This February, Kennedy Center is hosting a major, four-day festival that will bring together more than 100 artists and tribal elders for a celebration of “Native cultural expression and sovereignty,” according to an announcement.

The We the Peoples Before festival, from Feb. 3-6, will span the Kennedy Center’s campus — including the REACH — and it will feature music and dance performances, poetry, films, and cooking demos from Tribal Nations, Alaska Native Villages, and Native Hawaiian communities across the U.S.

The festival is a collaboration between the Kennedy Center and the First Peoples Fund, a non-profit that has been supporting Native artists since the 1990s.

“We are moved by the Kennedy family’s long-standing connections and relationships with Native communities,” said Lori Pourier (Oglala Lakota), president of the First Peoples Fund, in a statement. “We hope that through this partnership, we can carry this legacy forward as we center the healing, strength, and joy of Native communities at We The Peoples Before.”

The main event is a multi-disciplinary production at the Eisenhower Theater, featuring Indigenous music, dance, and spoken word performances. A performance on the Millennium Stage will showcase rising Native hip-hop artists, whose music carries “unique messages about settler colonialism” and “the daily realities of living on reservations and in cities,” per the website. The weekend will end with artist talks and six short film screenings.

The event organizers also plan to release educational materials that teachers across the U.S. can use when teaching history and culture lessons about Native peoples. Artists in the curriculum include Alfred “Bud” Lane III, vice president of the Siletz Tribal Council and Northwest Native American Basketweavers Association, and Lani Hotch, a weaver of Tlingit ancestry.

Says Marc Bamuthi Joseph, the Kennedy Center’s Artistic Director of Social Impact: “Through this unprecedented partnership, the Kennedy Center hopes to demonstrate and redouble our commitment to honoring and supporting Native peoples and their pivotal contributions to arts and culture.”

We the Peoples Before, Feb. 3–6, 2022 at the Kennedy Center. All events are FREE, but some require advance reservations. Advance reservations will be available on Wednesday, Jan. 19 at 10 a.m.