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Poetry Reading by Joy Harjo, 23rd United States Poet Laureate

The University of Virginia is excited to welcome Joy Harjo, an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She is the first Native American to be awarded the honor of US Poet Laureate.

University of Virginia President Jim Ryan will welcome and introduce our speaker. Jim Ryan is the 9th President of the University and a 1992 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law

Harjo has published nine books of poetry, a memoir, and recently edited When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, which includes works by 160 poets representing nearly 100 Indigenous nations. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Joy Harjo has championed the art of poetry—‘soul talk’ as she calls it—for over four decades,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said. “To her, poems are ‘carriers of dreams, knowledge and wisdom,’ and through them she tells an American story of tradition and loss, reckoning and myth-making. Her work powerfully connects us to the earth and the spiritual world with direct, inventive lyricism that helps us reimagine who we are.

The event will be moderated by Kasey Jernigan , Assistant Professor of Anthropology and American Studies at the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Kasey Jernigan was the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Native American Studies at Wesleyan University in the American Studies Department. Her work focuses on obesity, identity, and cultural uses of food among Oklahoma tribes. She is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and grew up in Tulsa, OK.

The reading will be followed by a Q&A session. Event is free; registration for the webinar is required.

For more information on this event, please contact Beverly Campbell, Senior Associate Director, UVA Clubs, at bcw8d@virginia.edu.

Nov 16, 2020 06:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)