History Lessons: Osage Nation

The event is FREE, with copies of the poetry collections Tallchief and Blood Wolf Moon available as an add-on purchase.

About the opening
Celebrate the opening of Lydia Cheshewalla’s ephemeral art installation as well as captivating new stories and objects in the History Lessons exhibition at the National Public Housing Museum.

During the event, join artist Lydia Cheshewalla and poet Elise Paschen—both enrolled members of Osage Nation—for a conversation about the power of place, memory, and how their art and poetry practice helps to support a reciprocal relationship with the land and history.

For a new unique installation at the museum, Cheshewalla collaborated with local youth and public housing residents to gather natural and other materials from the land where the Jane Addams Homes was located. At the end of the installation, these materials will be returned to the place in nature where they were gathered, closing the circle of creation.

Opening at the same time, a new iteration of History Lessons features objects from members of the Osage community in Oklahoma, who worked with acclaimed poet Paschen to tell their stories of home in tribal housing. During the conversation, Paschen will read from her riveting sixth poetry collection, Blood Wolf Moon, which explores the storylines of her Osage heritage. The core of the book grapples with a dark period of American history, “The Reign of Terror,” when outsiders murdered individual members of the Osage for their oil headrights.