Curio Theatre gets its hands dirty for the Lenape Nation

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

A mound of dirt has appeared in front of the Calvary Center for Culture and Community on Baltimore Avenue in West Philadelphia. Next to it is an octagonal raised bed about 6 feet wide. Passersby are encouraged to take a handful of dirt from the former and put it in the latter.

In doing so, Chief Bluejay of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania, also known as Barbara Michalski, hopes they pause for a moment to connect with the earth. “It feels good. That’s what I was taught to do,” she said. “When we have a problem, we were told to go out in the woods and think. Sit with nature. Study nature. Understand nature, because a lot of our answers are in nature.”

The raised bed is accompanied by QR codes directing people to an online petition for the Lenape Nation to officially gain recognition from the state of Pennsylvania. Lenape people in Wisconsin and Oklahoma are recognized by the federal government, and in New Jersey and Delaware, they are recognized by their respective state governments. In Pennsylvania, however, the Lenape are recognized by neither state nor federal governments.

WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

“It’s been a long struggle my grandfather started many years ago,” Bluejay said. “It’s just a lot of red tape.”

Chief Bluejay adds dirt to the raised bed — Chief Bluejay (Barbara Michalski) of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania adds dirt to a raised bed outside the Curio Theatre. (Peter Crimmins/WHYY)

The mound and the pit are a street installation conceived and created by Paul Kuhn, artistic director of Curio Theatre Company, which is based in the Calvary Center. Curio is about to open its production of “The Thanksgiving Play” by Larissa FastHorse, a comedy about a group of white theater artists attempting to stage a culturally sensitive holiday play at an elementary school, which goes wrong. The play made its Broadway debut in 2023, the first Broadway show by a female Native American playwright.

Kuhn wanted to acknowledge the Lenapehoking, the Lenape name for their homeland, in a more substantial way than merely a note in the playbill. Originally from Nova Scotia, Kuhn was moved by the recent discovery in Canada of possibly hundreds of unmarked graves at residential schools for Indigenous children.

Although no human remains have been exhumed, which caused a backlash against the discovery, Kuhn felt personally culpable as a descendant of white Canadians. He watched the ceremonies of Sept. 30, Canada’s annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which were televised nationally.

“All over Canada they were broadcasting live Indigenous people discussing the horrors and the atrocities that were committed against their people,” Kuhn said. “It actually had a reverse effect: It re-traumatized them.”

WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

“I wanted to express my gratitude, and my acknowledgment of what my people did, by having something that could really get your hands dirty,” he added. “Touching the soil gives us a direct connection to the earth.”

Kuhn had been wanting to produce “The Thanksgiving Play” since he read it about five years ago, waiting for licensing rights and for director Tim Martin to become available. A member of the Yurok tribe of the West Coast, Martin said he has had precious few opportunities to work on plays centering on Indigenous people in the two decades as a theater artist in the Philadelphia region.

He jumped at the chance to direct “The Thanksgiving Play,” even though it makes him nervous.

“I grew up a mixed-blood native in the Philadelphia area. To confront Thanksgiving head-on, it just has so many mixed messages and cultural misappropriations to it,” Martin said. “I wasn’t sure how lighthearted we could make it.”

Tim Martin adds dirt to the raised bed — Tim Martin, the director of Curio Theatre's "The Thanksgiving Play," adds dirt to a raised bed built to honor the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania. (Peter Crimmins/WHYY)

He said the playwright wrote “Thanksgiving” in a way characteristic — perhaps unexpectedly — of Native Americans: It’s funny.

“Humor in Native culture is so important to us. It’s how we bond with each other. It’s also how we correct each other in a lighthearted and loving way,” Martin said. “That’s what Larissa is doing to America. She’s hoping to correct some of these missteps.”

During the run of “The Thanksgiving Play” at Calvary Center, Curio Theatre has invited members of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania to be present. At least three performances will feature Lenape people in the lobby selling tribal merchandise and speaking with theatergoers.

“The Thanksgiving Play” runs Oct. 31 to Nov. 9. The raised bed will remain in place through next spring when, if enough people transfer enough dirt into it, Curio will cultivate native plants.