Indigenous Hip-Hop Collective at Crossroads
Festival goers enjoyed the Dream Warriors, an indigenous hip-hop collective at the festival’s showcases. But a whole different project was taking place in the festival week, behind the scenes at the Johnny Carson School for Theater and Film.
Inside the black box theatre on 12th street in Lincoln, the Dream Warriors began working with Swedish recording producers Fredrik Serholt and Paulina Delin to create brand new music. Visual Artist Sarah Rowe was there to soak up the vibe and sketch new art.
Dream Warriors is a non-profit organization that grew out of an artist’s collective: Gunner Jules, Tall Paul, Mic Jordan and Twin City Tone participated in the 2024 residency. See them perform at the 2024 Showcase below:
The goal was to record three songs. But the first day provided more than a little trepidation – this was the first time the group had met in-person. Despite half a year of monthly Zoom meetings to generate ideas and set expectations, everyone was wondering if they could pull off this this project as envisioned in just a few days.
Sneaking a peek inside the theatre on the first day, one might wonder if the vibe was off; artists were quiet, looking at their phones, the mic stood to the side, no one in front of it. A closer look would reveal thumbs intensely writing and refining lyrics on note-taking apps. Soon the beats would be rolling, hammering the mic with word after word, rhyme after rhyme. In just a handful of days, the Dream Warriors would lay down five fresh tracks.
On August 11, the final day of the festival, a public workshop unveiled those songs to the world for the first time. Attendees were able to hear the songs and witness the journey taken by the group in the previous days. The conversations around the songs revealed initial nerves around the project and the journey toward inspiration and mutual respect.
Below: residency participants share their experiences in a public workshop on Aug. 11
Long-time festival Super-fan Dee Erb had this to say about the newly-born Dream Warriors Project:
“I must say that no one who looked at the program would have predicted the performances that would mean the most to me were the ones by the Dream Warriors. Hip Hop is not generally my “go to” music. (the hours I spent listening to the Hamilton soundtrack so that I could understand it when I saw it on stage don’t count.) I appreciated both Friday and Saturday night’s performances, but the presentation on Sunday left me in awe. The mutual respect and appreciation that had developed between The Dream Warriors and Paulina & Fredrick warmed my heart. It’s difficult to trust strangers with your music and it takes a special skill and an open hearts to coax out that trust.”
Since then the project has taken on a life of its own. It has shown that simply giving everyone a seat at the table can produce spectacular results. The group still meets about once a month, planning an upcoming art exhibition featuring the songs and the artwork at Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) tentatively scheduled for April 2026 as well as the release of the 5-song EP, a new website with a blog and podcast telling the beautiful story of an unlikely coming-together that happened in August of 2024 and the friendships that continue to this day.
Below: Rough Sketches from artist Sarah Rowe created during the residency
The group met again a few weeks ago and when I asked everyone what message we’d like to send out to the world, they said just talk to the people around you. Communicate with them and when you have a chance, give them a seat at your table. It will give back to you in more ways than you can imagine.
