Honoring our Heritage at the Rail Yards Market by Alex Paramo
Alex Paramo
Stop for a moment and think about the things you do and encounter in everyday life? Where did our habits, customs and collective knowledge come from? Whether we’re conscious of it or not, our heritage guides us. The choices of our ancestors, their lives and their beliefs, are worthy of understanding because they continue to inform our lives and our world even today. As we’re collectively re-discovering the value of all of the ancient wisdom that was written off as antiquated, out-dated, etc., we now see how vital this wisdom is and the prominent role it needs to play in our society today.
The Henna Fairy
Pooja Lopriore aka the Henna Fairy is a great example of how wisdom from the past can lead and instruct us today. Pooja is of Indian descent and learned the Art of Henna from her family. According to Pooja, “Henna is very vast subject that has been used in Science, Art, Spirituality and traditions around the links throughout the world. Its recorded use has been 5000 years and most of it has been medicinal. It is new to the west and thus most popularly known as body adornment and temporary tattoos.”
Southwest University of Visual Arts
The Visual Arts have always been used as a means to 
communicate and pass down from one generation to the next elements of heritage and communal knowledge. To that overall end the Southwest University of Visual Arts (SUVA) is one of the Rail Yards Market‘s (RYM) sponsors and will be programming many of the Educational Zones! From SUVA’s mission statement, “Southwest University of Visual Arts strives to become an exemplary force in higher education recognized as a leading University of Art and Design.”
At the Children’s Zone, Chris Andrews and Lisa Ealy will be representing SUVA. Chris 
Andrews is part of the core faculty at SUVA. He studied Photography at NMSU in Las Cruces where he received his BA. Lisa Ealy is finishing out her freshman year as a student at SUVA, she is seeking a BA in illustration. Chris and Lisa are planning a variety of activities to fill the day. They will be reading some traditional fairy tales and scary stories, and I know they also plan to have some more hands-on activities as well such as mask making.”
The Pop-up Art Gallery will be featuring several examples of sculpture from of our current students and graduates.
***Programming below not affiliated with SUVA***
RYM Live Arts Zone presents two of our very own hard working grassroots local artists! Sarah Rose and Desiree Danielle Clugston will be working side by side all Market Day respectively sharing their gifts in the Ancient Arts of Mask Creation and Crafting along with the unique modern day innovations of 3Dimensional Canvas Paintings. In Celebration of Heritage Day come see the past become the present and the present reach out into our future!
On the Main and Community Stages the RYM will have many acts that contribute to our collective heritage including but not limited to Wamba Dance, Ramla Taal Belly Dancers, Poets Teresa Gallion and Georgia Santa Maria, Musicians Rev Tsolwar and Wilde Wood. Please click here for performance schedule.
Heritage is bi-directional, therefore what we do today individually and collectively becomes the heritage for future generations. As you enjoy the market today, take time to talk with your family and others you meet about what your/our heritage means to you. Reflect on how each of our respective heritages contain important tools that we can use as we co-create the world we want to live in. In our beautiful state of New Mexico, we honor our individual as well as our collective heritages. See You Sunday!
Alex Paramo is an Author and Co-Founder of Community Publishing. Community Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as multimedia eBooks while promoting literacy in our communities.
We are proud to be a community partner and digital marketer at the Rail Yards Market.
#JoinOurCommunity at http://communitypublishing.org
Thank you to contributing writers: Anthony Fleg of the Native Health Initiative, independent Healing Artist April Parrish and Chad Gruber.
