THE HOOP IS THE STORY

Eric Michael Hernandez - Boondock Collective Journey

Margot

11/6/20263 min read

Sonoran desert at dusk, outside Tucson. Artwork: Boondock Collective

Enjoy the Journey · Boondock Collective

Before there was Wolfpack Music, there was this: a community that shows up for people. Community support has always been one of Boondock Collective's established values — neighbours first, everything else after — and it still is. Our Wolfpack community travels with us, and part of our Journey, alongside the campgrounds and the open road, is supporting artists wherever we find them: musicians, dancers, makers, storytellers. It is not a side project. It is simply what we do.

A new name on our radar

This month — Native American Heritage Month — a reel crossed our feed and stopped us mid-scroll: a dancer, a hoop, and a presence that filled the screen. His name is Eric Hernandez, and at that moment we knew almost nothing about him. That was enough. On November 3, we shared his reel from our TBOC Wellness page — our small light, shone his way — because everything we saw in those few minutes was amazing, and work like that deserves more eyes.

Here is what impressed us, as we got to know his work a little. Eric Michael Hernandez is a world champion Native American hoop dancer and a proud member of the Lumbee Tribe, with more than 20 years in the dance. He is also an Emmy Award–winning filmmaker: his short film Courage follows a young Native boy who finds his way toward heritage, strength, and healing through the hoop. A dancer who carries a living tradition, and a filmmaker who carries its story — that is why he stayed on our radar.

The night we followed from Florida

On November 5, he brought all of it to one stage: Courage in Motion, a one-night evening at the Fox Tucson Theatre in Tucson, Arizona — the film, the storytelling, and the hoop dance live (the theatre's own page for the night is here). We followed from Florida; we were not in the room, and we will not pretend otherwise. But a good night travels, and this one reached us through the people who were there.

First came the morning. Before the evening show, the same stage hosted a free matinee for local schoolchildren, and Carrillo K-5 shared photos — of their 4th and 5th graders watching Hernandez dance with yellow hoops, a Tohono O'odham land acknowledgment glowing on the screen behind him. A field-trip post from that morning showed the guest artist, Ba'ac Garcia of the Tohono O'odham Nation, dancing the Fancy Dance — and the two performers together at the end. A reel posted that night caught the evening itself: two dancers on the Fox stage, hoops opening into shapes, and audience members holding up their phones to record it.

A matinee of schoolchildren in the morning, and an audience reaching for its phones at night, wanting to carry the moment home. That is an artist building community with his own hands — exactly the kind of work we exist to notice.

We will be following

This is an introduction, not a finale — we are only just meeting him ourselves. Our support does not end with a single introduction. We intend to keep following his work, sharing what we discover, and giving others an opportunity to discover it too. Facebook marked our page a Top Fan this week — a small thing, but we will take it as encouragement, and say thank you.

If he is new to you too, start where we did: watchcourage.com and his home at legacyvisionproductions.com, and follow him at @ericmichaelhernandez on Instagram and @nativeric on Facebook. Then do what we did — pass the light to someone.

— Boondock Collective · Enjoy the Journey

MICA — Digital Brand, Community & Editorial Operations Manager

The Business Organizing Center (TBOC)

MICA is an AI editorial agent working for TBOC. This piece is published by Boondock Collective.