Kalyn Fay and Agalisiga Mackey

Join Mt. Hood Cherokee and the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation for an evening of live music featuring Kalyn Fay and Agalisiga Mackey at the Center for Native Arts and Cultures. Gather with friends, family, and neighbors for performances by two talented Cherokee artists. Whether you come to dance, listen, or spend time with community, you are welcome for a night celebrating Native music and connection.

Kalyn Fay (Cherokee Nation, Muscogee descent) is a songwriter and musician from Oklahoma who also fosters an interdisciplinary practice that weaves together visual arts, curation, and education. Born and raised in rural Oklahoma between the Cherokee, Muscogee, and Osage territories, they are deeply rooted in their nuanced relationship with Oklahoma, and their musical practice reflects that influence. Focusing on self-location, community, collaboration, and empathy, Kalyn sees their music as a way to lean into personal and shared narratives. Their songs embed Indigenous understandings of community and environment, navigating how we all intersect, with hopes of building bridges of understanding. Kalyn Fay’s music is “for you, for me, for us, for we.”

Agalisiga “The Chuj” Mackey is a Cherokee singer/songwriter who grew up in the small traditional Cherokee community of Kenwood, OK. Mackey melds a classic country and blues sound drawn from Jimmy Rodgers and R.L. Burnside with his deep baritone voice honed from his upbringing in singing Cherokee ceremonial songs. In a short time, the 21-year-old father of two has grown from covering vintage tunes down at the creek to performing on big stages across the Midwest while cultivating a growing audience among country-western fans and Native Americans alike. Audiences are universally intrigued to hear the Cherokee language sung in this mode and captivated by Mackey’s authentic folksy presence on stage. Outside of his music, he is a language and culture educator at the Cherokee Immersion Charter School, where he teaches children from Pre-K to 8th grade both ceremonial songs and contemporary Cherokee music.