Bizhiki Headlines Sound for Silents: An Evening of Film and Live Music on the Walker Art Center Hillside
The ensemble performs a new Walker-commissioned live score alongside archival and contemporary moving image works at the Walker’s free summer send-off
The Walker Art Center’s annual summer send-off, Sound for Silents, returns to the Walker hillside on Thursday, August 20, for a free evening combining live music with archival and contemporary moving image works.
The evening begins with a vinyl set by DJ Justis Brokenrope (Sičháŋǧu Lakȟóta), featuring Indigenous rock, country, and folk music. At 8:30 pm, the six-member ensemble Bizhiki will perform a newly commissioned live score accompanying a 60-minute film program drawn from the Walker’s Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection and other sources.
Bizhiki brings together vocals and drumming by Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings (Bad River Ojibwe) and Joe Rainey Sr. (Red Lake Ojibwe) with contemporary soundscapes by S. Carey of Bon Iver and guitarist Jeremy Ylvisaker. The group recently performed at the Eaux Claires Festival in July.
Spanning 130 years of filmmaking, the program includes two 1894 films produced by Thomas Edison and filmed by W. K. L. Dickson that document Lakota dancers; experimental works by Minnesota artists Peter Bundy and Linda Klosky; Pare Lorentz’s 1937 Mississippi River documentary The River; and Finn Ryan’s 2024 music videos Gigawaabamin (Come Through) and Unbound, featuring members of Bizhiki.
The selection brings together works concerned with Indigenous life, land, water, memory, movement, and environmental change.
Sound for Silents is free and takes place rain or shine. In the event of extreme weather, the screening and performance move indoors to the Walker’s McGuire Theater.
Sound for Silents 2026: Film + Music on the Walker Hillside
Thursday, August 20, 7 pm
Walker Hillside
About Bizhiki
Bizhiki aims to educate, engage, and empower audiences around contemporary Ojibwe culture and lifeways. The multidisciplinary project strives to both support revitalization within Tribal communities and enhance understanding in non-Tribal communities. Bizhiki’s music blends the ethereal vocals and visceral drumming of Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings (Bad River Ojibwe) and Joe Rainey Sr. (Red Lake Ojibwe) with a contemporary soundscape by multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer S. Carey. Connecting the songs is a lyrical narrative in which Jennings and Rainey share pieces of the Anishinaabe experience around identity, loss, and revitalization. The instrumentation—including powwow drums, percussion, drum machines, electric bass, synthesizers, guitars, piano, and vocals—evokes the lived Anishinaabe experience in a unique format. Expertly captured on Bizhiki’s debut release Unbound, the collaboration invites an open-ended dialogue about resources shared generations into the future. Audiences are welcome to connect experientially and emotionally to Ojibwe culture, all through the crisp lens of art and collaboration.
About the Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a renowned multidisciplinary arts institution that presents, collects, and supports the creation of groundbreaking work across the visual and performing arts, moving image, and design. Guided by the belief that art has the power to bring joy and solace and the ability to unite people through dialogue and shared experiences, the Walker engages communities through a dynamic array of exhibitions, performances, events, and initiatives. Its multiacre campus includes 65,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space, the state-of-the-art McGuire Theater and Walker Cinema, and ample green space that connects with the adjoining Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. The Garden, a partnership with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, is one of the first urban sculpture parks of its kind in the United States and home to the beloved Twin Cities landmark Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Recognized for its ambitious program and growing collection of more than 16,000 works, the Walker embraces emerging art forms and amplifies the work of artists from the Twin Cities and from across the country and the globe. Its broad spectrum of offerings makes it a lively and welcoming hub for artistic expression, creative innovation, and community connection.
Acknowledgments
Major support to preserve, digitize, and present the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection is generously provided by the Bentson Foundation.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Thank you, Walker members, for your generous support.