Traditional Indigenous Dance: A Performance & Explanation with Eastern Pequot Tribal Councilor Natasha Gambrell

As part of Poetry in the Garden's 2025 season, "Declarations 2025 - Resilience & Rage: Voices from Marginalized America," KTM&HC and Ridgefield Poet Laureate Emerita Barb Jennes are proud to host Natasha Gambrell, Tribal Councilor of the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, one of five recognized tribes in Connecticut.

Gambrell will perform and explain the Eastern Blanket, Jingle, and Northern Traditional dances, among others. The poet/educator often demonstrates these dances at schools, powwows and other public gatherings in order to keep her tribe's rich cultural history alive - a crucial pursuit in the marginalized Indigenous community. "We will not disappear," she explains. "It's up to us to carry the nation on our backs." 

A Q&A session suitable for all ages will follow.

Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center is sited on the ancestral homelands of the Ramapough, Munsee Lenape, and Wiechquaesgeck people.

Tickets go on sale this spring, with special pricing for children 12 and under.

Natasha Gambrell is a Tribal Councilor of the Eastern Pequot Nation. A 2015 graduate of Eastern Connecticut State University, Gambrell teaches high school English and has been actively involved in the Eastern Pequot archaeology field study since 2008. Passionate about representing her tribe, telling their story, and helping the next generation, Gambrell proudly demonstrates and explains the traditional dances of her people.