Announcing—I’ve been selected as an Artist in Residence for the month of February at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM. During my stay, I will be composing a new work for chorus and small handheld instruments to accompany a Patricia Michaels’ runway fashion show; the new work will be a musical score for her runway show. Also, I will continue composing Requiem For America, my large requiem project for 4 operatic soloists, s.a.t.b. chorus, Native American singers, Native American flute, full orchestra and choreography. If you are in the vicinity of Santa Fe, please stop by for a visit!

It is my pleasure to announce that the three founding directors of the Lenape Center in Manhattan—Joe Baker (Executive Director), Hadrien Coumans (Co-Director) and Curtis Zunigha (Co-Director)—have invited a fourth co-director to join Lenape Center, and I have accepted. Together we will make a great team!

The Lenape Center began in 2009, with a mission to continue Lenapehoking, the Lenape homeland, through Lenape arts and culture. The Lenape, the original peoples of Lenapehoking, come from a region encompassing today's New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and part of Connecticut. Today, the Lenape Center is a non-profit organization based in the ancestral Lenape island of Manhattan and has an impressive history of cultural advocacy and artistic excellence. 

Together, Joe Baker, Hadrien Coumans, Curtis Zunigha, and now myself, have a combined total of 184 years of experience in art creation, 128 years of experience in development, 97 years of experience in distribution, and 97 years of experience in exhibition. The Lenape Center has been featured in three New York Times articles (2014, 2015, 2017), Huffington Post (2014), Vogue (2015) and The Village Voice (2017), just to name a few.

The Lenape Center has hosted and welcomed numerous Lenape elders into Lenapehoking since our inception, and often partners with other arts organizations such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Lenape Center has initiated high profile public art and culture projects central to the lives of the Lenape, has encouraged and facilitated place-naming & re-naming of Lenapehoking boundaries and places, and has held many convenings and symposia on the Lenape diaspora.

The Lenape Center has quickly become the go-to organization for anything of cultural and artistic importance to the Lenape in New York City. I am proud to join this outstanding organization in the official capacity of co-director, and it is my honor to serve. — Brent Michael Davids