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A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC. Gothamist Listen Live Donate Arts & Entertainment Block Party Pow Wow coming to Carroll Gardens Saturday By Hannah Frishberg Published Aug 14, 2026 at 10:12 a.m. ET
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New York City is a uniquely difficult place to hold a powwow, which makes this Saturday’s Block Party Pow Wow in Carroll Gardens all the more unique.
“It really is supposed to be a space to be able to let loose and be in community,” Josephine Tarrant said from her grandmother’s living room on Degraw Street in Carroll Gardens. “It’s just like nothing else exists. It’s just dancing, singing, people around you. You can really clear your head.”
Powwows require a lot of space — for performers to change, for performers to perform, for community to congregate. Elsewhere, there are lodges, meeting houses, fields, but in Gotham “we don’t have that.”
They also require “a lot of work — a lot of work” to organize, Tarrant said.
This year called for a big celebration: It’s Tarrant's great aunt Glorial Miguel’s 100th birthday, as well as the 50th anniversary of Spiderwoman Theater, a pioneering Indigenous storytelling troupe Gloria cofounded with her sisters Muriel Miguel and the late Lisa Mayo in 1976.
So Tarrant organized this Saturday’s Block Party Pow Wow, which will take place from 1 to 5 P.M. on Deraw Street between Court and Smith Streets. The event is free and open to the public, and will feature Indigenous dancers, drummers and singers, neighborhood vendors and speakers, and screened excerpts of Spiderwoman’s work.
“Someone asked me how and why I started Spiderwoman and all that I could think of is that I was angry. I was really, really angry,” said Muriel, who is Tarrant’s grandmother. Growing up in Brooklyn, in this same Degraw St. house, Muriel was disgusted by the sexist behavior she witnessed around town. “ I really could not stand walking down the block and having men whistle at me or try to pinch me,” she said. “So I started to tell stories. Other people started to tell stories.”
The group has never had a permanent home but has always had “ a lot of friends” including La Mama, which is hosting a gala for Spiderwoman this fall.
Today, Spiderwoman – which is named for the Hopi creation goddess – is the self-described oldest continually running Native feminist theater company in the Americas. And to celebrate its semicentennial, Tarrant is curating the block party powwow, a unique concept.
“Most people who are coming, both anybody who's dancing or singing or people who are attending who are Native, have never been to a block party that's a powwow, that has never existed before,” said Tarrant.
In addition to being a celebration, a neighborhood party and a cultural event, Saturday will also be something of a family reunion. Many are traveling from afar.
“Pretty much all my family will be in town,” Tarrant said.
Tarrant and Miguel both hope the event will enrapture young Native Americans to the beauty of their culture and traditions.
“I think that's kind of what the goal is with this, is to really try to make the Native people who are from around here feel comfortable and feel like they have community,” Tarrant said. “That's really what it's about.”
Spiderwoman Theater ’s Block Party Pow Wow will take place Saturday, Aug. 15 from 1 to 5 p.m. on Degraw Street between Court and Smith Streets. It is free and open to the public.
Hannah Frishberg covers New York City arts and culture. Got a tip? Email Hannah at [email protected] .
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