OKC's IndigiPopX to celebrate 'Reservation Dogs,' 'Star Wars,' cosplay and more: What to know
As the name implies, most comic conventions focus on comic books, graphic novels, anime and related film and television projects.
Also as the name implies, IndigiPopX is different. The three-day event, also known as the Indigenous Pop Expo, not only centers on Indigenous creatives, but also covers a wide range of popular culture.
"We have really well-known writers right now: We have Shane Hawk from 'Never Whistle at Night.' We have the NDN Girls Book Club. ... We have plenty of comic-book artists as well: We have Roy Boney Jr., and he makes covers for Marvel," said IndigipopX Director Kristin Gentry.
"We also have actors, singers, musicians, writers that do other kinds of writing, improv. ... You'll get to see every type of art, even fun pop culture beadwork. I've seen some beaded Furbies. We have robotics and people that make little Indigenous robots — Danielle Boyer is one of those — and we want to showcase anything you can think of that's pop culture, anything that people are interested in and what Native people are doing."
When and where is this year's IndigiPopX?
IndigiPopX, which can be further abbreviated IPX, touts itself as "the planet's premier Indigenerd gathering," and for the second straight year, the event is gathering in Oklahoma City. This year's IndigiPopX is set for April 12-14 with most activities inside and on the grounds of the First Americans Museum.
The mostly family-friendly event is open to Native and non-Native attendees, said Gentry, who is Choctaw.
Billed as "the original Indigenous Comic Con," the event started in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2016. Gentry said the comic con also was organized in Denver and Australia before the OKC museum hosted last year the first in-person edition of IndigiPopX since the COVID-19 pandemic.
"With our state-of-the-art facilities and versatile rental space, FAM showcases the interconnectedness of Indigenous pop culture. IPX and FAM both promote living and evolving cultures. This is the second year that IPX and First Americans Museum have collaborated and partnered together for this one-of-a-kind event," said Blake Wade, interim director of First Americans Museum.
Here's a look at some of the panels, workshops, celebrities and more to be featured at IndigiPopX:
IndigiPopX to celebrate Oklahoma-made series 'Reservation Dogs'
Although the trailblazing FX show ended in September with its Season 3 finale, the Oklahoma-made series "Reservation Dogs" continues to earn acclaim, including a "Reservation Dogs" Day celebration Saturday, April 13 at IndigiPopX.
The centerpiece of the "Rez Dogs" celebration will be a panel at 2 p.m. Saturday, followed by meet-and-greet opportunities with cast members. Actors from the show expected to make appearances Saturday include Lane Factor, Jon Proudstar, Kaniehtiio Horn, Nathalie Standingcloud, Sten Joddi, Mike Bone and Richard Ray Whitman.
"Reservation Dogs" mastermind Sterlin Harjo was originally announced as a guest for the event, but Gentry said the Oklahoma filmmaker and showrunner now will miss this year's expo as he readies to start filming in Tulsa on his FX pilot “The Sensitive Kind," starring Ethan Hawke, Keith David, Kyle MacLachlan and Tulsa natives Tim Blake Nelson, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Tracy Letts.
"It's a good problem. It's good for them, and, of course, we want everybody to be successful in their careers, so that we can keep having this convention. It's just hard because their fans want to meet them. For Indigenous people to have Lily (Gladstone) and Cara (Jade Myers), to actually have us, on film, and Sterlin, specifically, creating those things ... it's amazing," Gentry said.
"When Sterlin first started, usually only Native populations would watch (his movies) like 'Mekko' and 'Barking Water.' Everybody watched 'Rez Dogs.'"
Event explores intersection of traditional Indigenous culture and pop culture
One of the goals of IndigiPopX is to showcase Native American creatives and communities "in a way that dispels the mythologies that Natives are a people of the past."
Many of the activities at the expo explore the intersection of traditional Indigenous culture and pop culture, including workshops on Indigenous cooking, storytelling, metalsmithing and even sessions like "Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse."
Ahead of the con's official opening, a free glow stickball game for players 18 and older is planned for dusk Thursday, April 11 on the First Americans Museum grounds.
Plus, a youth cosplay stickball game and the event's inaugural hand drum contest are scheduled for Friday, April 12.
"We have very different tribes and Natives are always combating things like, for my tribe, we didn't have tipis. We're just showing that difference in people," Gentry said. "We have an Indigenous-owned company that's face-painting, and our food trucks are Indigenous. People can try traditional foods that way. There's (what they) call the Rez Dog, and it's a hot dog with fry bread."
IndigiPopX Grand Celebration to honor the late Nex Benedict
The event's Grand Celebration at 1 p.m. Saturday will feature the Cherokee Youth Choir, Miss Indian Oklahoma 2023-24 Faithlyn Seawright, IndigiPopX theme artist Tom Farris and more.
The Grand Celebration also will honor the late Owasso teen Nex Benedict, a descendant of the Choctaw Nation with a gender expansive identity who used the pronouns he, him, they and them. The 16-year-old was pronounced dead Feb. 8, one day after being injured in an altercation inside an Owasso High School bathroom. The state medical examiner ruled the teen died by suicide.
"It was really important to us, because that's our relative, and we have such a large Two Spirit population," said Gentry, who will be the emcee for the Grand Celebration.
"Miwese Greenwood is going to come and sing an honor song for him, and we have ribbons for everybody for suicide awareness. ... We feel that Nex would have been here at the event with us, and we want to create that safe space for everybody."
OKC event includes after-hours LGBTQ+ event for attendees 21 and older
On Friday night, the festivities will move to the Fordson Hotel (formerly 21c Museum Hotel) after hours for an adult mixer at 7 p.m. for IndigiPopX attendees 21 and older.
The after-hours fun for ages 21 and up continues at 9 p.m. Friday at the hotel with "A Night With Mistress Red." The sold-out event will feature Peshawn Bread, a Comanche, Kiowa and Cherokee filmmaker who hails from Oklahoma City, whose short film "The Diary of Mistress Red," is about a Native dominatrix for hire finds cultural healing in whipping apologies out of her white supremacist clients.
Along with the film, the ticketed Two Spirit and LGBTQIA+ event will incorporate music, trans burlesque, specialtymocktails and more. Attendees are encouraged to "dress to impress."
IndigiPopX to incorporate cosplay, 'Star Wars,' 'Ghostbusters' and more
IndigiPopX will celebrate some of the biggest names in wider popular culture, in some cases with a Native twist.
OKC Ghostbusters will offer laser training all day Saturday and Sunday starting at 11 a.m., and an ongoing showing of the Navajo translation of "Star Wars: A New Hope" will start at 1 p.m. Friday. A Q&A about the Marvel Studios streaming series "Echo," which is set in Oklahoma and spotlights the Choctaw culture, is planned for 3 p.m. Saturday.
Muriel Fahrion, the Tulsa-based creator of Strawberry Shortcake, the Care Bears and the Get Along Gang, will present a panel at noon Sunday, April 14.
Norman-based "Killers of the Flower Moon" actor Yancey Red Corn and Oklahoma artist Brent Greenwood will take part in a panel called "Big Uncle Energy," about Internet fandom in Indian Country, at 11 a.m. Sunday.
Cosplay is an integral part of any comic con, and IndigiPopX will include workshops, panels, a contest and a parade.
"Cosplay is actually really important to us. It gives us a chance to actually (wear a) costume, because people always think our traditional regalia is our costume. It's a great way for us to show us that cosplay is that costume play, and when we're in regalia, that is not a costume," Gentry said.
"But you can use all those skills you have from sewing your regalia — beadwork, all your weaponry and all that goes into cosplay — and, to me, we outshine any comic con I have ever been to with cosplay, because everybody can already sew so well."
INDIGIPOPX 2024
When: April 12-14.
Where: First Americans Museum, OKC.
Information and tickets:https://indigenouscomiccon.com/ticketing.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC's IndigiPopX to honor the late Nex Benedict: What you need to know
