Jo Reed: You dedicated âAn American Sunrise,â and Iâm quoting now, âTo children so they may find their way through the dark,â and I wonder, especially now, if there are any poems or music that youâre leaning into that help you right now. Poetry goes there. Jo Reed: Silence seems so critical for you in your work and also, for you as a person, as Iâve read your memoir, âCrazy Brave,â and you talk about the importance of silence in that book and Iâd like you to comment on that. Letâs honor whatâs made. Why does Harjo emphasize that “ [t]he last road will be taken alone”? Harjo’s mother was a … The last road will be taken alone. Jo Reed: Well, you wrote a prose piece in âAn American Sunriseâ about the sax and I would love to have you read that now. Thank you. History is such a huge thing and then you come out, okay, Muscogee, where do you start? Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Harjo draws on First Nation storytelling and histories, as well as feminist and social justice poetic traditions, and frequently incorporates … Joy Harjo: I started playing when I was almost 40 years old and I like the sound of it. Stay safe, stay kind, and thanks for listening. I think itâs important. "100 of the most moving and inspiring poems of the last 200 years from around the world, a collection that will comfort and enthrall anyone trapped by grief or loneliness, selected by the award-winning, best-selling, and beloved author of How to Read a Poem"-- Cicadas are part of the song as they praise their invisible ancestors while fish blinking back the relentless sun in Oklahoma circle in the muggy river of life. The agreement was âOkay, you need to learn how to listen and if you agree that thatâs what you need to learn how to do, we will help you through poetry and with poetry, you can be of use in this world.â So, I agreed and learning how to listen, which involves silence and engaging in silence, which really isnât so quiet at all, itâs filled with resonances of history, of mythical and mythical presences, and itâs filled with the voice of the earth and earth beings. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –, “Falling From the Night Sky” by Joy Harjo, “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo, “This Morning I Pray for My Enemies” by Joy Harjo. Somewhere between jazz and ceremonial flute, the beat of her sensibility radiates hope and gratitude to readers and listeners alike. When did you start playing? She used to write songs. “Road”-- we stand first in our minds and then we … Her many honors include The American Indian Distinguished Achievement … I didnât start writing poetry, though, until I was in my early 20s. You look at any aspect of American culture and weâre not there or if weâre there, the cavalry is chasing us or weâve been disappeared or lamented, but weâre very much here and weâre very much present and the roots of America-- there would be no America without us. We make our way through storm and sun. I always stood in the back and didnât say anything. Jo Reed: I can understand that. Thatâs where the first line came âYou canât begin just anywhere. Music-- I always go back to John Coltrane. I guess this all started, this multiplicity of voices, which Iâve done in some way or the other since my book, âThe Woman Who Fell from the Sky,â and with that book, I thought about poetry and how poetry is in my Muscogee Creek community, which is mostly as performance and in song language and oratory and I thought about how poetry occurs usually in a lot of communities. In An American Sunrise, Harjo finds blessings in the abundance of her homeland and confronts the site where her people, and other indigenous families, essentially disappeared. But to be there was so disturbing and shocking and to realize that I am home in our homelands and we are not here. Poet Laureate of the US and NEA Big Read author, Author and 2020 National Book Award winner for fiction, Poet, playwright, and 2019 NEA Literature Fellow. Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. #### End of Joy_Harjo_Podcast_Final04162020.mp3 ####. The people had been moved west of the Mississippi River after the Creek Wars, which culminated in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Or was the seamstress the child with no home of his or her own? Joy Harjo is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. Jo Reed: I was really reminded of an interview I did with the jazz musician Roscoe Mitchell and silence figures prominently in his work. In 2019, she was named the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States of America—the first Native American person to receive the honor. Itâs best not to be afraid. Iâll read this one because it really is-- I mean, if you think about what the pandemic has shown us is that weâre all absolutely connected and thatâs really what this poem is about is about acknowledging those connections and realizing that even the nature of our interaction with those connections makes a huge difference. Joy Harjo: Yes, I have. Joyâs latest book, âAn American Sunriseâ is an NEA Big Read selection. But Iâm not sure what that tells you about the work itself because Joy Harjoâs poetry is a marvel. The outpouring was-- it was and is amazing and what has been so exciting is that it has helped this image or this standing in this place-- I realize itâs about poets. There’s a simple journey, a simple line, a journey. Do you see your appointment in some ways providing a reaffirmation for Native peoples, an inspiration in the way that N. Scott Momaday was for you when he received the Pulitzer? Did she have enough to eat? Like every place else, the streets are pretty abandoned. She earned her BA from the University of New Mexico and MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Joy Harjo’s nine books of poetry include An American Sunrise, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, How We Became Human: ... From her memory of her mother's death, to her beginnings in the Native rights movement, to the fresh road with her beloved, Harjo's personal life intertwines with tribal histories to create a … So, in my dreams last night, I was trying to write that poem and it wasnât working because I wasnât coming at the poem from the inside. To open Joy Harjo's An American Sunrise (W.W. Norton, 2019) is to be immersed in the power of nature, spirituality, memory, violence, and the splintered history of America's indigenous peoples. She retains elements of poetry — for example, naming the four sections of the book East, North, West, and South as a respectful calling of the four directions of sacred balance — and she weaves poems and tribal myths throughout, but her memoir is Harjo… Itâs a wreck,â and that was me as a poet too, thinking okay, how am I going to start talking about this history that is so painful that when I try to read history books about Muscogee Creek history, I read a chapter and then I have all these books sitting around with bookmarks in them because itâs so painful or it pisses you off or you try to make sense of something that canât be made sense of and something comes out of the somewhere thatâs nowhere. Can you describe that? Poet Laureate Joy Harjo finds comfort and lessons in poetry. It carries us home. Crazy. âWhen Adolphe Sax patented the first saxophone on June 23rd, 1846, the Creek Nation was in turmoil. Itâs deeply concerned with history, remembrance, and transcendence. That was the Poet Laureate of the United States, Joy Harjo. 23 rd U.S. Itâs probably that perfect silence that Mitchell is talking about, that perfect silence is the place of giving us these gifts. There are big patches of silence in his music and when I asked him about it, he said âWell, yeah. They are rooted in the land; they are one with the … Actually, my first influence in writing poetry was song language with lyrics. From Mia, Grade 10. I had agreed to take a Chair of Excellence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville for a number of reasons and it turned out to be one of the best decisions, wonderful people, wonderful place, but it provided us a launching place-- my husband is also Muscogee Creek-- to drive around to places that had belonged to our families, historical places. Whatâs the starting place for any of us, whether weâre poets or not? The saxophone is so human. Thatâs why I included a poem by Emily Dickinson in here and then I included a poem in âAmerican Sunriseâ by my daughter, Rainy Dawn, as just like okay, here poetry comes to me from Emily. I think I brought the love of poetry in, but my mother nurtured that. What drew you to the saxophone particularly? Jo Reed: And I think thatâs a good place to leave it. I did the same thing with âA Map to the Next Worldâ with entries that were a lot more prosaic and âAmerican Sunrise,â Iâm also thinking of oral performance. New members announced Friday also include poet Kevin Young, director of the … Joy Harjo, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, has been selected as the 23 rd U.S. poet laureate consultant in poetry. You know of the crowded places in the city, but itâs very strange to-- I live in the Arts District here and usually, itâs just jamming with people and you go out and actually, the Arts District has become the homeless hub, homeless people walking the streets. Joy Harjo is an internationally acclaimed writer and performer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. I come to poetry in a much more smaller and intimate way and then sometimes it goes larger. In 2020, she was named US Poet Laureate for a second term. The way I come to poetry, Iâm not very good at writing occasional poems or poems that I want to have historic dimensions. In the second memoir from the first Native American to serve as US poet laureate, Joy Harjo invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her “poet-warrior” road. Joy Harjo, Poet Laureate of the United States in 2019, is the author of eight poetry collections, including the national bestseller An American Sunrise, and a memoir, Crazy Brave.LeAnne Howe is the author, most recently, of Savage Conversations.Jennifer Elise Foerster is the author of Bright Raft in the Afterweather.Edited by Joy Harjo… Jo Reed: Itâs never easy to be homeless. From her memory of her mother's death, to her beginnings in the Native rights movement, to the fresh road with her beloved, Harjo… How does it enlighten your understanding of the poem? All that heartache is forgiven. âSketches of Spain,â of course, is one of my favorite, favorite albums. Itâs a person who returned to our homelands to find that we were not there, that we had been utterly disappeared from any culture in the Southeast, that we were essentially there as stories or people who used to be, even though we were very alive and weâre a people and continue as a people with our culture, our language, and so on.