Ducheneaux, a rap artist, producer and sound designer from the Cheyenne River Lakota and Crow Creek Dakota tribes in South Dakota, will give the lecture “Hearing Ancestors: Self Actualization through Sound Art.”

“I’ve come to find that music is my only way of making good sense of the world, and I want to honor that feeling it gives my by doing this in an honest way,” said Ducheneaux (Wakinyan Cante Waokiya Wicasa).

Ducheneaux’s work was recently featured in the 2023 Oscar Howe Legacy Across Four Generations exhibition developed by the University Art Galleries. Ducheneaux sampled voice recordings Oscar Howe from the South Dakota Oral History Center to honor the stories of Howe’s life and experience.

Ducheneaux continues both solo and collaborative releases inside and outside of hip hop, including creating soundscape installations for artist’s works, such as Keith Braveheart’s art exhibit "Creation.Story" and Dyani White Hawk-Polk’s "RELATIV."

In 2022, Ducheneaux was both a featured performer and sound designer for First Peoples Fund’s multi-day concert, “We The Peoples Before,” as part of the Kennedy Center’s 50th anniversary in Washington, D.C. His first full sound design was later for Cornerstone Theatre Company’s community play, “Wicoun,” which was featured in tours within Native communities on and off reservations in South Dakota in the summer of 2023.

Following the lecture, Ducheneaux will perform at the AV Lounge in downtown Vermillion at 8:30 p.m.

The annual Oscar Howe Memorial Lecture was established in 1989 by the Oscar Howe Memorial Association at USD. Its purpose is to maintain Howe’s message that American Indian Art is a vital and contemporary cultural force in today’s world. In this spirit, the association has dedicated the annual lecture to issues relating to the Native America Fine Arts Movement.

All events are free and open to the public.


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