Blue Corn Festival celebrates food, Indigenous cultures in the Southwest
Via KJZZ: Despite cuts, returning Blue Corn Festival takes root this weekend in downtown Phoenix
NDN Girls Book Club poses with The Modern Navajo Kitchen by Alana Yazzie, a featured title at this year’s Blue Corn Festival.
The budget for AZ Humanities got slashed by more than $1 million last April when the now defunct Department of Government Efficiency — DOGE — made federal cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Organizers weren’t sure whether the Blue Corn Festival would return.
“Even before the founding of this country — blue corn — our Indigenous foodways were shared and celebrated,” said Diné co-organizer Kinsale Drake, founder of the NDN Girls Book Club. “But they are here, right? And they have survived, and we’ve protected these foodways.”
Author Brian Young (Diné) signs copies of his books after a reading for Blue Corn Festival 2026.
On Saturday, March 7th, 11am-4pm, over 35 vendors filled the AZ Humanities House site in Phoenix, Arizona as hundreds of attendees enjoyed storytelling hours, cultural and cooking demonstrations, free books from NDN Girls Book Club, and blue-corn based dishes from blue corn donuts to blue corn fry bread, blue corn mush, blue corn smoothies, and more. Attendees were invited to celebrate the important role blue corn has played in the Southwest region for various tribes for centuries.
Organizations and groups in attendance, however, were also celebrating the second year of the festival following devastating cuts to humanities budgets nationwide. The second iteration provided expanded programming, such as workshops leading up to the event, and support from the Smithsonian as one of the year’s Folklife Festivals.
Current Miss Navajo Nation, Camille Uentillie, poses with Alana Yazzie, aka The Fancy Navajo.
Blue corn donuts made during Alana Yazzie’s cooking demonstration. Recipe from The Fancy Navajo (2026).
Featured speakers and guests included Manny Loley (Diné), the Phoenix Public Library, Tommey Jodie, Anita Poleahla (Hopi), Brian Young (Diné), Taté Walker (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota), Kinsale Drake (Diné), Ayling Dominguez (Nahua), Deonoveigh Mitchell (Diné/ Afro-American).
Featured vendors included Hope’s Frybread, The Rez an Urban Eatery, The Remedy, Palabras Bilingual Bookstore, 4 Your Plate Only, Maiz y Machete Poeta, Blue Corn Custom Designs, Penélope Joe, Butterflies & Azee’, Big Water Creations, Arizona Arts Commission, Leading the Way Magazine, Burton Barr Library, Trauma Recovery Services of Arizona, Summer Flowers Apothecary, Little Star Trading, Slimply Mariah, and more.
