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Feminists Around the World: Joy Harjo · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha. I'm welcome to Steff.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I never told your protection of iHeartRadio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And welcome. We are currently entering Native American Heritage Month
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  Speaker 2: here in the US, so of course we had to
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  Speaker 2: start our activists around the world celebrating a Native Indigenous
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  Speaker 2: activist and advocate. Yeah, just so you know, I guess
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  Speaker 2: today is November fourth of twenty twenty four. During November
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  Speaker 2: is when the US does the Native American Heritage Month,
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  Speaker 2: not necessarily the same as the Indigenous People's Day, which
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  Speaker 2: is when we do all instead of Columbus Day. We've
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  Speaker 2: had many conversations about that, so because around what is
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  Speaker 2: the US Thanksgiving? Realizing how kind of atrocious some of
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  Speaker 2: these holidays are are the US just like you know,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to stamp a time of celebration for the
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  Speaker 2: you know, oppressed peoples. So if people don't get too
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  Speaker 2: upset with us, So this month is celebrated as Native
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  Speaker 2: American Heritage Month. And of course there's also a big
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  Speaker 2: conversation about like the commonalities of titles and names. We
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  Speaker 2: have gone through waves of different types of names for
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  Speaker 2: the Native American communities. A lot of the Natives, I
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  Speaker 2: think have said they rather be called first nations, which
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  Speaker 2: makes perfect sense. I've had people say that native in general,
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  Speaker 2: just point blank. And so there's a lot of deep
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  Speaker 2: conversation Native Americans, even Harjoe, who were about to talk about,
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  Speaker 2: you know, like who has talked about this situation about
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  Speaker 2: you know, being okay with say Native American as is.
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  Speaker 2: But things can change. So please note at this point
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  Speaker 2: in time it is Native American Heritage Month. If that
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  Speaker 2: changes in the future, we will change with the times
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  Speaker 2: as the preferences have changed and will change throughout the years.
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  Speaker 1: Just put that caveat there.
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  Speaker 2: I love it with that. But today we are celebrating,
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  Speaker 2: as we said, Joy Harjo a poet, musician, writer, activist,
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  Speaker 2: so many things for her native community and just Native
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  Speaker 2: communities in general. Harjo made history by being named the
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  Speaker 2: first Native person to be a US Poet Laureate, and
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  Speaker 2: she was appointed that in twenty nineteen and served every
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  Speaker 2: year until twenty twenty one. And she has been recognized
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  Speaker 2: for all her works before this, and of course continues
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  Speaker 2: to get much praise since then. So we're not just
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  Speaker 2: saying this is her only thing, but it was pretty
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  Speaker 2: big significance. As you know, we love to talk about
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  Speaker 2: first in general, which is atrocious that it was. Anyway, like,
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  Speaker 2: there's so many things when it comes to writing and
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  Speaker 2: arts where the people of color are just left behind
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  Speaker 2: because the system is racist. But anyway, still we're gonna
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  Speaker 2: celebrate this. As I say this in a very negative,
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  Speaker 2: pessimistic way, but we celebrate her and the fact that
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  Speaker 2: she was the first to be appointed as a poet
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  Speaker 2: Laureate in twenty nineteen and again, as we said, she
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  Speaker 2: said for three years. Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
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  Speaker 2: in nineteen fifty one and is a part of the
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  Speaker 2: Muskogee Creek Nation, and though her childhood was a rough one,
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  Speaker 2: she was able to turn to her love for the
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  Speaker 2: arts and education as a way of coping in her
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  Speaker 2: teenage years. Harjo talked about how she joined an all
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  Speaker 2: Native rock band, she wrote songs for them, and then
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  Speaker 2: also a theater group at the Institute of American Indian
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  Speaker 2: Arts or IAIA in New Mexico, and.
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  Speaker 1: It was here she really started to understand the importance
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  Speaker 1: of her heritage and of art. She told Southwest Contemporary
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  Speaker 1: magazine this about her experience, quote, I was there during
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  Speaker 1: the time of the contemporary Native art revitalization that changed
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  Speaker 1: everything in the art world. It was an exciting time
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  Speaker 1: to be at Iaia. Even we younger high school students
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  Speaker 1: knew we were in the middle of a crucial time
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  Speaker 1: in Indian country politics and thought we were part of
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  Speaker 1: the gen racial current in which we were thinking about
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  Speaker 1: cultural sovereignty before sovereignty was a common word on our tongues.
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  Speaker 2: Right and throughout her life she has only grown in
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  Speaker 2: her love for her community into bringing awareness for her community.
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  Speaker 2: And it was through her art that she was able
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  Speaker 2: to express herself and a love for her people. Here's
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  Speaker 2: a bit from womenhistory dot Org. Harjo had a hard
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  Speaker 2: time speaking out loud because of her many harsh experiences.
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  Speaker 2: She said, quote, I remember the teachers at school threatening
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  Speaker 2: to write my parents because I was not speaking in class,
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  Speaker 2: but I was terrified. Instead, Harjo started painting as a
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  Speaker 2: way to express herself. And yeah, she even talked about
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  Speaker 2: the influences in her life as well. They said, growing up,
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  Speaker 2: Harjo was surrounded by artists and musicians, but she didn't
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  Speaker 2: know any poets. Her mother wrote songs, and her grandmother
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  Speaker 2: and her aunt were both artists. These influential women inspired
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  Speaker 2: Harjo to explore her creative side. Harjo recalls the very
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  Speaker 2: first poem she wrote, which was in eighth grade, which
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  Speaker 2: I feel like you and I have had these experiences
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  Speaker 2: as well. We're like poetry have feeling. It's not on
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  Speaker 2: her lif level. Like pretty sure about that, but still
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  Speaker 2: we understand this need. So after graduating school, Harjo would
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  Speaker 2: go on to attend the University of New Mexico and
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  Speaker 2: eventually publish a book of our Poems in nineteen seventy
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  Speaker 2: five titled The Last Song, which includes like nine of
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  Speaker 2: her poems. After graduating, Harjo went on to attend the
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  Speaker 2: University of Iowa for a Master of Fine Arts, and
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  Speaker 2: then she continued her education at several other institutes for
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  Speaker 2: film and other arts. So she just kept going. I
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  Speaker 2: feel like she just loved the exploration part, and I love.
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  Speaker 1: That for her.
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  Speaker 2: And though she continues her time in the different variations
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  Speaker 2: of artistry, including painting and music, her love for poetry remains.
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  Speaker 1: Yes. And here's what she told Southwest Contemporary dot Com
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  Speaker 1: when they asked her about the role of poetry and
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  Speaker 1: why she continues to write it. Quote, I believe the
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  Speaker 1: role of poetry is what it has always been our
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  Speaker 1: hearts get broken again and again, but can be put
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  Speaker 1: back together again with poetry. It is the art closest
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  Speaker 1: to music. It Trump's rhetoric can carry grief, ecstasy, celebration, despair,
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  Speaker 1: or joy. It is a tool for the kind of
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  Speaker 1: disruption needed to clean a wound and heal. It predicts
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  Speaker 1: how we will know who we are in forthcoming generations.
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  Speaker 1: Without it, we will no longer be human. I keep
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  Speaker 1: writing poems because it is kind of a calling, one
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  Speaker 1: I didn't actually choose. I was in an art path.
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  Speaker 1: I loved painting and photography. Poetry first came to me
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  Speaker 1: through music. My very early years are marked by my
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  Speaker 1: mother's song making and love of poetry. I loved poetry,
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  Speaker 1: but had no intention of becoming a poet. It came
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  Speaker 1: upon me and essentially asked me to take care of it.
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  Speaker 1: Poetry has become my most demanding teacher. On that I
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  Speaker 1: honor with poetry and music.
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  Speaker 2: That sounds like a poem right there.
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  Speaker 1: I love just her interviews.
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  Speaker 2: I don't like that as well, so with the many
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  Speaker 2: books she has written. She's also written in autobiography. In it,
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  Speaker 2: she speaks about her becoming an advocate for her community
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  Speaker 2: and the Native people. In an NPR interview, they asked
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  Speaker 2: her about this, and she said, quote the sixties, I
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  Speaker 2: equated with you know, civil rights. You know, it was
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  Speaker 2: a humanity alert that this country is huge, there's more
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  Speaker 2: of us, and not everyone has equal rights. In the
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  Speaker 2: late sixties, I was at Indian boarding school in Santa Fe,
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  Speaker 2: New Mexico. Not your usual boarding school, but it was
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  Speaker 2: an art school. And I remember hearing about Martin Luther
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  Speaker 2: King being killed and all of that was on the news.
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  Speaker 2: And we were all young Native artists there from eighth
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  Speaker 2: grade to two years postgraduate. We'd stay up late nights
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  Speaker 2: talking and making art together and talking about what it
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  Speaker 2: meant to be a Native person and about history and
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  Speaker 2: about how our art was part it was part of
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  Speaker 2: history making. And she continues, and I think what I've
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  Speaker 2: become to realize that what has motivated my art making
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  Speaker 2: is really a strong need for justice, for people to
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  Speaker 2: be treated for everyone. And when I say people, I
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  Speaker 2: also mean animals and insects and the birds, and the
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  Speaker 2: earth and the earth person that we are all part of.
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  Speaker 2: That there's a key element, and that's respect. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: when I became more actively involved as a student at
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  Speaker 2: the University of New Mexico. I was painting then and
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  Speaker 2: just starting to write poetry. I remember thinking, if my
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  Speaker 2: work does nothing else, when I get to the end
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  Speaker 2: of my life, I want Native peoples to be seen
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  Speaker 2: as human beings. And this message has been something she's
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  Speaker 2: been spreading in her poems, books, songs, and paintings, and
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  Speaker 2: along with her being appointed as a Poet Laureate for
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  Speaker 2: three years, she has earned many other accolades, including winning
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  Speaker 2: Yale's twenty twenty three Bulligan Prize for American Poetry. And
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  Speaker 2: of course, she has won several awards for her music
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  Speaker 2: album as well, including a recent work she just did.
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  Speaker 2: And with all of that, we also had to end
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  Speaker 2: with one of her poems. So that's how we're gonna go.
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  Speaker 2: Apologies if we butcher it as pretty usual, and this
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  Speaker 2: one is called fire. A woman can't survive by her
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  Speaker 2: own breath alone. She must know the voices of mountains,
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  Speaker 2: She must recognize the foreverness of blue sky. She must
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  Speaker 2: flow with the elusive bodies of night winds who will
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  Speaker 2: take her into herself.
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  Speaker 1: Look at me, I am not a separate woman. I
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  Speaker 1: am a continuance of blue sky. I am the throat
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  Speaker 1: of the mountain's night wind, who burns with every breath
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  Speaker 1: she takes.
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  Speaker 2: Gorgeous and yeah, she has like ten books I believe,
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  Speaker 2: just of her poetry alone, so definitely worth reading. She
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  Speaker 2: has a lot out there that's just open, so if
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  Speaker 2: you just want to look her up again. Her name
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  Speaker 2: is Joe Harjo. She's pretty famous, so just because we're
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  Speaker 2: featuring her doesn't mean she's not known obviously. Yeah, but
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  Speaker 2: we just really wanted to celebrate what she's doing, give
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  Speaker 2: her the flowers that she deserves, and many more as
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  Speaker 2: she is still with us, and continue to see what
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  Speaker 2: she does and how she publishes more and more of
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  Speaker 2: her works.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, so go check her out listeners if you
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: have not already, and if you have and you have
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: a favorite poem, we do love poems here, so send
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: that our way. You can email us at stuffaniamom stuff
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: atiheartmedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter at
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: mom Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: I've never told you. We have a tea public store
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: and a book you can get wherever you get your
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: books things. As always to a super producer, Christina, our
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: executive producer May and our contributor Joey. Thank you and
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: thanks to you for listening. Stuff I Never Told You
• 10:25
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