Two-Hawks plays for moms and Mother Earth
BECCA MARTIN-BROWN
bmartin@nwadg.com
If quarantine is getting you down, and the isolation seems never ending, you need to spend some time with John Two-Hawks. Raised in the cradle of the Lakota tribe, where the plains rolled out in every direction and silence was comfortable and appreciated, Two-Hawks has always aspired to tred softly on Mother Earth. And during this time, when the world has “taken the pedal off the gas,” he’s enjoying watching how quickly the world can recover.
That’s just part of what’s on Two-Hawks’ mind as he prepares for this year’s annual Mother’s Day concert, which will be presented online from his home in Eureka Springs.
“The Mother’s Day concerts are always so important to me, for a couple of reasons,” he says. “I lost my mom very young; she died at 50 years old. I think about her a lot. I loved my mom in spite of all her flaws, and I miss her.
John Two-Hawks and his wife, Peggy Hill, started the “Virtual Hug Series” a few weeks ago on a platform called Stageit (www.stageit.com). They’ve turned their living room into a performance space, and for a $5-$10 donation, viewers get a full concert experience.
(File Photo)
“I think too it’s important at this time for us to honor women and honor motherhood and look to that feminine wisdom we so desperately need. And I hope we turn our attention to Mother Earth and see how we can do better in taking care of the planet that we live on and seeing her not as something cut off and separate but as a being we need to be kind to and nurture as we would our own loving mothers. That’s especially important right now.”
Two-Hawks says he and wife Peggy Hill aren’t struggling with staying home. In fact, Hill says, she was planning to retire from the road this spring anyway and work on a book. And Two-Hawks says he’s appreciated the opportunity to return to that pace of his childhood, “when you spend time sitting for hours listening out in the forest or watching birds in trees or just being quiet and connecting to the real rhythm of the natural world. That rhythm is really slow compared to the pace human beings run at these days.
“When I’m home on the reservation in South Dakota, with family up there, it’s a completely different world,” he says. “You would be amazed to see how slow everything is, how quiet things are. There’s a lot of sitting and listening — or sitting in silence — when you spend time with our people. A lot of the western world has gotten uncomfortable with that silence. What’s happening right now is driving some people crazy, but it’s so necessary for us all as human beings to stop and be OK with the silence. I hope that in this period, most of us learn that.”
On the other hand, Two-Hawks also acknowledges the power of music and the connection that his flute makes with listeners. He says one of his first memories, when he was 3 or 4 years old, was standing in front of his dad’s stereo and listening to “I Want To Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles come out of the speaker.
“I remember looking at the woven fabric of the speaker — it was brown — looking at it and thinking, ‘How did they get in there?’ And my next thought was, ‘How do I get in there? I want to do that. Whatever they’re doing, I want to do that.’ I wanted to be the person making that sound come out of that speaker.”
Playing the flute in the style of his Lakota heritage is important, Two-Hawks says, because music heals.
“Nothing means more to me that after I’ve played my music, to have somebody standing in front of me who was touched in a way that heals them.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tttpz2RmYRM
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Go Online!
John Two-Hawks
Mother’s Day Concert
WHEN — 8 p.m. May 10
WHERE — www.stageit.com
COST — $5-$10 per device
INFO — www.johntwohawks.com or find him on Facebook
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Watch Here!
John Tw0-Hawks
See John Two-Hawks perform at nwadg.com/video
