TalkingFeather Radio Interviews Pura Fe

Singer/songwriter/musician, poet, artist, dancer, actor, teacher, and activist:

This “Renaissance woman” is the founding member of the internationally renowned native woman’s a capella trio, ‘Ulali’, and is recognized for creating a new genre, bringing Native contemporary music to the forefront of the “mainstream” music industry.

Pura Fe has studied and performed with ‘The American Ballet Theatre’ company’, has been in several Broadway musicals and TV commercials. She has sung for ‘The Mercer Ellington Orchestra’, countless Jazz, R&B, Rock bands and has stamped her distinct vocals on many recordings, demo’s, jingles, music videos and movie sound tracks/trailers through out her career. She was nominated for a Juno Award (Canadian Grammy) with ‘Kanatanaski & Pura Fe’ for best aboriginal music video. She’s appeared on

Jay Leno’s ‘The Tonight Show’, UK’s ‘The Late Show’ and Brazil’s ‘Joe Suares Show’ with Ulali and Robbie Robertson. Pura Fe has toured world wide, in concert halls, festivals, nightclubs, universities,

Pow Wow’s, conferences, campaigns and endless benefits…for environmental and humanitarian rights.

 

In “Indian Country”, Pura Fe holds a “Smoke Dance” champion title and is a recipient of the

‘Community Spirit Award’ from the ‘First People’s Fund’ of the Tides Foundation, for her volunteered

cultural contributions of traditional song and dance, working with Native youth groups in North Carolina.

Pura Fe has done vocal workshops instructing Native theatre schools, women’s drum groups and has cultivated several traditional singing dance troops from her Nation.

 

Recording:

 

“With her voice soaring, foot stomping, this beautiful songbird

transcends time and brings the message of our Ancestors who

have sewn this beautiful seed, that makes powerful music”.

-Taj Mahal

 

Pura Fe launched her solo career touring her new album ‘Follow Your Hearts Desire’… on the ‘Music Maker Relief Foundation’ blues label. Her soulful voice and acoustic lap steel slide guitar, carries the ancestral message of the “Indigenous World” and the missing history that unified and separated the blood ties of Black and Indian people of the South. With a fresh new take, Pura Fe resurrects and elegantly states the common bond and the indigenous influence on the “birth of the blues”!

Pura Fé has now released her 2nd solo album, ‘Hold The Rain’ on Music Maker Relief Foundation label and European distribution by Dixie Frog label (France). ‘Hold The Rain’ is a more personal collection of music where Pura Fé is joined by one of Seattle’s finest guitarist, Danny Godinez. This great song album is infused with Danny’s heavy acoustic melodic guitar picking, Pura Fé’s signature lush vocal harmonies and slide guitar. In 2006, Pura Fe' won a Nammy (Native American Music Award) for Best Female Artist. She also won a L’académie Charles Cros Award (France) for Best World Album.

 

“Like all truly great singers, Pura Fe has the power to move you.

……With a potent mix of Native influences and good old fashioned blues,

……..her voice is soul itself. As I listened to this exceptional and varied

……. collection of music, I found myself at once soaring through the air,

then in an instant burned right down to the ground and loving

…….every minute of it”.

-Benjamin Bratt

Creating A World That Works For All

Listen to the interview with Sharif Abdullah  of The Commonway Institute 

Let us know what you think 

Commonway is an inclusive social change organization, dedicated to creating a society that works for all. Their goal is to foster inclusive, sustainable human societies on an ecologically viable planet.

 

Sharif Abdullah says: We are in deep trouble. We live in a world that works for only a few. It doesn’t work for those it purports to serve. This world was created by a shift in consciousness, a shift to exclusivity. Through the practice of exclusivity, "I am separate", we have created a soul-starved society. Exclusivity has created societal and personal problems that are fundamental, nightmarish, complex and interlocking: The Mess. The Mess leads to an inner emptiness, a hunger for the Sacred.

However, we can change this. We can create a world that works for all. We can shift our consciousness, our compassion and our actions to inclusivity: "We are One." Through inclusivity, we can create a world that works for all. The Mess is based on an outmoded and dysfunctional story: we can articulate and practice a new story for a new, inclusive society.