“Umpteenth Annual” WZBC Pow Wow hosted by Victor Robert Venckus

The Annual WZBC Pow Wow
hosted by Victor Robert Venckus
Thanksgiving Day – Thursday, November 26th, 12 noon – 12 midnight
WZBC 90.3FM or online at WZBC.org

On Thanksgiving Day (a.k.a. the Native Americans’ National Day Of Mourning), Victor Robert Venckus presents his Annual WZBC Pow Wow. He’s been doing this, well, forever… over 20 years now. From noon until midnight, he’ll be playing Native American and Native American-inspired music in all possible genres, including rock, folk, traditional, new age, and spoken word. He’ll also have live reports from the demonstrations in Plymouth and possibly interviews regarding Native American spirituality and politics. Tune in to WZBC 90.3 FM, or listen online, for the perfect soundtrack for your Thanksgiving dinner or whatever you happen to be doing that day.

To commemorate this event, I’ll do a brief profile on a local group called The Wolf Cry Singers, whom Victor will be playing that day.

The Wolf Cry Singers

The Wolf Cry Singers

The Wolf Cry Singers are an intertribal woman’s hand drum group, founded in 2003, who perform traditional and contemporary Mi’kMaq, Cherokee, Navajo, Abenaki and Delaware songs and chants. Singing in both native languages and in English, and including their own songs as well, they regularly perform at pow wows throughout New England and in Canada, and at Native American ceremonies and cultural events. Their mission is to keep the spirit and languages alive and to connect with others through their music. Their members are descendants from various tribes such as Mi’kmaq, Blackfoot, Oneida, Abenaki, Cherokee, Inuit, and Passamoquaddy.

You can listen to a sample of their unique and beautiful singing, accompanied by hand drums, on their official site, and you can see a few videos of them performing on the Wolf Cry Singers Facebook fan page. These ladies are absolutely wonderful, so if you have a chance to see them, I highly recommend it! Native American Pow Wows are fascinating cultural events as well, if you’ve never been to one. I’ll pass along a schedule of Massachusetts Pow Wows for this past year which give links to the various organizations sponsoring them. They’re usually annual events.

The Wolf Cry Singers have a CD available (information on ordering can be found on their website, and I see now they have a performance tomorrow at Wheaton College (Norton, MA), celebrating Native American Heritage Month.