The Folk Collective: Indigenous People’s Day
- The Folk Collective
Indigenous societies are not monolithic but are indeed pluralistic societies that have existed since the beginning of time – many of whose lineages continue to be relevant and vibrant today.
We are so excited to celebrate the artistic contributions of both traditional and contemporary music performed by this group of talented Indigenous artists who carry on the Folk and Indigenous traditions of storytelling through song!
This show is curated by Club Passim Folk Collective members Kim Moberg and Maxfield Anderson. The Folk Collective a cohort of twelve select artists, musicians, and cultural thought leaders whose mission is to work with Club Passim to present inclusive and equitable events that welcome and invite diverse audiences and artists to the Passim stage and beyond.
We Are Passim! To learn more about The Folk Collective, visit passim.org/folkcollective.
Kim Moberg
- Folk
- Singer/Songwriter
Award winning singer/songwriter/guitarist Kim Moberg was born in Juneau, Alaska, the daughter of a mother of Alaskan Native Tlingit descent and a US Coast Guard veteran father from Kansas. Kim inherited an innate sense of music which was the constant in Kim’s childhood, helping her to adjust to the frequent moves associated with growing up in a military family.
A classical pianist and guitarist, Kim’s mother guided her life-long love for a wide range of musical genres from traditional and contemporary jazz to Broadway tunes and Folk music. Her father, a lifelong country music fan, exposed her to legendary Country music artists like Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. As a Folk/Americana artist, Kim’s sound reflects this mélange of her musical upbringing.
At the age of 14, Kim began playing acoustic guitar on a borrowed nylon 6 string. Later, Kim taught herself to strum and finger pick to her favorite songs by singer/songwriters, but debilitating stage fright kept her from pursuing her dream of becoming a professional performer. In 2014, after a career spanning nearly two decades in the financial industry, Kim set out to overcome her stage fright and wrote her first song.
Kim teamed with Grammy-nominated producer Jon Evans (Tori Amos / Sarah McLachlan) to record “Above Ground” (2017) who’s title celebrates the achievement of her goal to bring her music out of the basement.. The collection includes 7 original songs, including the anthem “Resist” and 1 cover (“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”).
Her sophomore release “Up Around The Bend” (2020) addresses a variety of topics such as her great grandmother’s marriages (“Josephine”), the soldiers that guard The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (“21 Steps: Ballad of the Unknowns”)and the award-winning “Angels Fly” about the loss of her sister to breast cancer.
Both albums have been aired world-wide and charted on the Folk International Folk DJ and the North American College & Community Radio charts to critical acclaim.
Kim and Jon collaborated again for her third album “The Seven Fires Prophecy: Suite for Humanity” (2023), an 8 song original suite that ties the ancient Anishinaabe prophecy to our current social environment. The project blossomed from Kim’s desire to share what she learned about Indigenous teachings and the important and relevant life lessons they offer.
Kim’s rich vocals, described as “a blend of honey and whiskey”, gently guides listeners through her musical stories while her compositions tug at feelings of melancholy, heartbreak, healing and social consciousness.
Maxfield Anderson
- Bluegrass
- Roots
Maxfield Anderson is an American roots multi-instrumentalist, teacher, writer and music director, currently living in Somerville, MA. As an artist, Maxfield aims to bring new light to honored traditions and to share the joy of making music with others.
Growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Maxfield’s home was filled with an array of musical styles. After years of playing violin, his attention was taken hold by bluegrass and western swing fiddle, quickly leading him to discover the mandolin. He moved to Boston to study mandolin and American roots music at Berklee College of Music. Additionally, Max is a proficient guitar player, and after a year of isolation, finally broke down and added clawhammer banjo to the repertoire.
Teaching music has always been a big part of Max’s artistry. He believes that traditional music is an excellent vessel for understanding an instrument and finding your own voice as a musician. Teaching at Club Passim since 2020, Max has taught group courses in Beginner & Intermediate Mandolin, Bluegrass Ensemble (co-taught with Trevin Nelson), and Intro to Tune Writing. He also offers private instruction on mandolin, fiddle, guitar, music theory, and tune writing out of his home studio.
In addition to performing and teaching, Maxfield recently wrote and music directed the ‘Homegrown Stringband’ roots trio at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, OH. The trio performed authentic bluegrass, folk, and old time string band music throughout the summer season of 2022.
Maxfield graduated from Berklee College of Music with a BFA in Music Performance. He is an active gigging musician in the Boston music scene, and has toured throughout the Northeast playing listening rooms, ball rooms, bar rooms, back rooms, front porches and festival stages.
Thea Hopkins
- Folk
- Singer/Songwriter
A member of Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe of Martha’s Vineyard MA, performing songwriter Thea Hopkins calls her music – Red Roots Americana. She has been described as a “standout writer” by the Washington Post.
In Spring 2024, she was selected to attend the First Nations gathering and the ISPA Congress in Perth, Australia as a Western Arts Alliance artist delegate.
Thea was an official showcase artist at the International Indigenous Music Summit, held in Toronto in June 2023.
In January 2023, Thea received an artist award from the Newport Festivals Foundation in support of her new album, “Here In Our World” to be released in January 2025.
She was an Official Showcase Artist at Folk Alliance International in 2022.
Her program, “In The Roundhouse”, a celebration of traditional and contemporary Indigenous music, debuted in Providence RI in September 2021.
In May 2021, Thea was selected by Folk Alliance International as part of Team USA, for Global Music Match, an internationally artist led collaborative effort.
Thea’s song, “The Ghost Of Emmett Till”, from her highly praised 2018 EP, “Love Come Down” was awarded the grand prize by the Great American Song Contest in March 2021. There were over 1900 entries from forty three countries.
Her EP “Love Come Down’, was nominated for a 2019 Indigenous Music Award in the folk category, an international competition. She created, in just six tunes, an elegant and seamless song journey that begins with a gentle invocation (“Love Come Down”), ends with a lullaby (“Until Then”) and gracefully travels to a few dark American landscapes in between. From love ballad to social history, every song is personal. The scope of the EP – touching upon Americana, folk and pop — can be seen by the choice of musicians. Jazz trumpeter Tom Halter (Either Orchestra) explores haunting new directions on four songs. “Mississippi River, Mississippi Town” features the electric “ebow” guitar of David Minehan (The Neighborhoods, The Replacements.) The pianist Tim Ray (formerly with Lyle Lovett) is prominent, and plaintive, on “Almost Upon a Time.” The song “Tamson Weeks” is sparked by violinist Mimi Rabson of the Really Esoteric String Quartet. It tells the story of Hopkins’ great-great aunt, a medicine woman of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Indian tribe of Martha’s Vineyard. On her timely ballad, “The Ghost of Emmett Till,” Noel Paul Stookey (the Paul of P,P & M) adds his quietly dramatic guitar and harmony vocals.
In June 2019, Thea was selected by the Western Arts Alliance as a 2019 Native Launchpad Artist, a three-year artist development program. To cap off 2019, Thea was selected for the Wichoie Ahiya Indigenous Singer Songwriter Intensive at the Banff Arts Centre in Alberta, Canada. Thea was a Native Arts and Cultures fellowship recipient in 2017.
She first came to wider public notice when Peter, Paul & Mary recorded her song “Jesus Is On The Wire” in 2004, and then again in 2010 with the Prague Symphony Orchestra. It is considered one of their later signature songs.
In addition to Aquinnah Wampanoag, Hopkins ‘ ancestry includes Nottoway (Iroquois), African American, Irish and Portuguese. In other words, Red Roots Americana.
Mwalim Daphunkee Professor
- Jazz
- Soul
Considered by critics and peers alike to be one of the contemporary masters of the oral tradition, MWALIM “DaPhunkee Professor” (Morgan James Peters) is a multi-award-winning composer, musician, theater artist, writer, and educator whose works span the mediums of sound recordings, books, plays, films, videos, and multimedia installations.
An accomplished composer, musician, and singer in the genres of jazz, soul, House Music, and Afrobeats, Mwalim s a three-time winner of the New England Urban Music Awards for Jazz, and is the writer and co-producer of The GroovaLottos six-time Grammy nominated album, “Ask Yo’ Mama”.
Coming from long family lines of West Indian/Bajan (Barbados) and Mashpee Wampanoag oral traditionalists, it was of little surprise that Mwalim would tell stories to his classmates in nursery school and kindergarten, or that he began winning awards for storytelling in the 7th grade, and city-wide short-story contests in high school. While in college, he began his career as a storyteller and spoken-word artist; interweaving storytelling with a life long love of music as a violist, pianist, percussionist, and singer. Playing Carnegie Hall before the age of 14 and -at 16 -becoming one of the youngest session players in EMI history- Mwalim’s story is a rich and multi-dimensional one. After completing his MS in Film Boston University he studied theater arts education and playwriting at New African Company in Boston. His plays began getting productions in Boston and after a reading at the 1999 National Black Theatre Festival, his plays and performances pieces began receiving productions throughout the USA and Canada as well as the UK and Caribbean.
Wampanoag Singers & Dancers
- Native American
- Trad
The Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers are a group of musicians, educators, and artisans from the tribal communities of Mashpee on Cape Cod, Aquinnah on Martha’s Vineyard, and Herring Pond in Bourne. Our performances of eastern social songs and dances have both educated and entertained audiences of all ages in museums, schools, and various multi-cultural events. We dress in our traditional clothing and our songs are accompanied by a water drum and handcrafted rattles. We encourage audience participation and prefer to dance with the people instead of for the people.
The Wampanoag Nation Singers & Dancers have appeared at Jacob’s Pillow, John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, The Peabody Essex Museum, Cambridge Arts Council, The Mary Baker Eddy Library, Heritage Museums and Gardens, Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Mashpee Powwow, Aptucxet Trading Post Museum, Stonehill College, Brown University and more.
They have toured throughout New England and as far away as Bermuda, Hawaii and the UK. For three years, they have represented at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, heading up the First Light Float and delivering the televised land acknowledgement.
