{"id":45895,"date":"2021-07-07T13:28:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T19:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/women-take-the-mic-in-male-dominated-powwow-emcee-field\/"},"modified":"2021-07-07T19:28:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T19:28:00","slug":"women-take-the-mic-in-male-dominated-powwow-emcee-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/women-take-the-mic-in-male-dominated-powwow-emcee-field\/","title":{"rendered":"Women take the mic in male-dominated powwow emcee field"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Deanna
Deanna Rae StandingCloud at the Leech Lake Labor Day Powwow in 2019 near Class Lake, Minn. StandingCloud, a citizen of the Red Lake Nation, was co-emcee of the event. (Nedahness Greene\/Indian Country Today via AP)<\/span>Nedahness Greene<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(AP) \u2013 Deanna Rae StandingCloud has jokes.<\/p>\n

She also has the voice, and the skill. Now, she just needs more opportunities to show it.<\/p>\n

StandingCloud, of Red Lake Nation and from Minneapolis, is one of the few female powwow emcees in a typically male-dominated field. Now that powwows and other social gatherings are coming back after a monthslong pandemic hiatus, StandingCloud wants her voice to be heard, too.<\/p>\n

StandingCloud and others like Kwe Blomgren want powwow decision makers to know they are available to emcee, Indian Country Today<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to start having women in these roles, so in our minds, we think, that definitely can be a woman, and it can be,\u201d StandingCloud said. \u201cWomen are pretty funny, and some of the funniest people I met are female, so why the heck not?\u201d<\/p>\n

StandingCloud created a Facebook female powwow emcee group and has nearly a dozen members. She wanted aspiring female powwow emcees to have a space to connect. Blomgren is one of its members.<\/p>\n

\u201cHearing their journeys of celebrations or mini gigs is really inspiring there,\u201d Blomgren said about the group.<\/p>\n

Blomgren, of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, periodically posts on her Facebook page that she is a \u201cpowwow emcee for hire.\u201d In August 2019, she posted a short Facebook video<\/a> explaining why she wanted to emcee along with an example of her emcee style. The video was her way to let others know how serious she is.<\/p>\n

In her post, she wrote: \u201cI\u2019m officially submitting my cowboy hat into the ring. (Aye.) Here is my mock (grand entry) run. I\u2019m not the best or a pro but my heart is fully into this video. I worked hard on it and I\u2019m super proud. I tell my girls to try, try, and fight for what they really want. So here is me fighting for my dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

The emcee, or master of ceremonies, tends to be a popular yet demanding gig, and most powwows have a two- or three-person rotation or more. The challenge for most emcees is keeping the crowd engaged and entertained while guiding dancers and singers through the hourslong celebration.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also fun and worthwhile, StandingCloud said. Plus the many plates of food all the time, and the ability to come up with words and jokes on the fly, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the trick to being an emcee is reading the crowd and being in the moment,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of the jokes come from improvising. I try to be present, being in the moment and appreciating the celebration itself, and a lot of teasing jokes will come out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also likes to play off the energy of her co-hosts.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody ends on a perfect beat \u2013 I\u2019ll go, \u2018Hoo! There you have it, folks,\u2019\u201d she says in a deep voice, stretching out her words. \u201c\u2018Powwow Saturday night live. We\u2019re here!\u201d<\/p>\n

StandingCloud enjoys being social and was often found at powwows or events in the Twin Cities area before the pandemic. Her first emcee opportunity wasn\u2019t planned. She was assisting an emcee a few years back at an area school powwow until it made more sense for her to be on the microphone. The next year, she was invited back to be the lead emcee.<\/p>\n

Then came her big break. In mid-2019, organizers for Leech Lake Labor Day Powwow asked StandingCloud to co-emcee the celebration. StandingCloud said she was initially anxious about the invite. She was familiar with the powwow and knew it was one of the larger powwows in northern Minnesota.<\/p>\n

\u201cInside, I was like, \u2018OK, I have to do this because, first of all, nobody ever gets asked this,\u2019\u2019\u2019 StandingCloud said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to because I was nervous and I didn’t think I was really good enough, but whatever. I said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few months after, she had another emcee gig at a Fond du Lac Band powwow near Lake Superior. Emceeing was getting easier, and StandingCloud was getting comfortable. Then the pandemic hit.<\/p>\n

More recently, StandingCloud was the virtual emcee for the MN Connect Powwow and an in-person emcee at the Red Lake Nation College graduation and mini powwow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just excited for COVID to be something that is behind us so we can all come back together and have a powwow,\u201d StandingCloud said. \u201cI miss the sounds, smells, sounds of bells, everything. It\u2019s just a nostalgic feeling. It\u2019s a very vivid experience for a lot of our people, and it\u2019s one of the things that probably healed us as Native people.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few years ago during a Minnesota summer, Blomgren was enjoying a powwow on her Leech Lake homelands when her goal was to be in the emcee stand.<\/p>\n

She came close. She emceed community events and gatherings.<\/p>\n

After her Facebook video, Blomgren had a few local powwow emcee gigs lined up, but they were unfortunately canceled because of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely ready,\u201d Blomgren said. \u201cWhen the world is healthy, I\u2019m ready\u201d<\/p>\n

Her confidence comes from positive feedback from her family and community, including from elders. Her dream is to one day emcee at the Gathering of Nations in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want lady emcees to be the norm, and I want us to start hearing us at celebrations and seeing us do big things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rae StandingCloud at the Leech Lake Labor Day Powwow in 2019 near Class Lake, Minn. StandingCloud, a citizen of the Red Lake Nation, was co-emcee of the event. (Nedahness Greene\/Indian Country Today via AP)Nedahness Greene (AP) \u2013 Deanna Rae StandingCloud has jokes. She also has the voice, and the skill. Now, she just needs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45895"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}