Professional photographer Sharon Hoogstraten spent a decade portraying contemporary Potawatomi in regalia, and as an unexpected dividend discovered her own roots. A Michigan native, she traveled to Chicago for graduate study, stayed as a resident having no clue that she was walking in the footsteps of her Potawatomi grandmother, Archange Ouilmette. She will appear at the library in collaboration with The Beverly Shores Depot Museum and Art Gallery. The gallery will be featuring her photographs in August. Her book, Dancing Our Tribe: Potawatomi Tradition in the New Millennium (University of Oklahoma Press) is now available.

A photographer, animator, and graphic designer, Sharon Hoogstraten is best known for her portraits of Potawatomi Indians in regalia and for her Emmy award-winning animated openings for television news programs. Hoogstraten’s large-format canvas portraits of Potawatomi Indians have been exhibited in numerous museums and institutions, and are included in the permanent collection of the Citizens Band Potawatomi Cultural Center in Shawnee Oklahoma, Trickster Gallery, and Eagle Staff Grand Entry is currently at the Smithsonian Institute, National Museum of the American Indian. A major contributor to the group show, “Footprints Through Time” at the State Museum of Illinois, she opened two one-woman shows in the soaring atrium of the Helmut Jahn designed Thompson Center, Chicago, in 2015.