Nourish Body, Nourish Spirit: Harvest, Seeds, and Songs from Indigenous Wisconsin

Rhythms, Roots, Recipes: Community Stories of Food and Music brings together cooking demonstrations, live music, and storytelling. Each program in the series explores traditions that animate families and communities across the United States—and beyond.

In many Indigenous communities, the autumn harvest is marked by hard work followed by a period of gratitude and reflection. Often anchored in food, songs, and stories, seasonal rituals of connection and regeneration are essential both to individual and communal care.

The 2026 edition of Rhythms, Roots, Recipes concludes with a program featuring chef and restauranteur Elena Terry (Hoocąk/Prairie Band Potawatomi) and her agroecologist daughter Zoe Lea Fess (Hoocąk/Prairie Band Potawatomi). As they prepare sweet corn mush and wild rice dumplings in mushroom soup, father-and-son musicians Wade and Quintin Fernandez (Menominee) will share songs and stories inspired by the many gifts given to us by the natural world. Their conversation will be moderated by master beader and NEA National Heritage Fellow Karen Ann Hoffman (Oneida).