This week, the UBC Players Club is hosting a play reading of Marie Clements’s spellbinding drama Copper Thunderbird from 3-6pm on Friday, in NEST 2521.
Copper Thunderbird acts out the life, times, and struggles of Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau, a Grand Shaman hailed as the Father of Contemporary Native Art and “Picasso of the North.” These accolades, however, do not come without cost. Clements interweaves Morrisseau’s everyday struggles to become accepted and retain his identity in a Western-dominated art world with his tumultuous spiritual journey to the heart of his cultural traditions.