Julia Keefe & the Indigenous Big Band
Jazz vocalist and bandleader. Listen to Incarnadine.
COASTAL CAROLINA RIVERWATCH
Indigenous Lecture Series
Land, water, memory, and the voices that connect them.
Explore conversations about Indigenous history, ecological knowledge, cultural expression, and environmental justice in coastal North Carolina and beyond. Watch the lectures and explore speaker biographies, books, organizations, and music connected to the series.
Explore the lectures · Listen and learn · How the series began
Watch the lectures
Dr. Stephen Stacks
Hearing the Water: Music, Land, and Indigenous Movements in North Carolina
November 13, 2026 · Tight Lines Pub & Brewing Company · Morehead City
The program explored relationships among music, land, water, and Indigenous identity. The program’s themes connect music in The Lost Colony and Strike at the Wind, singing in Warren County’s environmental justice movement, and Southeastern Indigenous women singer-songwriters.
About the speaker: Dr. Stacks is an assistant professor of music at North Carolina Central University and an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe. His scholarship examines music, race, identity, and social protest.
Read: The Resounding Revolution: Freedom Song after 1968
Freedom singing, collective memory, and the continuing struggle for justice.
Speaker website · Stephen Stacks on Facebook · NCCU biography · North Carolina Central University · Music and listening resources
Watch Dr. Stacks’s lecture in Google Drive
Dr. Ryan E. Emanuel
Where Water Holds Memory: Dr. Ryan Emanuel on Indigenous Environmental Justice in Eastern North Carolina
July 23, 2026 · Promise Land Market · Morehead City
Explore water, wetlands, Indigenous resilience, and environmental justice through the landscapes and communities of eastern North Carolina.
About the speaker: Dr. Emanuel is a Lumbee hydrologist and Duke University faculty member. His work connects water and ecosystem science with environmental justice and Indigenous rights.
Read: On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice
Stories of Indigenous resilience and environmental change in eastern North Carolina.
Duke faculty profile · Duke Nicholas School of the Environment · CCRW event announcement
Watch Dr. Emanuel’s lecture in Google Drive
Gray Parsons
Balance, Resilience, and Indigenous Wisdom
July 12, 2025 · Promise Land Market · Morehead City
The second event in CCRW’s Cultural Perspectives Series centered Indigenous ecological knowledge, connections to land and water, leadership, and community.
About the speaker: Gray Parsons is the founder of The Secotan Alliance . . . and beyond and a descendant of the Machapunga-Mattamuskeet people of North Carolina’s Inner Banks. His advocacy connects Indigenous heritage with environmental stewardship.
Read: Hope on Hatterask and Pampico Blue
Historical storytelling and poetry rooted in coastal Indigenous lives and relationships with the Earth.
Ask the Secotan Alliance about copies of either book. For Pampico Blue, ask Buxton Village Books about availability; the independent Hatteras Island bookseller featured it in its 2025 reading guide.
Speaker biography · The Secotan Alliance · Event coverage
Watch Gray Parsons’s lecture in Google Drive
Dr. Arwin D. Smallwood
Cultural Perspectives Series: Coastal Indigenous Communities and Ecological Wisdom
January 11, 2025 · Mug Shot Caffeine and Cocktails · Morehead City
CCRW’s inaugural series event explored coastal Indigenous history, culture, resilience, and the relationships between communities and their environment.
About the speaker: Historian Dr. Smallwood is dean of NCCU’s College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. A Bertie County native, he studies relationships among Native Americans, African Americans, and Europeans in eastern North Carolina.
Read: Bertie County: An Eastern Carolina History
The intertwined histories of Native American, African, and European communities and their landscape.
Shop at the Historic Hope Foundation · Shop through Bookshop.org · Publisher details
NCCU biography · North Carolina Central University
Watch Dr. Smallwood’s lecture in Google Drive
Listen and learn
Indigenous music recommended by Dr. Stephen Stacks
Discover Indigenous musicians working across jazz, soul, hip-hop, folk, rock, classical music, and more. These selections come from Dr. Stacks’s Native American Heritage Month recommendations.
Jennifer Kreisberg
Vocalist, composer, and founding member of Ulali. Explore music and performances.
Snotty Nose Rez Kids
Hip-hop duo. Listen to RED FUTURE.
Martha Redbone
Soul and R&B. Listen to Skintalk.
Samantha Crain
Indie folk and rock. Listen to “Bloomsday”.
Connor Chee
Pianist and composer. Explore Sandpaintings for Piano, Scenes from Dinétah, and The Navajo Piano. Listen to Connor Chee · Artist website and music videos.
Cris Derksen
Cellist and composer. Explore recordings on Bandcamp.
Itãi Minēk
Mali Obomsawin
Bassist, composer, and singer. Listen to “Wawasint8da” and explore recordings, including the rock project Deerlady.
Blackfire
Punk and rock. Listen to “[Silence] Is a Weapon”.
Xiuhtezcatl
Listen to “¡BASTA YA!” with Cain Culto · Explore more music.
Blaine Bailey
Country singer-songwriter. Listen to Blaine Bailey.
Delbert Anderson
Jazz trumpeter and composer. Explore recordings and performances.
Alexis Raeana
Recommendations: Dr. Stephen Stacks. Follow the links to listen and support the artists.
More listening: The Resounding Revolution
Continue exploring freedom singing with the companion YouTube playlist for The Resounding Revolution, linked in the publisher’s supplemental materials.
This playlist accompanies his book and offers additional listening beyond the CCRW lecture.
How the series began
CCRW’s series grew from conversations inspired by the Secotan Alliance’s 2024 In the Spirit of Wingina . . . and Beyond gathering. Beginning with the Cultural Perspectives Series in 2025, these events create space to learn about Indigenous histories, living cultures, and responsibilities to land and water.
Learn about the Secotan Alliance’s work.
Keep these conversations growing
Support community learning and CCRW’s work to protect the quality of water and quality of life in coastal North Carolina.