Grantee: Madeline McNeill and Maura Garcia

With SAGA’s support, Madeline McNeill and Maura Garcia will undertake the initial writing, composition, and choreography of a filmed, multimedia project of the true story of the two artists meeting in Spokane in 2020. Maura is an indigenous woman (non-enrolled Cherokee and Mattamuskeet), a dancer and choreographer who recently moved to Spokane, and Madeline is a Filipino and Caucasian woman, born in Spokane where she lives as a singer, playwright, and composer.

In the story, Maura and Madeline meet and learn about each other through poetic conversation interspersed with cathartic dreamscapes of dance and music. Through the collaborative creation of art, the women develop a friendship supporting each other while navigating uncertainty as performing artists during the pandemic. Maura’s indigenous heritage and perspective will highlight Spokane’s indigenous and colonial past and Madeline will learn more about the city where she grew up and calls home. The project aims to connect us to each other personally, intellectually, and artistically in mutual respect as we imagine how to create new culture, by creating it together.

In a process of interview and collaborative brainstorming, Madeline will write a story of her meeting Maura and compose music and poetry. Maura will choreograph dance to the music.