Dennis Hopper Day 2020 cancelled
‘Stay strong, safe, sanitized and smudged’
GIVEN THE MANY uncertainties due to the COVID-19 pandemic and best practices to keep our communities and loved ones safe during these unprecedented times, Dennis Hopper Day 2020 has been cancelled.
This Sunday (May 17) would have been Hopper’s birthday and the festivities were going to begin on Friday and run through the weekend. A big celebration was planned this year with an Indian motorcycle giveaway included, along with the annual Easy Rider Ride, on the agenda.
“We will do it all next year,” said Robby Romero of Eagle Thunder, one of the founders of Dennis Hopper Day, who is currently well-occupied on the front lines of the pandemic in indigenous communities globally.
“From the Arctic to the Amazon, across seven regions of the world, indigenous peoples are being hard hit by the coronavirus. Our communities are implementing best practices based on indigenous knowledge and science,” Romero said.
The nonprofit organization he founded, Native Children’s Foundation, is interfacing with Native people in cities and on reservations all over America. Romero, a local Native rock musician, a longtime environmental activist and member of the Indigenous Delegation to the U.N., has joined up with Patricia Arquette and Sean Penn and their respective nonprofits, Give Love and CORE, to help provide aid, including PPE [Personal Protective Equipment] and COVID-19 testing to urban Natives and indigenous nations impacted by the pandemic.
“We look forward to seeing you next year,” Romero said, “and meanwhile, stay strong, safe, sanitized and smudged.”
For more information and updates on the Hopper happening, go to dennishopperday.com.