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Women Around the World: Chrystos · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stephane.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Never told your production of iHeart Radio, so any welcome.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: How are you? I'm good? How are you? I feel
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: like we don't do that enough where we actually talk together,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: even though we've already talked like three hours up to
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: this point, but you know, checking in how are you? Yes, yes,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm good. As I said, I had a
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: lot of weird dreams last night. My water is cut off,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: but overall doing okay. How are you doing? Okay? I
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: am also here. I feeling that just needs to be
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: said in general, Yes we are here, but I did
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: have a question for you as in regard to our
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: person of the world today, and yeah, we're kind of
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: changing at even those women around the world, persons around
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the world. Do you remember how old you were when
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: you wrote your first poem? I think the first one
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: that I remembered clearly, I was eight. But I think
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  Speaker 1: I I wrote them before. And I know I've shared
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the story of my very embarrassing knock knock joke that
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: I wrote, which is not a poem at all. But
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  Speaker 1: I think, like in that vein, I had written other
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: like much shorter poems before, but the first one I
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: remember clearly. I was eight years old. Oh nice. It
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: was a very, what I thought the time, sad poem
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  Speaker 1: about a girl named Michelle, who was my favorite. That
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: was my favorite name at the time. Michelle and Crystal.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: They're my favorite names. Crystal really interesting. I loved that well.
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  Speaker 1: I was a big I tried to change my name
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: to Glory at nine years old. I liked a big,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: like meaningful in my view name. And it was about
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Michelle finding shells at the beach and uh, what the
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: shells meant to her and the sadness she felt at
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the loss of the cells. I like this, Michelle and
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: her shells. I think it was called something like I
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: love this so much. Do you have this somewhere? I
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: do still have it. I do still have it. I'm
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: gonna need you to get it so we can post
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: it up. I'm going to need to publish it. I'm
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: sorry it needs to be published, one of mine. I
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: think it was not necessarily a poem, but it was
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: just like a short story poem, kind of one of those,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: and it was about leprichn and how to catch a lepricn.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Really yeah, I won an award for it, dude, you did,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Like I was like, yeah, yeah, five, Like you know,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: the to the school little supply store, so you buy
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: pencils and stickers and such ten dollars and may even
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: ten dollars to one for that. Thank you very love.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: You still have that got. Unfortunately, my house had a
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: house fire, and so yeah, I'm sure. I'm pretty sure
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: it burned because it was in the attic where the
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: house fire began. But I remember it clearly because I
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: even showed like I was like, I'm going to do
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: it this way, and instead of like finding gold, I
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: took a penny and wrapped it up with It was
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: a whole project where I colored the paper of gold
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: and taped it and put it in a jar, and
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: I was ready. I was ready. I don't know why
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I thought labricns were so tiny, like their aunts or something.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Apparently I did this. And when we talked about the
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: fact that poetry is something that's a big part of
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: our lives, actually just recently uncovered another book that I
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: forgot about that I wrote during college and it's very religious,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: and I was like, huh um, but that's where I
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: was at that point in time, and that's how I
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: communicated was their poems. Um and because it is once
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: again as we talked about previously, and I'm gonna harp
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: on it because i want to celebrate it to the
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: max uh Native American Heritage Month, And we wanted to
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: talk about an artist and activists and a poet who
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: continues to make impact and and yeah, we're talking about
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  Speaker 1: poet Native American artists Christos. And apparently their name kind
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: of has a pseudonym in conflation of the Greek word
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  Speaker 1: for christ and gold, and that's what they go by,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: is Christos. And if you're looking for any of their works, uh,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: that's what it's going to be under. And they are amazing,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Like I I really looking at their work. It is beautiful.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: And they do refer to themselves as they are there
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: um and so obviously that's how we're going to respect that.
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  Speaker 1: And Christos, who identifies as a lesbian and two spirited,
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  Speaker 1: self educated writer, artists and activists as a resident of
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  Speaker 1: Washington State. They are a monominee writer who looks at
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  Speaker 1: the depths and needs of the Indigenous American social justice
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  Speaker 1: needs and the civil rights and is a fierce feminist
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  Speaker 1: seeking to bring intersectionality in the needs of their community.
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  Speaker 1: Christos also refers to themselves as a political poet whose
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  Speaker 1: influences include Au Your Lord and Joy Hard Joe, and
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  Speaker 1: uses their art and writing as commentary on social justice issues,
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  Speaker 1: including quote how colonialism, genocide, class, and gender affect the
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  Speaker 1: lives of women and indigenous people's. Christos life experiences can
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  Speaker 1: also be seen through their extensive works. Both off reservation
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: to an abusive father who was ashamed of his heritage.
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  Speaker 1: They were taught to read by their father, and we're
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  Speaker 1: self educated and started writing poetry at the age of nine.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: So very closely to your thing, not necessarily the father part,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: butted yea. So in their later teenage years they were
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: placed in and out of different institutions um and though
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: they stated the initial placement helped them, it later became
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: a pretty big hindrance to their lives and their growth.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: And then as they continue to grow in their art
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  Speaker 1: and in life, they talked about the influences that continue
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: to push them in their work and activism. When asked
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: in an interview if being queer influenced their work, they
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: stayed a quote, being a queer woman has given me
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  Speaker 1: independence that is not possible for straight women. I've never
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: had a boyfriend I had to appease or tone myself
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: down in order to protect his ego. Being a lesbian
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: is being an outlaw. I get to name my own poisons.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: But it isn't just through their writing. They work for
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: social justice, but through painstaking work, like their work to
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  Speaker 1: free unjustly imprisoned Native Americans including Norman jine Croy and
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Leonard Peltier, and they were involved in working for the
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: rights of different tribes including the Denay, Navajo and Mohawk.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: But they continue their work outside of their community and
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: work for the issues in regards of Palestinian rights, domestic violence,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: and so much more. And of course they have been
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  Speaker 1: given so many awards and recognition for their continued work
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  Speaker 1: and advocacy for their community and so many others, including
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  Speaker 1: the National Endowment of the Arts, the Sappho Award Distinction,
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  Speaker 1: the Human Rights Freedom of Expression Award, and yes, many others.
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  Speaker 1: And if you're wanting to check out their incredible works,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: which they've won the Audrey Lord International Poetry Competition for
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: go check out the books, including Not Finishing I Am Here,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: and they've published so many others and apparently for a
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: while and I don't know if they're still doing this.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: They're having to go through Canadian publishers even though they're
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: from the US because of so many sensor laws and issues,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: which made me angry, maybe super super angry. But they're
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: also they speak at different conferences and as part of
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the community overall, especially when it comes to arts. Amazing work.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: But we definitely wanted to end with a reading of
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: one of their poems, um and this one is titled
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  Speaker 1: a woman from the book Not Vanishing. So here we go.
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  Speaker 1: Will you come with me? Moving through the rivers to
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: soft lake beds, coming gathering wild rice with sticks. Will
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  Speaker 1: you go with me down the waters along smoothly shaking
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  Speaker 1: life into our journey? Will you bring this gift with me?
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  Speaker 1: We'll ask my brother to dance on it until the
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  Speaker 1: wildness sings. I love poetry to um and yeah, their
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  Speaker 1: work is amazing, UM and you really should go and
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: see the different things so that they have published, continue
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  Speaker 1: to publish, continue to do and they, like said, they've
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  Speaker 1: not sloped down. It seems that there's still a part
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  Speaker 1: of the community and trying to fight for the intersectionality
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: within their community as well. So it is amazing to see.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm really sad again because they are pretty famous
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: and their works are pretty famous, but it took this
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: segment for me to find them. I'm a little anois
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: aid Um and I'm hoping that I can discover a
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  Speaker 1: lot more, especially with their works. Yes, and listeners, as always,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: if you can help us with that, If you have
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: any suggestions, please let us know. You can email us
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: at Stephanie and mom Stuff at I hurt media dot com.
• 9:16
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• 9:19
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• 9:21
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• 9:24
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