Final Project Proposal / e-mail

This is the e-mail that I'm sending to my contact, Louis, who is the head of the Thunderbird Dancers, a Native American dance company based in NJ. I'm hoping that Louis will help us develop and produce a mixed media performance that will take place at Stony Brook and at the Museum of American Indian in Lower Manhattan.

Hello Louis,

My name is Jay Loomis. I live in Stony Brook, NY. I was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I grew up in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

I've spoken to you a couple times at dance events at the Museum of the American Indian in lower Manhattan, and at an auction just up the street from the museum about 2 years ago (where my wife got a beautiful pair of silver eagle feather earrings).

I'm studying music composition at Stony Brook University - I want to continue in my studies to get a Phd in Ethnomusicology. I've done Native American style flute making workshops with students and adults in schools and libraries in New York, Wisconsin, Spain, and China. My next workshop is at the end of July for the Ward Melville Heritage Association summer program at the West Meadow Wetlands Preserve in Stony Brook. 

Here's a link with pictures of some of my music & teaching experience, etc.

Right now I'm working on a project with Prof. Phillip Baldwin, a theatre arts professor at Stony Brook. (He is also from Minnesota.) 

I was hoping you and the Thunderbird Dancers would participate in a multi-media production about "westward expansion" to the Midwest. 

In the mid 1800's Limon Foster Loomis (my great great grandfather) moved westward from New York and settled in Wells, Minnesota, where he married Mary Jane Hines (my great great grandmother), who we think was at least half Ojibwe.

(We've found both "Mary Hines" and "Loomis" in the Ojibwe surname database).

In this production we want to tell a personal story about "westward expansion" and we want to make sure that the perspective of the Native Americans who lived in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, (Midwest) is communicated effectively.

This interactive, mixed media production will include live music and dance, video, photo, and audio. We want this performance to take place at Stony Brook University and at the Museum of the American Indian in Lower Manhattan.

At your convenience, I was hoping to talk to you more about the details of the production.

Is there a time that I could call you, or meet you to talk more about this?

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Kind Regards,

Jay Loomis

PS - I've attached pictures of my ancestors Mary Jane Hines, and Limon Foster Loomis.

JML

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