STRONG WORDS


BY ANNE BOLEN


POET AND MUSICIAN JOY HARJO BECOMES THE FIRST NATIVE U.S. POET LAUREATE


wasn’t typical. It didn’t happen at a stadium but rather at the Library of Congress. And this musician, Joy Harjo, was also an internationally known poet who was about to present her inaugural reading as the first American Indian to be named Poet Laureate of the United States. It was a momentous occasion for Harjo. “That evening felt like the


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accumulation of my life,” she says. “It deeply touched me. The work we do as poets, and even musicians, is hours and hours of questioning, writing and thinking. You never know where you are going to land.” Harjo will serve as the 23rd Poet Laureate Consultant until the


spring of 2020. The Library of Congress created this position in 1937 to not only celebrate the art of poetry, but “to make it relatable to as many people as possible,” says Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. Other Poet Laureates have included Robert Frost and most recently, Pulitzer Prize-winner Tracy K. Smith. This past June, Hayden selected Harjo—a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation—for the role. “Joy is the perfect combination.” says Hayden, “She brings a personal history that expands on a larger history of the American experience.” And the way she inte- grates her poetry into jazz and Native song, Hayden says, helps broaden the definitions of “what is culture and what is art.” Born on May 9, 1951, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Harjo grew up on the


northern border of the Muscogee Creek Nation. During the 1830s, the U.S. government forced the ancestors of her Cherokee mother and Creek father from their tribal homes in the East and relocated them to what is now eastern Oklahoma. Harjo’s poems blend stories about her life with those from her deep Native roots, often reflecting on the of-


22 AMERICAN INDIAN WINTER 2019


he scene could have taken place at any rock concert. On September 19, an audience waited eagerly for the lead mu- sician to arrive. As she strode in carrying her sax, she was greeted by thunderous applause and cheers while the rest of her band joined her on stage. Yet the concert that night


fenses of colonialism on her people. In “For Earth’s Grandsons” from her poetry book “An American Sunrise,” for example, she writes:


And no matter what happens in these times of breaking No matter dictators, the heartless, and liars No matter—you are born of those Who kept ceremonial embers burning in their hands All through the miles of relentless exile.


Ironically, this internationally known artist who has spent much of


her adult life on a stage says, “I was the least likely person to become a poet.” Growing up with an absent father and then a repressive stepfa- ther, she was a shy child who took refuge from her turbulent home life in her drawing. This talent earned her entry into the Institute of Ameri- can Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the young age of 16. Harjo says that school “saved my life.” During the height of the civil rights and American Indian rights movements, she says, “I found myself with a community of others who were like me. We made an incredible story together as young Native artists in the late ’60s.” While “we still weren’t allowed to speak Native languages and people were punished for that,” she says, “we were treated like we had something important to say and we could say it though our art.” However, her passion for poetry wouldn’t be awakened until she


attended the University of New Mexico, where a drama and then po- etry instructor showed her the power of words. Soon she was listen- ing to poetry readings and was hooked. “I met Native poets who were writing about our lives. That shifted it for me.” She was 22 years old when the birth of her second child, daughter Rainy Dawn, inspired Harjo to write her first poem. Harjo has since written eight books of poetry, including one of her most recognized works, “She Had Some Horses,” in 1983 and “The


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