Dianne Yeahquo Reyner, Leaving the Darkness

As part of the Spencer's Heartland Reverberations exhibition, Dianne Yeahquo Reyner has created the solo performance piece Leaving the Darkness, which relates the experience of Kiowa removal to Oklahoma. Reyner is the creative force behind the American Indian Repertory Theatre. As a Kiowa playwright, Reyner addresses issues relevant to contemporary indigenous people, confronting stereotypes through juxtapositions of imagery and ideology. Reyner says that Leaving the Darkness seeks to capture moments, from historic to the contemporary, lived by the generations of the Kiowa people. Configured as a "winter count"-a history of "the people" held in images and carried through generations to spark an active and living memory, these stories include the audience in intimate ways.