2/15/2012 First Person Radio

Listen in to Laura Waterman Wittstock and Miguel Vargas as they talk with Susana di Palma and Heid Erdrich who are collaborating on a new performance piece called Zorro: In the Land of the Yellow Breasted Woodpecker. It's a story about two Ojibwe girls who are rescued from boarding school by a masked trickster.

Susana di Palma founded the Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theater in 1982. di Palma was able to find a vehicle for balancing her passionate love for Spain and flamenco with her urgent need to create theatrical compelling works that address social/political concerns and tantalize the imagination. She created ROMERIA, a site specific work at Minnehaha Falls (2007), collaborated with Myron Johnson on "Dali's Cookbook (2011) and choreographed BLOOD WEDDING for Bethany College (2011). She leads Zorongo Artists as they tour through Minnesota.

Susana is a recipient of numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Minnesota State Arts Board, Jerome Foundation and two Bush Foundation Fellowships.

Heid Erdrich is the Winner of a 2009 Minnesota Book Award for National Monuments, and she has authored four books of poetry and co-edited Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community. Heid grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota and is Ojibwe enrolled at Turtle Mountain. She attended Dartmouth College and Johns Hopkins University. Heid has served as a visiting author and scholar for dozens of colleges, universities, libraries and arts organizations. In addition, she’s an arts curator and she directs an Ojibwe language press. Her new book is Cell Traffic: New and Selected Poems.