Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi – Downtown Brooklyn

On Saturday, September 19, Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi heads to Downtown Brooklyn for the second day of its citywide celebration, with 40 life-size buffalo puppets traveling from Abolitionist Place to Brooklyn Bridge Park. 

The procession will feature performances and cultural activations along the route, including HONK NYC! at Abolitionist Place, Rhiannon Giddens and Resistance Revival Chorus at Brooklyn Borough Hall, Heather Christian and the Terce Choir on Montague Street, and Brooklyn United Marching Band along the route to Brooklyn Bridge Park. The day will also feature Sam Waterston performing Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” Chaske Spencer and Lakota elder Tokala Two Elk at Bridge View Lawn, and a closing celebration with Laurie Anderson, Haley Heynderickx, Max García Conover and Rhiannon Giddens at Harbor View Lawn. 

The free public event continues the project’s celebration of the buffalo as a symbol of resilience, reckoning and repair, bringing together artists, tribal representatives and community members for a large-scale public art experience.

Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi is created by Amir Nizar Zuabi in partnership with Elders from Lenape and Lakota communities and presented by St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Walk Productions and KBH Arts.