“Write. It’s important to write and to make sure you have that time to write and to feed your mind with music, songs, art and thoughts of moving forward.” – Joy Harjo 2022
Joy Harjo, Mvskoke Creek citizen and first Indigenous U.S. Poet Laureate, enlivened a group of Haskell students and extended community in a virtual reading on Feb. 23, 2022. With readings from Poet Warrior and American Sunrise, Harjo outlines the foundation of her work, illustrating her formative years as a young artist to recent years as the U.S. Poet Laureate.
Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) students played an integral role in welcoming and introducing Harjo. Senior students Sonwai Wakayuta and Daryn Berryhill both gave a heartfelt introduction to Harjo and a warm welcome to attendees. Senior student Junior Lavarie offered a prayer song inspired by Harjo’s poem “Seven Generations”. Harjo’s response to the introduction embodies the deep admiration of these Indigenous scholars.
“When I hear you all speak, I hear the older people speaking through you. I can hear Junior singing [and there] are so many teachers in his voice.”
Joy Harjo
She reiterates the importance of passing on knowledge and connecting to both past and future generations.
“I wrote this book for you guys… I’m at an age where I’m still looking forward and still creating but I’m also looking back. As I look back, I’m thinking about what I want to pass on to you before I move to the next realm.”
Much of these ideas are beautifully expressed in excerpts from her latest memoir, Poet Warrior. She highlights community as an integral component in her formation as an artist. Again, emphasizing the importance of connections — this time in a present-sense; yet, presented here as a recollection of her life.
In one particular excerpt, she touches upon musings with a group of artists on being a contemporary Indigenous artist.
“We consider ourselves to be a kind of hybrid. Not the confused, worn-out trope of Indians caught between two worlds but committed artists rooted in our individual tribal nations who created within a dynamic process of cultural, conceptual interchange of provocative ideas, images, and movements.”
Joy Harjo
From American Sunrise, Harjo recited a shortened version of her poem “Exile in Memory,” which she plans to record as a song with reggae band Native Roots. The poem speaks on the juxtaposition of finding a home in the place her ancestors were forced to live (Oklahoma) and feeling like an outsider in their homelands of the southeast United States.
“… To be in a place where our stories and people came from, and to go there and we weren’t there…” Harjo said, “What’s even more strange was to be excited about going back home, which was the place [our ancestors] fought hard not to go to.”
She goes on to say her writing and poetry are attempts to make sense of those contradictions.
In the Q&A, Harjo explains how much of her poems are “maps of the soul,” portraying slivers of her life depending on the people and places she was connected to at the time.
In response to a question on being U.S. Poet Laureate, she identifies the societal issues of political divisiveness, racial tensions, the COVID-19 pandemic, and climate change as prominent themes that have marked her laureateship. She also exemplified her goals with the position.
“I want people to see natives as human beings” and also expresses her desire to highlight native poets.
In a question about her influences, she identifies justice and healing as the main ideas that have always motivated her work. She also lists poets such as Pablo Neruda, Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch, Roberta Hill, and T.C. Cannon as “poet ancestors”, in which she weaves in lines and themes of their work within her own.
“… It’s like these patterns and echoes that come in and connect you and remind you of people that have walked the road with you or have been your teachers.”
Joy Harjo
Harjo gives advice to upcoming poets and writers in the final question of her virtual meeting with Haskell students.
“Write. It’s important to write and to make sure you have that time to write… and to feed your mind with music, songs, art… and thoughts of moving forward… [It’s also] important to feed your spirit, being out in the real world, and being in good company, just like we are, we [have] good company right here.”
Joy Harjo
Harjo also had a virtual reading and conversation with the larger Lawrence community later that evening and with Indigenous KU students the following day.
This event was made possible with the support of HINU staff, Lawrence Public Library, Kansas Hall Center for the Humanities, and Prairie Band Casino & Resort.
Watch the virtual reading in full:
