Leaders, Tribes & Family
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GERI KEAMS: Doing What Works ~ Millie Chalk
If our children are our future then Geri Keams is having a significant effect upon it. Stepping out of the limelight of acting on both the big screen and the small, this dynamo of a storyteller has found her calling amongst the children not only of this country but of the world!
Through a well thought out curriculum based on Indian culture, lessons are
Through Geri’s stories, children learn the ancient wisdoms of integrity, honor, and belief in oneself while various multisensory explorations such as writing, acting, basket weaving, Navajo sand painting and making pictographs empowers students toward creating stories of their own history with its challenges and victories.
Being full blood Navajo (Dineh), Geri shares with students her unique culture while standing as evidence that we have indeed survived due in part to that culture as it is as pertinent to today’s world as it was long ago.
She grew up on the reservation in northern Arizona, then to a boarding school that was near her home. Her Mother’s Clan is the Streak-of-Black-Forest (Tsi’nijinnie); she is born for the Manygoats Clan (Tl’iizi’ – Ll’annii). Growing up with nine brothers and sisters and no television, Geri was inspired by her Grandmother to become a story teller.
After graduating with a degree in Drama and Film from the University of Arizona, Geri moved to New York City where she continued to study. She toured with the Native American Theatre Ensemble and co-wrote “Nahaaszan,” a stylized production about the Navajo origin story.
Besides writing and producing plays Geri is an accomplished film actress working aside such greats as Clint Eastwood, James Brolin, and Raquel Welch only to name a few, and had the honor to be a consultant for Disney’s “Pocahontas” and PBS’s “Skinwalkers”. She has been cast in numerous television productions featured on PBS, HBO, Showtime, CBS and Hallmark, but as much as Geri has enjoyed her acting career, it is her work with the children she enjoys the most.
She is an author of children’s books, two of which “Grandmother Spider Brings The Sun” and "Snail Girl Brings Water” are both beautifully illustrated and published by Rising Moon/Northland Publishing now Cooper Square, Rowman and Littlefield and National Book Network. Her books have also been published in Mc-Graw Hill’s 'Readers for Elementary School Students' & Pierson’s Publishing for international textbooks for ESL students throughout the world.
Geri’s children’s show, “NATIVE LEGENDS COME ALIVE” has been on tour around the world. She has been featured at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and The Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., The National Storytelling Festival, and is a resident performing and workshop artist for The Los Angeles Music Center.
With her generous spirit, Geri has performed and conducted workshops for kids in hundreds of schools, libraries, churches and museums throughout the country and believes in promoting the accurate and authentic view of her people, working hard to make sure that each project she is involved in reflects the true spirit and voice of her people.
To learn more about Geri, be sure to have a look at her beautiful website… www.Gerikeams.com |
taught that could serve a child for a lifetime.