ancestral
cypher
The Ancestral Cypher is an immersive cross-cultural experience focusing on the style exchange between contemporary Native American art and modern street art forms. It fuses the expressionist elements of Hip Hop music, art, spoken word, and street dance culture with the traditions Native American instruments, chanting and dance.
Produced by: Randy B, The Sacred G’s & Sagrado Galleria.
Ancestral Cypher 2X25 is supported, in part, by the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture. Fiscally sponsored by Sagrado Galleria.
SCHEDULE
4:00pm
5:00pm
5:15pm
5:30pm
6:00pm
eVENT opens
opening incantation
welcome
ancestral cypher
awards & event close
RANDY B.
Randy L Barton (dine) is a multi-disciplined, contemporary artist, designer, dancer, DJ, and music producer from Winslow, AZ (currently living in Phoenix) best known for his visionary abstract paintings, live painting performances, and innovative style. The foundation of his creations derive from the unique combination of his background in hip hop, graffiti art, and the traditional Navajo teachings and ceremonies that began shaping his life at an early age.
Randy began focussing on art as a profession in 2001 after receiving a degree in graphic design, and began painting professionally in 2007. He showcases the beauty way, protection way and hip hop undertones in all of his work and is inspired by colors and hues of heightened states of awareness. He transforms acrylic and aerosol paint into stimulating abstract landscapes of time travel, rainbow walking, prayer, reflection, and soul remembrance manifested from the spirit realm. Each brush stroke is a prayer and moving meditation of creation from spirit to canvas. His intention is to uplift one's spirit to new dimensions of spirituality utilizing Neo-contemporary native arts as the vehicle to promote healing and consciousness.
His work is included in the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles; the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, AZ; the Albuquerque International Sunport; the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History; the Nativo Lodge in Albuquerque, NM; and the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe, NM as well as in many private collections.
PRODUCERS
The Sacred G's is a street arts collective rooted in Hip Hop culture and various movement arts. Fusing street dance styles and Spirit-inspired movement, they create open-hearted works for the empowerment, inspiration and artistic enrichment of humanity to instill feelings that connect to the heart, and to catalyze social change. The G's are multicultural, diversely talented DJs, MCs, dancers, educators, healers, creatives and performance artists who seek to transcend their mediums into meaningful instruments for change. Since 2014 they have shared their passions and art with an array of events around North America. With three chapters of membership spanning Phoenix, AZ, Los Angeles, CA, and Portland, OR, many of the G's have worked with prestigious crews such as Elektrolytes, Jabawokeez, and Kinjaz. The G's perform and teach about their embodied knowledge, which merges spiritual practices with street dance practices. The outcome is a fresh perspective on the somatic and kinesthetic layers of the human experience. In their repertory, The Sacred G's embeds messages of light, love, and peace, while their performance-based platforms serve as vehicles to host different peoples to come together, integrate, learn, and develop cultural tolerance through music, dance, art, and community.
SACRED GS
the sagrado
The Sagrado was established in Phoenix, Arizona in 2016 as a response to the city's lack of commitment to the South Phoenix community, arts, and culture. We stand as the only community arts organization and art gallery in South Phoenix that nurtures our community's cultural identity and serves as a cultural bridge for the Valley.
In our first five years, the Sagrado has made significant progress implementing our vision to cultivate prosperous communities rooted in arts and culture while engaged in conscious development amidst the challenges of a global pan-demic. Through our pillar art shows, workshops, community events, and design advocacy, the Sagrado has impacted the lives of more than 5,000 community members in South Phoenix and beyond.
Ariston Ripoyla, aka Remind is arguably the world's most legendary bboy. An artist, philosopher, and master of movement.
He effortlessly fuses varying styles and inspirations into his dance to create a distinctively free flowing movement. Witnessing his dance is one of the best illustrations of enlightenment that I have yet to come across. It highlights a tremendous sense of letting go of anxiety and hesitation in order to surrender into the infinite beauty of the present. The above interview is a beautiful look at a movement master's depiction of his own flow state.
bboy remind
ARTISTS
andrew ecker
Andrew Ecker is the developer of the Drumming Sounds proto-col, an evidence-based approach to delivering outcome-driven results as a community healthcare intervention. He is also an author, educator, drum circle facilitator, keynote speaker, life and business coach.
Over the course of his 16-year career, Andrew has facilitated an estimated 5,000 wellness-based events. He has helped to develop marketing outreach programs for a variety of key organizations, including UnitedHealthcare, CareMore, and Friendship Village. He has also been a resource for conferences, hospitals, treatment facilities, prisons, tribal nations, churches, businesses, festivals, organizations, and individuals.
Xeric Tlaloc Meraz was born in Phoenix, AZ, started Breakin at a young age of 8 years old. Growing up in a competitive breaking community has taught him how to use experimental movements and his Native American roots with Breakin and Hip Hop foundation to express himself in a honest way. As A Movement Artist. He is crossed discipline and explored many forms of movement. He has explored many forms of movement from Sport, Dance, Martial arts, Yoga, Weightlifting, Mobility, strength and conditioning. Each discipline has enriched my practice with culture, discipline, and a healthy lifestyle and which I included in my teaching. Xeric is the only dancing instructor that offers youth Breakin with his more than 25 years experience. Notable work includes being a Dancing Earth alumni for 10 years under Rulan Tangen, through her guidance Xeric got to travel across the USA performing And doing out reach and culture exchanges with Native Americans communities as well cultural Exchanges with the Native Youth.
Also toured with Kaha:Wi dance theater under Santee Smith and toured all over Ontario, Canada performing for the youth theaters. As well as being selected by Redsky performace under Sandra Laronde for the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards 2011 in Edmonton, Canada.
bboy otherwise
tomahawk bang
For Tomahawk Bang, music is "Himdag" or the "way of life." As a native of Arizona's Onk Akimel O'odham tribe; the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, Tomahawk developed his relationship with music whilst participating in traditional ceremonies on his homeland. The deeply spiritual nature of his culture serves as one of the clearest influences and most pertinent characteristics of his music. In the world of Tomahawk Bang, the music was, is, and will always be an indigenous experience.
"What first gets you into something, that never goes away. The initial inspiration... it's mind blowing. You never forget." -Tomahawk Bang
At the age of thirteen, Tomahawk Bang immersed himself in hip-hop culture, transforming into a hybrid of native customs and break beats.
Bboying (break dance) played a major role in his development as an artist, exposing him to avenues of self-expression he had not encountered before. In the late 9o's, house music caught the ears of Tomahawk Bang and members of his famed dance collective "Sour Patch Crew." House music opened the door for a new type of expression in movement. After years of chasing the best house music experiences within and outside the United States, attending events as a dancer was no longer enough. By 2010 Tomahawk Bang was working on the turntables, conceiving a sound all his own.
Although his heart lies with DJing, Tomahawk Bang values music production as a vital parallel to his DJ career. As a DJ, Tomahawk Bang delves deep into the grimy cellars of underground Detroit Techno, Deep House, and Dub Tech, integrating world sounds, indigenous instruments, vintage audio samples, and all that is sonically intricate. A DJ set by Tomahawk Bang is a voyage to far off places, a one-way ticket to all the
"strange" that the universe has to offer. As a producer, Tomahawk Bang gravitates towards complex instrumentals and experimental sound-scapes. With over fifteen years of experience as a dancer, he creates music with the goal of movement in mind. Each song embodies a narrative, tracing his bloodlines back to the sacred days of the natural world. His music is the intersect point between our digital future, and his ancestral past.
In 2014, Tomahawk Bang released his first single "Spirit in the Water" to the bay area's Catch the Ghost records. Closely behind were two more single releases with CG: "Dark Emergence" and "False Pretenses," records that exemplified Tomahawk's momentum and growth as an electronic artist. His first EP "Spirit in the Mountain" released to Paris electronic music label BeatXChangers on May 4, 2015 and caught a wave of attention
A descendant of the Rarámuri (Tarahumara) people, Artson is an award-winning hip hop artist and cultural torchbearer whose music embodies ancestral pride, resistance, and personal evolution. Born in El Paso and shaped by West Coast hip hop, Artson’s journey from B-Boy to global emcee has inspired audiences around the world.
He is a two-time Native American Music Award winner (Best Narrative Video, Best Rap/Hip Hop Album), and has collaborated with icons like Ras Kass, Chino XL, Craig G, Wildchild, and Planet Asia.
His latest project is a much-anticipated collaboration with his wife and partner, She-Rōze. Their debut album as The You in I is set to release in March 2026. Framed as a “sonic cinema” experience, the album is an immersive concept —where each track is a transmission, and collectively they guide the listener through an inward journey to a new day.
bboy artson
samuel pena
Samuelitos (C. Samuel Peña) is a Mexican-American percussionist, producer, and educator whose life’s work centers on rhythm as a bridge between those living today and the generations who came before us. As founder of AZ Beat Lab and Assistant Director of Popular Music at ASU, Samuel celebrates those who dedicated their lives to groove and expression. Each rhythm he plays is an offering – a call to remember, to move, and to reconnect through sound.
