2023 Conference: Collaborating on “Women of the Ramapough Lenape Nation”

ASWM Conference May 5-6, Syracuse NY

2023 ASWM Schedule

Registration Links and Conference information here

The Creation of “The Women of the Ramapough Lenape Nation”

Grandmother Clara Soaring Hawk and Lisa Levart

“The Women of the Ramapough Lenape Nation,” is a creative collaboration between artist Lisa Levart and women from the Ramapough Lenape Nation – the indigenous people who live in the Highlands around Mahwah, N.J., 30 miles outside of NYC.  Under the guidance of Grandmother Clara Soaring Hawk, this on-going series is an artistic investigation into the sacred mythology of the Lenape Nation. Recreated as panoramic tableaus, Levart’s photographic portraits are made on ancestral land, and express the indigenous belief of  living life in connection with nature.

Filmmaker Myles Aronowitz will screen his 22 minute documentary film that has poetically captured this multi-year collaborative process. The screening will be followed by a spirited conversation among the project creators about the power of collaborative art making, community building between cultures, personal agency, and reclaiming ancestral stories.

A trailer for the film can be seen here.

Lisa Levart is a visual artist/photographer whose interest lies at the intersection between fine arts and social engagement. Her subjects are women and how our stories connect us to one another. A monograph of her work “Goddess on Earth; Portraits of the Divine Feminine” won a Gold Nautilus Book Award, and was named one of the 100 Best New Women’s Spirituality Books by the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Grandmother Clara Soaring Hawk is Ambassador of the Ramapough Lenape Nation. She  considers herself a “Spiritual Ecologist” as she prays for the balance of Spirit and the natural  world. Grandmother Clara has been facilitating ceremony, both nationally and internationally since 2013.

A well known photographer, Myles Aronowitz’ portraits of celebrities, artists, poets, musicians  and writers have been published world wide in magazines and newspapers including Time  Magazine, People Magazine, Forbes Magazine and the New York Times, to name only a few. This is his first documentary. www.MylesAronowitz.com