2025 Keynote Speakers

This year’s theme—Home, Belonging, Space, and Place—will be brought to life by keynote speakers Danielle SeeWalker and Helanius J. Wilkins. Both are renowned activist artists who use their mediums to uncover untold histories and create spaces of belonging.

Danielle SeeWalker (Pronouns: she/her/wíŋyáŋ) is a Hunkpapa Lakota citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and currently resides in Denver, CO. She is a multidisciplinary artist, muralist, writer, businesswoman, former Chair Commissioner of the Denver American Indian Commission and most importantly, a mother. In her artistic practices, Danielle works across disciplines to explore the intersections of Native American stereotypes, microaggressions, and colonialist systems, both historically and in contemporary society. Drawing on au courant color palettes, expressionistic art strategies, and her Lakota traditions, SeeWalker spins her work into a contemporary vision to elevate historical perspectives as told from the side not often heard. Her passion to redirect the narrative to an accurate and insightful representation of contemporary Native America is centric to her both her artwork and community involvement.

Danielle is also a freelance writer and published her first book titled “Still Here” in 2020. She is also co-founder of “The Red Road Project” which is a photo/film-documentary project that documents what it means to be Native American in the 21st century by capturing inspiring and positive stories of people and communities within Indian Country. In 2022, Danielle was the recipient of the Mayor’s Excellence in Arts & Culture Innovation Award and most recently received an Emmy Award for her work on a documentary piece with Rocky Mountain PBS called “A New Chapter”. Instagram: @seewalker_ART

Helanius J. Wilkins is Louisiana native and Colorado transplant, Helanius J. Wilkins is an award-winning choreographer, performance artist, educator, certified Colorado Change Leader, and artivist (artist-activist) whose career spans 29 years of creating choreographies that bridge dance and social justice. The arc of his career reveals him dreaming boldly and actively doing-through-making and performing choreography to build community and expand the sense of connectedness and belonging. He uses dance and performance as vehicles to shed light on untold stories, to share personal truths, and to show how our embodied narratives can bring us closer together. Having choreographed 60+ works, foundations and organizations including NEA, NEFA National Dance Project, and National Performance Network (NPN) have supported his work. He founded and artistically directed D.C.-based EDGEWORKS Dance Theater, an all-male dance company predominantly of Black men that toured nationally and internationally (2001 – 2014).

Service is integral to his work; therefore, he has, and continues to, serve on boards for varied organizations and often volunteers for projects. Opportunities he is grateful for include a 2018 appointment by Governor Jared Polis to the Colorado Council on Creative Industries for a 4-year term. In addition to his work as a professional artist and service, Wilkins is Associate Chair and Director of Dance at CU Boulder where he is also an Associate Professor. A life-long, ongoing practice, his current work is a multi-outcome art, humanities, and social change-based work titled The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging. https://www.helaniusj.com/the-conversation-series. Instagram: @helaniusjwilkins