtesy of Martine Doyon)
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