This program was presented on December 5th, 2020, In partnership with the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation and In-Na-Po (Indigenous Nations’ Poets.)
Curated by poets Kimberly Blaeser and Jake Skeets of In-Na-Po, the event draws inspiration from W. W. Norton’s recent collection When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry. The program focuses on place and its importance to Indigenous poets and their writing.
The program includes short films by emerging and celebrated Indigenous poets, in which they read their own work and recite other poems from the anthology. A discussion between LeAnne Howe (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) and Jennifer Foerster (Mvskoke (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma), two of the anthology’s editors, is also featured, as well as video of Tippet Rise’s inspiring landscape and musical programs.
Readers include Kimberly Blaeser (Anishinaabe–White Earth Nation), Jake Skeets (Diné), Brandy Nalani McDougall (Kanaka Maoli), and Sy Hoahwah (Yapaituka Comanche and Southern Arapaho). Poems by the late poets Adrian Louis (Loveloc Paiute), b: william bearheart (Anishinaabe–St. Croix), and Louis Little Coon Oliver (Mvskoke) are also performed.