PORTLAND ARTS & LECTURES 2020/21
JOY HARJO
TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021
“All cultures and peoples turn to poetry during times of celebration, transformation and challenge—those times when ordinary language cannot carry meaning beyond our understanding.” ~ Joy Harjo
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PORTLAND ARTS & LECTURES 2020/2021 THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:
EVENT UNDERWRITERS Helen Macdonald Tuesday, October 13, 2020 Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund
Joy Harjo Tuesday, April 20, 2021 Angeli Law Group
Madeline Miller Thursday, January 28, 2021 A to Z Wineworks
Yaa Gyasi Tuesday, May 18, 2021 The Eberwein Family
Ibram X. Kendi Thursday, February 18, 2021 ZGF Architects
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Joy Harjo image © Matika Wilbur
JOY HARJO
J
oy Harjo is the current United States Poet Laureate and a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1951, where she lives today. She grew up surrounded by artists and musicians, and Harjo explored painting, dancing, and medicine before focusing on poetry and writing. Of her childhood, she’s said, “I didn’t set out to be a writer. I was shy, quiet, and I loved art because I didn’t have to speak with anyone. At one point, my spirit said, ‘You have to learn how to speak.’”
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Harjo attended the Institute of American Indian Arts, a performing arts high school in Santa Fe, New Mexico, then studied painting at the University of New Mexico. She came of age amid the backdrop of intense political rights movements, including those for Native rights, civil rights, and women’s rights. Poetry became a part of her artistic life amid this larger upheaval; she started writing in 1973, when she was a 23-year-old mother of two children and very active in the Native rights movement. “I started writing poetry out of a sense of needing to speak not only for me, but all Native American women,” she’s said. “I basically put a pen in my hand, and that’s how
I came through it. It had a lot to do with investigating history and finding a voice when I felt that I had no voice.” Harjo received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. She has written nine volumes of poetry, plus short stories, several plays, a memoir, and two books for young audiences. Her latest poetry collection, An American Sunrise, was praised by the Washington Post: “Rich and deeply engaging, An American Sunrise creates bridges of understanding while reminding readers to face and remember the past.” She is the editor of When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through, the first historically comprehensive Native poetry anthology, published in 2020. The book features more than 160 poets, representing nearly 100 indigenous nations. In 2019, Harjo was named the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, making her the first Native American to hold the position. She was appointed to a third term in 2021. Rob Casper, who heads the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress, which houses the laureate, praised the “great humanity” of Harjo’s poetry. “She can have a kind of great sweeping vision and still speak so directly as one human being to another in a way that I can’t help but feel completely moved by and believe in,” Casper said. In May 2021, Harjo’s signature laureate project
Anis Mojgani is the current Poet Laureate of Oregon. A two-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam and winner of the International World Cup Poetry Slam, he has been awarded residencies from the Vermont Studio Center, Caldera, AIR Serenbe, The Bloedel Nature Reserve, The Sou’wester, and Literary Arts. Anis has done commissions for the Getty Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum,
will be released: an anthology Harjo edited celebrating Native poets writing today, titled Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry. In addition to writing, Harjo is a skilled musician who performs with her saxophone and flutes, solo and with her band, the Arrow Dynamics Band. She has released six award-winning music albums; her newest is I Pray for My Enemies. She sees an interconnectedness between poetry and music: “I always play or perform music with my poetry. When poetry came into the world, it did not arrive by itself, but it came with music and dance.” Harjo has taught English, Creative Writing, and American Indian Studies at numerous universities. Her many honors include the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, a PEN America Literary Award, a Rasmuson US Artist Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Harjo is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets; holds a Tulsa Artist Fellowship; directs For Girls Becoming, an arts mentorship program for young Mvskoke women; and is a founding board member and Chair of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation.
and his work has appeared on HBO, National Public Radio, and as part of the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series. Mojgani has performed at hundreds of universities across the U.S., festivals around the globe, and for audiences as varied as the United Nations and the House of Blues. The author of five books of poetry and the libretto for Sanctuaries, his first children’s book is forthcoming from Chronicle Books. Originally from New Orleans, Anis currently lives in Portland, where he serves on the Board of Directors for Literary Arts.
Anis Mojgani image © Ryan Longnecker
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The need to call this thing ‘good’ and this thing ‘bad,’ this thing ‘white’ and this thing ‘black,’ was an impulse that Effia did not understand. In her village, everything was everything. Everything bore the weight of everything else. YAA GYASI
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— Yaa Gyasi
Coming to Portland Arts & Lectures on May 18
Author, Homegoing
This staggering passage from Homegoing changed me the moment I read it.” — Abby AHA Account Executive
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AHA has been a creative partner with Literary Arts for nearly 10 years. Because we believe in the transformational power of words, ideas and new voices.
Celebrating thinkers, makers and doers.
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THIS IS OUR STORY There is a thread that ties this broad community together, connecting us all — urban and rural, stranger and friend, through history and hardship, shared goals and personal dreams. It’s our story, as Oregonians, all in it together. And we at The Oregonian/OregonLive are proud to help tell that story every minute of every day.
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ABOUT LITERARY ARTS Our mission is to engage readers, support writers, and inspire the next generation with great literature.
ENGAGE READERS: Portland Arts & Lectures brings the world’s most celebrated writers, artists, and thinkers to our community and connects readers and writers of all ages through classroom visits and workshops. Portland Book Festival brings writers and readers of all ages together to celebrate a shared passion for books. This past year’s Festival was all online and free for all, running from November5–21, 2020. View recordings of the virtual events at PDXBookFest.org. Delve Readers Seminars cultivates community around the shared experience of reading. By gathering around books, we engage in dialogues with authors we love and artists who show us new perspectives. The Archive Project Radio Show and Podcast features the most sought-after recordings from our Portland Arts & Lectures series, the Portland Book Festival, and other community events. Each week, new lectures are available to stream for free. Listen on OPB Radio Sunday evenings at 7:00 p.m., on our website at literary-arts.org/archive, or wherever you get your podcasts.
SUPPORT WRITERS: Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships supports, promotes, and celebrates Oregon’s writers and publishers. In addition to awards and fellowships for emerging and established writers, the program also offers writing classes and literary events at our downtown center and produces the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour, which connects writers and readers throughout the state. In 2020 we awarded 150 Oregon writers, who were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency funds of $1,000 each, with priority given to BIPOC writers.
INSPIRE THE NEXT GENERATION: Youth Programs inspires public high school students to write, publish, and perform their own creative writing. Writers in the Schools residencies bring working writers into classrooms. Students to the Schnitz gives young people access to great books and influential authors. The College Essay Mentoring Project pairs mentors with college applicants. And the annual Verselandia! and East Side Slam poetry slams showcase high school spoken word artists.
For more information, or to make a gift in support of our programs, visit our website at literary-arts.org.
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WHO WE ARE Literary Arts Staff Andrew Proctor, Executive Director Sophie Albanis Maggie Allen Amanda Bullock Lydah DeBin Jennifer Gurney Hunt Holman Olivia Jones-Hall Brandon Lenzi Allegra Lopez Jessica Meza-Torres Susan Moore Jules Ohman Liz Olufson Emilly Prado Valeria I. Ramirez Jyoti Roy Literary Arts Board of Directors Amy Prosenjak, Chair Jill Abere David Angeli Joan Cirillo Ginnie Cooper Amy Donohue Ann Edlen Sarah Gibbon Betsy Henning Jonathan Hill Mitchell S. Jackson Maurice King Deidra Miner Anis Mojgani Justice Adrienne Nelson Corrine Oishi Katherine O’Neil Ramón Pagán Bob Speltz Dennis Steinman
Jeoffrey Tichenor Chabre Vickers Amy Wayson Strunk & White Society An honorary society of distinguished advisors Gwyneth Gamble Booth Nancy Bragdon Larry Colton Theo DownesLe Guin Bart Eberwein Brian Gard Molly Gloss Carrie Hoops Jodi DelahuntHubbell Cecelia Huntington Susheela Jayapal Julie Mancini Brenda Meltebeke Jessica Mozeico Diane Ponti Michael Powell Per Ramfjord Halle Sadle Steven Taylor Jacqueline Willingham Thomas Wood Steve Wynne Development Council Bob Speltz, Chair Jill Abere Ann Barden Joan Cirillo Ginnie Cooper Amy Donohue Ann Edlen Sara Guest
Maurice King Jan Oliva Andrew Proctor Amy Prosenjak Chabre Vickers Jacqueline Willingham Carl Wilson Thomas Wood Patron Advisory Council Katherine O’Neil, Chair Jill Abere Seth Alley Kim Bissell Marian Creamer Kieran Curley Rebecca DeCesaro Marilyn Epstein Sarah Gibbon Susan Hathaway-Marxer Earl Hines Kristi Wallace Knight Phillip M. Margolin Katherine McCoy Carolyn McKinney Vanessa McLaughlin Lora Meyer Nancy Ponzi Anna Raman Jim Reinhart Barbara Sepenuk Roslyn Sutherland Kate Tuominen Kim Weyler Marcia Wood Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships Advisory Council
Anis Mojgani, Chair Tom Booth Nancy Boutin Julie Dixon Abbey Gaterud Betsy Henning Rhonda Hughes Cecelia Huntington Linda Leslie Meghan Moran Jyothi Natarajan Corrine Oishi Dennis Steinman Armin Tolentino Youth Programs Advisory Council Jonathan Hill, Chair Carmen BernierGrand Sandra Childs Jacque Dixon Bob Geddes Andre Goodlow Mary Hirsch Maurice King Briana Linden Andre Middleton Deidra Miner Anis Mojgani Joanna Rose Karena Salmond Claudia Savage Nancy Sullivan Catherine Theriault Amy Wayson Tracey Wyatt Sharon Wynde Portland Book Festival Advisory Council Joan Cirillo, Chair Edward AshMilby
Kathi Inman Berens Katie Boland Julie Bunker Liz Crain Sarah Gibbon Elina Lim Josha Nathan Justice Adrienne Nelson Olivia Olivia Katherine O’Neil Steph Opitz Craig Popelars Jon Raymond Sarah Rothenfluch Heidi Schulz Rob Spillman Alicia Tate Sage Van Wing Lidia Yuknavitch Gail Zuro Vision Plan Committee Ann Edlen, Chair Joan Cirillo Ginnie Cooper Amy Donohue Theo Downes-Le Guin Greg Goodman Susheela Jayapal Corrine Oishi Andrew Proctor Amy Prosenjak Jon Raymond Nathan Sasaki Jill Sherman Bob Speltz Dennis Steinman Chabre Vickers Tom Wood
Literary Arts: 925 SW Washington Street, Portland, OR 97205 Phone: 503-227-2583 Online: literary-arts.org You can also like us on Facebook.com/literaryarts or follow us on Twitter or Instagram @literaryarts. Literary Arts is supported in part by:
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APRIL 29, 2021 5:30 P.M. | ONLINE GET TICKETS
#Virtualandia! 2021 is an exciting opportunity for students from eligible Portland metro area high schools to take part in a dynamic virtual slam poetry competition, and to win prizes like the title of #Virtualandia Slam Champion and corresponding $1,000 cash..