Weaving Words, Weaving Worlds:
The Power of Indigenous Language in Contemporary Art
July 17 - November 22, 2025
Exhibition Catalog (for purchase)
EVENTS:
Opening Reception: Sunday, July 20, 5-7 pm. Featuring a drum processional by Jeffrey Pegram & welcome by Jeremy Dennis, exhibition
curator
Artist Panel Discussion: Thursday, Sept. 11, date and time to be confirmed. Panelists: Danielle Emerson, Anna Tsouhlarakis, additional to be announced, moderated by Jeremy Dennis.
Art Crawl: late Sept or Oct., date and time to be confirmed
Kelp Farmers Presentation in the Recital Hall: October 20, 12:30-2pm
NAHM Celebration Event: week of Nov 3, date and time to be confirmed
HOURS:
July 17-26: Open evenings of the Stony Brook Film Festival
July 17 (open 6-7pm)
July 18 & 19 (open 6-9:30pm)
July 20 (Opening Reception: 5-7pm, gallery open 4-9:30pm)
July 21-25 (open 6-9:30pm)
July 26 (open 6-7pm)
July 28- August 20: Open by appointment, email Zuccairegallery@stonybrook.edu to schedule
August 25- November 22: Open Monday-Friday 12-4pm & evenings of Staller Center performances
Artists: Chiara (Sunshine) Do’wal Sehi Beaumont, Tecumseh Ceaser, Jeremy Dennis, Demian DinéYazhi', Ginger Dunnill, Korina Emmerich, Danielle Emerson, First Literature Project, Jeffrey Gibson, Erin Genia, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Jamie John, Brittany Kiertzner (Arisawe), Ella Mahoney, David Bunn Martine, New Red Order, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, Heather Rogers, Cara Romero, Denise ("Weetahmoe") Silva-Dennis, Anna Tsouhlarakis, GianniVV, Kay WalkingStick, Anangookwe Wolf.
Curated by Jeremy Dennis (Shinnecock Nation)
WEAVING WORDS, WEAVING WORLDS explores the profound connections between Indigenous language and contemporary art, centering artists' work engaging with Algonquian languages spoken across Long Island and the Northeast. Drawing from heritage, memory, and community, these artists use creative expression to revitalize and reclaim language as a tool for cultural continuity, storytelling, and healing. While the exhibition uplifts the resilience of Indigenous language, it also acknowledges a history shaped by violence and silence—from early colonial efforts to control and document language, to the trauma inflicted by boarding schools that punished children for speaking their own languages. It further holds space for those who were forcibly silenced, including missing and murdered Indigenous women, whose stories and voices remain essential to any conversation about cultural survival.
This exhibition also recognizes how language intersects with lived experience, touching on themes of immigration, gender, family, love, trauma, and intergenerational memory. Despite the legacy of forced forgetting, efforts like the Algonquian Language Revitalization Project at Stony Brook University, led by Unkechaug and Shinnecock leaders, have sparked a powerful resurgence. Weaving Words, Weaving Worlds extends this work through visual art, where beadwork, sculpture, sound, video, and painting become acts of resistance and renewal. These works speak not only to the endurance of Indigenous languages but to the many ways they continue to shape, hold, and express the complexities of Indigenous life today. -Jeremy Dennis, Guest Curator, Shinnecock Indian Nation
Also featured in the exhibition are archival materials from Stony Brook University’s Special Collections, which provide vital historical context for Weaving Words, Weaving Worlds, illuminating the enduring presence of Indigenous peoples and languages on Long Island. Highlights include the Native Long Island map by the Suffolk County Archaeological Association, which features over 400 Algonquian words and cultural references. These early maps, place-name studies, and historical documents underscore the exhibition’s themes of language reclamation, cultural continuity, and the resilience of Indigenous knowledge.
Accompanying the exhibition is a 42-page catalog featuring artist images and statements by all 24 artists of the exhibition, a curatorial statement, and text about the Algonquian Language Revitalization Project and Native American and Indigenous Studies at Stony Brook University. Exhibition photographs and archival materials from Stony Brook University Libraries' Special Collections are also featured.
Click here to purchase the Exhibition Catalog
Weaving Words, Weaving Worlds is generously supported by funds from Stony Brook University Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Humanities Institute of Stony Brook. Additional support is provided by Garth Greenan Gallery, NYC. Zuccaire Gallery exhibitions are supported by a generous grant from the Paul W. Zuccaire Foundation, with additional funds from the Friends of Staller Center.