Win Tickets ($40): Black Belt Eagle Scout @ Aladdin Theater | Pot-Rock, Native American

We are giving away a pair of tickets to Black Belt Eagle Scout @ Aladdin Theater on February 10. To win, comment below on this post why you’d like to attend. Winner will be drawn and emailed February 6.



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From our sponsors:
Black Belt Eagle Scout
w/ Weedrat

February 10, 2023
Doors 7PM, Show 8PM | $20 | All Ages
More info: event.etix.com

Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, OR 97202

This land runs through Katherine Paul’s blood. And it called to her. In dreams she saw the river, her ancestors, and her home. When the land calls, you listen. And KP found herself far from her ancestral lands during a time of collective trauma, when the world was wounded and in need of healing. In 2020 she made the journey from Portland back to the Skagit River, back to the cedar trees that stand tall and shrouded in fog, back to the tide flats and the mountains, back to Swinomish.

It is a powerful thing to return to our ancestral lands and often times the journey is not easy. Like the salmon through the currents, like the tide as it crawls to shore this is a story of return. It is the call and response. It is the outstretched arms of the people who came before, welcoming her home. The Land, The Water, The Sky is a celebration of lineage and strength. Even in its deepest moments of loneliness and grief, of frustration over a world wrought with colonial violence and pain, the songs remind us that if we slow down, if we listen to the waves and the wind through the trees, we will remember to breathe.

There is a throughline of story in every song, a remembrance of knowledge and teachings, a gratitude of wisdom passed down and carried. There is a reimagining of Sedna who was offered to the sea, and a beautiful rumination on sacrifice and humanity, and what it means to hold the stories that work to teach us something.

Chord progressions born out of moments of sadness and solitude transform into the islands that sit blue along the horizon. The Salish Sea curves along her homelands, and when the singer is close to this water she is reminded of her grandmother, how she looked out at these same islands, and she’s held by spirit and memory.

The Land, The Water, The Sky rises and falls, in darkness and in light, but even in its most melancholy moments it is never despairing. That is the beauty of returning home. When you stand on ancestral lands it is impossible to be alone. You feel the arms and hands that hold you up, unwilling to let you fall into sorrow or abandonment. In her songs Katherine Paul has channeled that feeling of being held. In every note she has written a love letter to indigenous strength and healing.

There is a joy present here, a fierce blissfulness that comes with walking the trails along the river, feeling the sand and the stones beneath her feet. It is the pride and the certainty that comes with knowing her ancestors walked along the same land, dipped their hands into the water, and ran their fingertips along the same bark of cedar trees.

This is a story of hope, as it details the joy of returning. Katherine Paul’s journey home wasn’t made alone, and the songs are crowded with loved ones and relatives, like a really good party. And as the songs walk us through the land it is important we hover over the images and the beauty, the moments that mark this album as site specific. The power of this land is woven throughout, telling the story of narrow waterways, brush strokes, salmon stinta, and above all healing.

Let it take you. Move through the story and see the land through her eyes, because it is a gift, a welcomed sʔabadəb.*

*The word “gift” in Lushootseed, the language of the Coast Salish people

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14 Comments

  1. Austin Walker on January 23, 2023 at 8:03 pm

    Would love to get the chance to see a native artist live!

  2. Eric on January 24, 2023 at 12:46 pm

    Black Belt Eagle Scout / Katherine Paul is easily one of the best artists to emerge out of Portland in the last decade – her music gives such important representation to indigenous and queer communities while also touching on universal feelings and themes felt by all. I’m a huge fan and would love to see her live!

  3. Sheena on January 24, 2023 at 4:02 pm

    I’d love a chance to see Black Belt Eagle Scout at one of my favorite venues in town.

  4. Amii on January 26, 2023 at 2:36 pm

    Black Belt Eagle Scout is an amazing performing artist. I’m thrilled at her success as a queer, Native American femme human being. It would be a joy to watch her performance.

  5. Hunter M on January 27, 2023 at 12:37 am

    Let’s gooooo!

  6. Chris Campos on January 27, 2023 at 11:34 am

    To hear her belt out Soft Stud. That drop in voice for the ” I know you’re taken” refrain! Ah, her voice is mesmerizing. The transition from synth to the riff at 3:50 is “ahh”. This song is still my go to when it is all falling down around me.
    The fact that she plays all instruments and is from the PNW! How could you NOT want to see her.
    Good luck to all. Hope you have a great weekend. Thanks for the opportunity.

  7. Serena S on January 27, 2023 at 4:13 pm

    Love Black Belt Eagle Scout!!

  8. Christina M on January 28, 2023 at 4:06 pm

    Would love to go!

  9. Naomi on January 28, 2023 at 6:09 pm

    Don’t Give Up!

  10. Robert Gronotte on January 31, 2023 at 5:10 pm

    I would love to see the show.

  11. Amber on January 31, 2023 at 5:41 pm

    Would love to see this show!

  12. Kristin Kohl on February 3, 2023 at 1:05 pm

    I N E E D this inspiration N O W – like Air, like Water, like Earth blessed Earth, please send me this light, this fire, my soul craves to be present at this show, please, ( I even have this night off of my SIN worker job)!

  13. Travis on February 3, 2023 at 1:49 pm

    Coming into PDX for the weekend and would love to go!

  14. Kayla on February 5, 2023 at 9:33 pm

    Need you, want you 🤞❤️

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