Josie Dykas

Josie Dykas (Yaqui/Chicana/Polish) has trained and performed with Second City-Chicago, performed at The World Famous Comedy Store in Hollywood, interned and performed for one Saturday Night Live’s original writers Anne Beatts to name a few. She is the founder of Urban Indigenous, a mulit-cultural comedy troupe and now will use the name for her one woman show. She worked through Northeastern Illinois University as a teaching artist in Cicero teaching Latino youth Native perspective, Storytelling development, Drum Circles, improvisation and sketch comedy. She started an all youth comedy troupe “Urban Indigenous Kidz”. She has also worked with inner city Native youth through Chicago with the American Indian Center of Chicago, with the Chicago Title VII American Indian Education Program she developed a stage adaptation of the book “Jingle Dancer”, created a Native Community Drum making class and Drum Circle at the Kateri Center of Chicago and was the Illinois State Coordinator for the Longest Walk 3 – Reversing Diabetes. She strives to inspire the Native American / Latino youth to use comedy as a muse of self expression while understanding their Native roots…. helping our community heal using one of our greatest medicines given to us by the Creator…. Laughter. “We have to know our true past, to deal with today so we may heal and change the future.”