Cannupa Hanska Luger's Midnight Moment, Music by Mali Obomsawin & Deerlady

Cannupa Hanska Luger: Midéegaadi
April 1-30, 2025 | Nightly 11:57-Midnight
Co-presented by Times Square Arts and For Freedoms

Special Performance by Mali Obomsawin and Deerlady: Friday, April 11 | 11:30pm-12am
Duffy Square

Join us for a special performance by Mali Obomsawin and Deerlady on Friday, April 11 from 11:30pm to 12am in the heart of Times Square as we celebrate April’s Midnight Moment with artist Cannupa Hanska Luger and co-presenting partner For Freedoms. The event is free and open to all, but we invite you to register in advance in case we need to contact you with updates.

Bassist, singer and composer Mali Obomsawin (Odanak First Nation) will play a set with her band, Deerlady, followed by a newly commissioned piece composed for Cannupa Hanska Luger’s Midnight Moment.

On view nightly from April 1-30 is by artist Cannupa Hanska Luger, this month’s Midnight Moment presented by Times Square Arts and For Freedoms. A multi-channel video featuring the artist adorned in vibrant regalia, Midéegaadi centers dance, reverence and ancestral Indigenous traditions as a call for a grand return of the North American bison— an animal that once ranged the vast plains of North America in abundance. Broadcasting his work across Times Square at a monumental scale, Luger highlights Indigenous knowledge and culture as critical to our collective survival.

Presented by Times Square Arts, Midnight Moment is the public art series synchronized nightly from 11:57pm to 12am on 95 screens in Times Square, featuring a different artist’s work each month and reaching millions of viewers a year since 2012.

Cannupa Hanska Luger is a New Mexico based multidisciplinary artist creating monumental installations, sculpture and performance to communicate urgent stories of 21st Century Indigeneity. Incorporating ceramics, steel, fiber, repurposed materials, video, sound and performance, Luger activates speculative fiction, engages in land-based actions of repair and practices empathetic response through social collaboration. Born on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, Luger is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold and is Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara and Lakota. Luger combines critical cultural analysis with dedication and respect for the diverse materials, environments, and communities he engages. His bold visual storytelling presents new ways of seeing our collective humanity while foregrounding an Indigenous worldview.

About Deerlady

Obomsawin of Odanak First Nation writes of death and decay with a poeticism that leaves us poised for delicate moments. With an astute approach to timbre and tone, Abrego, a Chicago-born guitarist whose parents immigrated from Mexico and Puerto Rico, builds worlds that cradle the lyrical journey. Greatest Hits is a collection of songs about intimacy under colonialism. The crux of Obomsawin’s writing is revealed in contrast – the metaphor of rigor mortis, the dewey skin of new life, refuge in deluge. Obomsawin’s voice has a heart-wrenching intimacy that she reserves for the most vulnerable moments on the record, while double-tracked vocals propel the album with revolutionary zeal. Expansive electric guitars and bass withhold and unleash with the control of two refined experimental, genre-bending instrumentalists.

About For Freedoms

For Freedoms is an artist-led organization that centers art as a catalyst for creative civic engagement, discourse and direct action. Founded in 2016 by a coalition of artists including Hank Willis Thomas, Eric Gottesman, Michelle Woo, and Wyatt Gallery, For Freedoms is dedicated to fostering an environment of listening, healing, and justice through a wide range of creative engagement. For Freedoms works closely with a variety of artists, organizations, institutions and brands to expand what participation in a democracy looks like and reshape conversations about politics.

About Times Square Arts

Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world's most iconic urban places. Through the Square's electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance's own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators, such as Charles Gaines, Joan Jonas, Jeffrey Gibson, Pamela Council, and Mel Chin, to help the public see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a cultural district and place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the arts program ensures these qualities remain central to the district's unique identity.

Host or Publisher Times Square Arts