KGNU’s Dave Ashton discussed the All My Relations Celebration on August 10th with Helen Gover, promoter and communications manager, and Melissa Ivey, a featured musician and activist. Helen highlighted the mix of music genres and emphasized the importance of contemporary Indigenous art. She explained the festival’s aim to reshape narratives and promote Indigenous stories authentically. She also mentioned the event’s partnership with the Denver Indian Center, which will benefit from donations and merchandise sales.
Melissa Ivey, a musician and advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR), shared her background and passion for community-focused music and activism. They discussed the festival’s role in raising awareness and providing a platform for Indigenous artists to share their stories and connect with the community (Interview date: 7/29/24)
Dave Ashton: We’re going to be talking about the AMRC – All My Relations Celebration coming up Saturday, the 10th of August at Denver’s legendary Levitt Pavilion. This is an indigenous music festival and we’re going to be getting into some great conversations with Helen Gover, the communications manager and AMRC promoter, as well as Melissa Ivey, musician and activist, one of the featured acts on the AMRC.
So first, Helen, hi, welcome to KGNU.
Helen Gover: Hi, thank you for having me.
Dave Ashton: It’s great to have you back. I guess you’ve actually been a guest before on our Sunday afternoon show Indian Voices .
Helen Gover: Yes.
Dave Ashton: Welcome to our Denver studios.
Helen Gover: Thank you.
Dave Ashton: Helen, just give us a little background about how you came to work for the Levitt Pavilion.
Helen Gover: Yeah. So my name is Helen Gover. I am Diné, Pawnee and Choctaw. I’m an Indigenous woman. I was also a former student at CU Denver’s music business program. I started as an intern at Levitt Pavilion and worked my way up and into the communications manager position. It’s been a great time there and the staff and environment of Levitt has been very supportive. I had the opportunity to curate this festival as a way to promote, celebrate and highlight Indigenous contemporary artists as well as bringing in our cultural ties with the show. It’s been a lot of work and also a lot of experience gained. And I’m happy to see it in its second year.
Dave Ashton: Indeed. So was this sort of like your inspiration, your brainchild?
Helen Gover: Yeah, this is something I’ve seen First Nations in Canada do, they’re starting to promote their own festivals. And it’s something that I’ve gained inspiration from – seeing the movement of the Indigenous entertainment industry with film, with folks like Lily Gladstone and with the Hulu show “Reservation Dogs”. I think it’s really important to keep promoting the music side that we have. We have a lot of talented Indigenous artists that vary from genre to genre, as well as nation to nation. So this festival is a mixture of different tribal affiliations for the artists, as well as music genres. So trying to again, bring a mixture of contemporary Indigenous art to Denver, to the stage at Levitt specifically.
Dave Ashton: Indeed. So you are definitely making that distinction about contemporary Indigenous artists. What would you say is the distinction between traditional and contemporary?
Helen Gover: I think the contemporary side is different – more popular genres. I would say a lot of times when you hear, Oh, I’m hosting a Native American festival, Indigenous festival. They think of our cultural, ceremonial type of sound with the hand drums. That’s very important, and some of that will be highlighted at the show as well in a more interactive experience with the audience. Blues singer AJ Harvey is new to the lineup. He’s a blues singer-songwriter, some Americana and pop influences. Spencer Battiest and Doc Native. They’re Seminole and Choctaw, they’re brothers. He’s a rapper. His brother, Spencer Battiest, is more of a pop artist, and the first Native artist to be signed to Hard Rock Records in Hollywood, Florida. So yeah, this distinction is basically to show what we’re capable of with different art and genre mediums in that way.
Dave Ashton: Cool. Really just expanding on what people might expect.
Helen Gover: Exactly, like changing the narrative, being in charge of our own storytelling and not having to just be a quota for some people to check off for Native American Heritage Month. Levitt is also a good place for this because they gave me the opportunity to promote this festival. We have another show coming up called Rez Metal that I would like to give a shout out to. It is led by Vicky Eagle. She’s doing her PhD program in studying Rez Metal. Rez Metal is metal music that Indigenous southwestern tribes on the reservations down that way, like the Diné Nation and Tohono O’odham Pueblo. They have a lot of bands that are leaning into metal music for activism and self promotion. They will be here in September. Levitt’s a great place for both of these festivals to be hosted and highlighting Indigenous artistry as it is today.
Dave Ashton: Yeah, for sure. Levitt is just a wonderful addition to the live music scene here over the past, I think maybe five six years Levitt’s been going. Folks, if you’re not familiar, the Levitt Pavilion is a mixture of ticketed and free shows throughout the year. It’s a public/private partnership with the City of Denver and the Levitt Pavilion Group, which is a nationwide concert promoter that wants to work with municipalities that are able to and want to put on community events. So Denver is really blessed to have this facility. It’s on Ruby Hill just off of the Platte River between Florida and maybe Jewel. Ruby Hill famously is a landfill. The rubies were the busted out taillights from the cars buried under there. It’s a real jewel in the city and a lovely place to always catch a show. I think when it comes to these particular cultural offerings, it’s really important that the barriers to access get dropped down and that it just be open for families to come, with however many generations might be wanting to get together and come out and enjoy the celebration and the performance.
Helen Gover: Yeah. And this partnership specifically is with Denver Indian Center. It is funny because Rick Waters, their executive director, is like a grandfather figure in my life. He babysat me when I was a kid and it’s come really full circle. I was able to grow up with my Indigenous community here in Denver and the Boulder area. And now doing my part in giving back to that is very important, which is why I reached out to Denver Indian Center to be a fundraiser show for them. Basically, at the show, Levitt always does a donation bucket ask for all of our free series concerts. I’ve been happy to share that this time our donation bucket ask will be fully given to Denver Indian Center, and there will also be t-shirts as merchandise.
Those earned funds will be given to Denver Indian Center as well, and all of that funding goes towards youth programming in some capacity at Denver Indian Center’s discretion. For example, last year we raised just under 2,000 dollars for them. We’re hoping to bring that number up every year. And again, with giving back to the community, we also would like to have a resource booth fair. There will be different Indigenous led organizations that are there to support the Native community in Colorado and hopefully nationwide as well.
We also have a limited number of vendor booths and that is still in the talks of if it’s gonna be an open application process or not. But any information for this show will be found on our social media, which is All My Relations Celebration on Facebook and amrc_ co on Instagram. So we have posted updates there and we’ve been trying to keep the community updated that way, as well on the website at levittdenver.org.
Dave Ashton: It makes a lot of sense that you’ll have community organizations there, different resources for people. That’s something that I really love about festival season – that it’s a wonderful opportunity to find out about the work that people are doing in the community. And you just see that in every corner of the town. Gosh, it seems like such an important thing that you’re taking on, to do this for our Indigenous community here because there’s endless different cultural celebrations. But I guess I’m a little taken aback that it’s only been two years that there’s been a summer outdoor music festival specifically highlighting Indigenous musicians.
Helen Gover: Yeah, I’ll give flowers where they need to go. Denver Indian Center did have one festival, but right before COVID 19. It was called Indian Country Colorado or something along that line. And they had brought out Redbone, or whoever the remaining members of Redbone were. And for those that don’t know, Redbone did that famous song, “Come and get your love….”. So that was a great time. I think this diverges from that a bit, because it is, again, more contemporary and it has a resource booth fair as well. So it’s just taking that idea and it’s learning from that experience and rebuilding that bridge with Denver Indian Center after COVID. It took a couple years to reach out to them again and be like, hey, we have someone that’s wanting to do this festival and wanting to bring Denver Indian Center back into the mix because they are such a huge important piece to the Denver Native community. It’s a place where there’s a lot of programming for the youth, programming to learn cultural ties again, for those that are reconnecting as well.
Dave Ashton: It’s really critical work to repair some of the damage that’s been done through the separation of people from their cultures that has happened throughout American history. I’m finding out that your generation is that fabled seventh generation to come back around and repair this, not only for Indigenous communities, but also be able to help other people, even those dominant forces to understand what is really so great about Indigenous cultures and people and what the offerings are for everyone to benefit from.
Helen Gover: I think this festival does a good job of being a place for those who are non-Indigenous to listen. To really hear our stories as we want them to be told. That’s the whole purpose, the stage is a way for this artist to share their message as they want it to be, and not limited to what someone who’s non-Indigenous that would be curating the same thing, how they think it should be, if that makes sense. That’s the whole purpose of it, and I’m happy to have Melissa Ivey on the lineup for this year’s show. She’s done great work, and we work together for a couple other different projects. Shout out to Bodies of Culture. It’s a program of Levitt, Denver. It’s a BIPOC board of artists and music industry professionals in Denver. I’m excited to have them on.
Dave Ashton: So we’re going to play a track from Melissa Ivey here and then we’re going to bring the artist herself on. This is a little something called “Rise Up”. We’re going to check out the tune and then come right back.
Dave Ashton: That is the sound of Melissa Ivey ahead of her appearance at KGNU’s Presents show, All My Relations Celebration at the Levitt Pavilion. Melissa lives in Denver and is a local artist, also an advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, MMIW, and an advocate and activist in the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities. Melissa, welcome to KGNU.
Melissa Ivey: Thank you so much for having me. It’s great to be here.
Dave Ashton: Yeah, I’m glad that we’re here. We’re live. It’s all happening at once. And, there’s a lot of excitement generating about the All My Relations Celebration. Tell us how you came to be a part of this.
Melissa Ivey: I think working with Levitt Pavilion has been a blessing in so many ways. Working with the Bodies of Culture, getting to work with other artists that I, not only respect, but I really love these people. Helen and I just started forming a relationship just like sisters. She had this dream, this vision. As a musical doula who births many things, I just really wanted to see her dream and her vision come true. Being with so many people in our community, so many Natives, Indigenous, it was just such a beautiful culmination of her dream, her legacy, and I think really what the community has been asking for.
It was also amazing to see everybody show up dressed up to the nines and the tens, from the little ones to the aunties to the uncles. And to be here opening the show for the second year is just such an honor. It really is.
Dave Ashton: I love the fact that the focus on contemporary music gives an opportunity to break down people’s preconceptions about what Indigenous artists offer artistically. How do you describe your own artistic journey?
Melissa Ivey: There’ve been a lot of happy accidents. I accidentally became a lead singer and then bassist and then guitar player, and during COVID accidentally became a drummer and fell into my production and composing. So for me, the intention is staying in tune so that the muse can use me as the instrument. So how that shows up in my community and my songs varies from season to season. But starting from the foothills here in Denver, Colorado with the music programs at nine years old, and now being able to be one of the music mentors at places like Swallow Hill Music School, which is one of the oldest music schools in the country. It really has been a full circle journey, and rediscovering and reclaiming my indigeneity comes from family. I was adopted, and my adopted mother, Alicia Fall, not only brought me up in a more traditional Indigenous way, but as a musician, we really just got to fall into the rhythm and heartbeat from mother to child. It’s been a beautiful journey. And so now birthing babies, we teach them that heartbeat.
Dave Ashton: You are here, you’ve got your acoustic guitar, you have your drummer accompanying.
Melissa Ivey: Yes, Miss Emily Nelson, everybody.
Dave Ashton: Emily Nelson’s ready to jam with you. Let’s get into one of the tunes that you came to do before we check in about your activism.
Melissa Ivey: This is a song I wrote after I experienced aphasia for a few months. And when I was able to speak and sing again, this is my love letter to community. It’s called “Chocolate Chili”.
Dave Ashton: Oh, yeah, that’s excellent.
Melissa Ivey: Thank you so much.
Dave Ashton: I can smell the chocolate chili. That’s your ode to community. And what I’m getting is a real community centered vibe. I feel like people that are artists that are also called to activism have this particular love of other people. You want to not only entertain them, but also enlighten, uplift. Tell us about your work for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, a cause that needs far more attention than it gets. It’s throughout the Americas, such an issue. What do you do in this aspect?
Melissa Ivey: The term has actually been updated. It’s MMIR to include our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives. I was organizing for a powwow and I was asked to find someone to talk about MMIR. At the time, it was hitting too close to home for a lot of people. They couldn’t quite talk about it yet because they were in their grief over a relative. I went to my advisor, my chief, Lee Plenty Wolf, and he said, why do you think that is? Why don’t you think you can find someone? And I said, Oh. Because I’m supposed to be speaking on it. He says, that’s right.
There are so many things that I don’t know. And there’s so many imperfect things that I may say. I know that protecting our women, our children, our relatives, is something that we all must take accountability for. It’s a very serious subject that, as an artist, as a creative, I’ve talked to other folks in other mediums who, we are channeling the grief, we are channeling the pain, and we’re also channeling the hope that we have to protect.
For me, as a doula who offers guidance and love, and an open heart and an open ear. I’ve sat with many families as they’re dealing with missing ones, with ones that they have found. And so any way that we can show up as artists, I think it’s a beautiful thing. I think that there are a lot of us who want to use our platform to bring awareness about this. So I am honored to be amongst so many other folks who are talking about this subject.
Dave Ashton: Unfortunately, we’re really rolling towards the end of the show here, Melissa. So where can people find your music online?
Melissa Ivey: You can check out my website at melissaivey.com. I’m also on Instagram, melissaiveymusic. And I’m all over iTunes, Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, birthing your babies at your bar mitzvahs. At the quinces and at All My Relations.
Dave Ashton: The All My Relations Celebration will be not this Saturday but the following Saturday, the 10th of August at the Levitt Pavilion. This Indigenous music festival aims to connect us all with contemporary Indigenous musicians. I’d like to thank Helen Gover, communications manager and AMRC promoter for being here today. Melissa Ivey, thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure.
Melissa Ivey: Thank you so much.
