Eagle Project's "America Unveiled"

The Eagle Project’s third event, a spoken-word and stand-up revue at the Three of Cups, seems in keeping with founder Ryan Victor Pierce’s mission to “explore American identity through performing arts and our Native American heritage.” At the same time, however, it highlights the vagueness of that very mission. Their two previous projects, Wood Bones and Broken Heart Land, were play readings, giving the evening to one narrative about American identity with special focus on Native perspectives. A revue gives forum to a multiplicity of voices.

Ethnically and topically, America Unveiled was highlighted by its diversity. Ethnically, it was mostly Indian and black. Topically, it was a fairly even split between spoken-word and stand-up. The spoken-word was uniformly serious, ranging from topics of growing up black in Brooklyn (Dominique Fishback) to being a Latina in America (Erica R. DeLaRosa). The comedy went for a lot of cheap racist and genital jokes. Notable exceptions of Brian Jian and emcee Margaret Champagne, who told funny true-to-life stories without needing to rely on shock-value for their laughs.

America Unveiled was a step away from what I’ve seen Pierce and his Project doing: developing Indian theater in New York. This revue shifted towards a look at the stories of American racial minorities. If that’s what Pierce is going for, then that’s great. But if he’s going to focus on Indian stories, he’s going to have to focus more on getting Indian artists. He also might want to reconsider having his events in bars or letting the emcee give the artists “Native American” animal symbols before they get up to perform.