NPR Interview with Joy Harjo

On how to get your artistic voice back, if you've lost it...

"I [had] felt like I had lost my voice, too. And sometimes, to find it ... what I've learned is it needs to be lost for a while. And when it wants to be found, you'll find it.

"But I would say is that you just put yourself in the place of poetry. You just go where poetry is, whether it's in your heart or your mind or in books or in places where there's live poetry or recordings.

"And, you know, it's like looking for love. You can't look for love, or it will run away from you. But, you know, don't look for it. Don't look for it. Just go where it is and appreciate it, and, you know, it will find you."

Read more or listen to the interview: http://www.npr.org/2012/07/09/156501436/joy-harjos-crazy-brave-path-to-finding-her-voice

Harjo visits UAlbany tomorrow, 4:15 and 8pm, Campus Center 375, with a catered reception by SUNY Press to follow the evening event.

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The Big Read in Albany

The Big Read in Albany will feature a number of events inspired by Tim O'Brien's book of stories about the Vietnam War, The Things They Carried.

You may have missed the kick-off event yesterday at The Palace, but there are also two panel discussions, a documentary screening and a musical performance.

You may also be interested in this:

American Place Theatre performance of The Things They Carried
November 7 (Wednesday)
Pre-Performance discussion at 7 p.m.
Performance — 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus
$15 general public / $12 seniors & faculty-staff / $10 students Box Office: (518) 442-3997

Tim O’Brien’s masterwork of contemporary literature about the Vietnam War is taken from book to stage by American Place Theatre, the award-winning New York City based company. The verbatim adaptation of this compassionate tale of the American soldier includes five of the short stories from the book including “The Rainy River” and “The Man I Killed.” With original cello music as underscoring, the audience plays witness to the complex issues of war and the universal struggle of the soldier.

For more about the Big Read, visit the website of the Albany Public Library:
http://www.albanypubliclibrary.org/documents/thebigread_2012.pdf

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Poet Joy Harjo talks about her tattoo...

Joy Harjo, who visits tomorrow, explains her remarkable hand tattoo on her website:

What do I have on my hand and what does it mean?

The tattoo on my hand is a tattoo. It’s not henna. The style is from the Marquesas Islands. The Marquesas are north of Tahiti.

Roonui, a Tahitian artist, did the tattoo freehand in Moorea, Tahiti. He is now living in Canada. http://www.roonui-tattoo.com/ It took two-and-a-half hours. (And yes, it hurt.)

I’d seen the tattoo there on my hand for sometime. The tattoo represents assistance for my work. I use my hands for music, writing, and everything else I do. The tattoo reminds me of the levels of assistance. I am also carrying a beautiful piece of art with me wherever I go.

Roonui says: "Polynesian tattooing is not a simple exercise in aesthetics. Polynesian carve into their body the symbols of their actions (past present or future), their promises, their games."

The part inside my wrist, close to my heart, resembles ancestral designs of my tribal people.

More about Harjo's events:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/harjo_joy12.html

 

The 8PM reading will be followed by a free catered reception and book signing with Harjo sponsored by SUNY Press (at approximately 9:30 p.m.). The reception is in association with the annual John G. Neihardt lecture celebrating Native American literature.

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Joy Harjo: A Poem to Get Rid of Fear

Watch Joy Harjo, who visits this coming Thursday, Nov 1st., perform her poem "I Give You Back" as part of HBO's Def Poetry Jam....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAYCf2Gdycc

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Joy Harjo coming Thursday

“Joy Harjo is a giant-hearted, gorgeous, and glorious gift to the world. Her belief in art, in spirit, is so powerful, it can’t help but spill over to us — lucky readers. Wildly passionate and honest as a hound, Crazy Brave invites us into a whole new way of seeing—deeper, less cluttered, and vastly more courageous than our own. It’s a book for people who want to re-fall in love with the world.”-- Pam Houston, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness

Joy Harjo, Native American poet and musician
November 1 (Thursday)
Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Campus Center Room 375, Uptown Campus
Reading — 8:00 p.m., Campus Center Room 375, Uptown Campus

Joy Harjo is an award-winning poet and musician of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation. The author of seven collections of poetry, she was praised by the late Adrienne Rich for her “breathtaking complex witness and world-remaking language.” Her poetry collections include How We Became Human (2002), The Woman Who Fell From the Sky (1994), and In Mad Love and War (1990), which received the American Book Award and the William Carlos Williams Award of the Poetry Society of America. Her new book is the memoir, Crazy Brave (2012), about her journey from a troubled childhood and teenage motherhood to her accomplishments in the arts.

Cosponsored by SUNY Press in conjunction with the annual John G. Neihardt Lecture

Read more: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/harjo_joy12.html

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Edwin Torres: A Startling Performer, Tonight in the Ballroom

Edwin Torres, one of the most startling performers of the Nuyorican poetry scene, will participate in UAlbany's Diasporican Poetry Cafe, tonight in the Campus Center Ballroom, 5:30-7:45 p.m.

"I have seen Edwin Torres dancing to the sound of a musical saw while wearing a hat of dirt on his head in a store window, and once wearing pure white with the painter/poet Elizabeth Castagna on New Year's day 1999. I've always wanted to be Edwin Torres for a day, to think like him, to wear cool glasses, to be as tall and thin, to have Puerto Rican soul so I could write 'I'm near a tiger's smooch, BURP!'"

Read more of Brenda Coultas' Electronic Poetry Center review of Edwin Torres' poetry collection, Fractured Humorous here: http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/torrese/fractured.html

Get a taste of Torres' performance style on YouTube here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8uOPBn5jW4

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Larry La Fountain-Stokes on Sexual Persecution and Migration

Larry La Fountain-Stokes, Puerto Rican poet and performer who will participate in tonight's "Diasporican" Cafe at UAlbany, speaks in San Juan at a TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference about the persecution of people for their sexuality, and the profound effect this has on international migration (emigration and immigration).

View his talk on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoyjL23Bwhc

Books by La Fountain-Stokes include the scholarly work, Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora (2009), and the bilingual fiction collection, Uñas pintadas de azul/Blue Fingernails (2009).

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