Josephy Fest

The Josephy Center for Arts & Culture and Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland are overjoyed to announce the 2024 Josephy Fest, the 2^nd annual winter music festival in Joseph, Oregon. Renowned Nez Perce jazz vocalist Julia Keefe, from Spokane and New York City, and her quartet will be headlining Saturday night. Two generations back, during the 50s and 60s, the Nez Percians brought indigenous jazz from Lapwai to Wallowa County. We are pleased that, so many years later, we can facilitate the arrival of another innovative Nez Perce musician. She  has  performed at the Smithsonian Museum and is the creator and leader of the Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band. The band has tribal musicians from across the country, and recently appeared at New York City’s Birdland. This will be her first performance in Wallowa County, and probably the quartet’s first in Oregon.
As arts advocates, we acknowledge the inadequate work that has been done in the past to facilitate the arrival of Niimiipuu musicians on whose ancestral homeland we live. We hope this festival of indigenous, international, and local artists can spark the Wallowa Homeland’s mission of rekindling relationships and welcoming people home.
We are also delighted to announce Kola Shippentower (Cayuse/Umatilla/Walla Walla/Niimiipuu/Samoan background) as a movement arts teacher, for her hip-hip dance fitness workshop on Saturday at 11 AM. She is a professional fighter and holds a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Tyus Beebe, a Blood Indian who grew up on Blackfoot territory in Alberta, Canada, will be opening the festival with country music on Friday night. 
Our Friday headliner is Afrosonics, a pan-African roots, opera and jazz fusion band founded by a Nigerian and an Idahoan. At the heart of the group’s progression, the band has conscientiously integrated new American musicians and former refugees from war torn areas of the world into the collective that is Afrosonics. Other musical acts include Mungo (Malawian soul), Matt Cooper/Greg Johnson Duo (Eastern Oregon University Music Department), and Janis Carper (local Americana/roots). Movement teachers include Esther Petrocine of Salutations Studios, and Lauren MacDonald and Caroline Leone of Heartbeat Wellness. Mungo will also be teaching a contemporary dance class. Dr. Rachel Sterry of Wallowa Ave. Wellness will be teaching an introduction to kettlebells fitness class. Yoga mats and pads will be provided free of charge.
Music will start at 7 PM each evening, with doors opening at 6:30 PM. Yoga and movement will be at 9 AM, 11 AM, and 1 PM each morning and afternoon, for a total of 6 movement arts sessions.
Tickets are available at josephy.org/fest, or in-person at the Josephy Center. A Full Fest Pass, good for both nights of music and all 6 movement classes, is only $60! A Music Fest Pass is $35 and a Yoga Fest Pass is $30. Individual nights of music are available for the special advanced price of $20, which go up to $25 on the day of the festival. You can also buy tickets to individual movement classes for $10 during the festival before each class. Kids and youth are free, so bring the family!  Limited edition festival t-shirts, printed by Moonlight Graphics, will be for sale during the festival. A very special thank you to Wallowa Lake Lodge and Jennings Hotel for hosting all 15 visiting artists during the festival. The full schedule is now available at josephy.org/fest. For questions or inquiries, please contact fest@josephy.org.