WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.942 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.942 --> 00:00:04.239 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:04.239 --> 00:00:05.660 align:middle line:90% 00:00:05.660 --> 00:00:08.070 align:middle line:90% Good afternoon, everyone. 00:00:08.070 --> 00:00:14.345 align:middle line:84% Thank you for coming out and celebrating poetry and images. 00:00:14.345 --> 00:00:17.210 align:middle line:90% 00:00:17.210 --> 00:00:19.580 align:middle line:84% I want to just say a little bit about the book, 00:00:19.580 --> 00:00:21.020 align:middle line:90% and then I'll read some poems. 00:00:21.020 --> 00:00:25.970 align:middle line:84% And then Stephen will talk about his photography 00:00:25.970 --> 00:00:29.690 align:middle line:90% at the end of the presentation. 00:00:29.690 --> 00:00:33.050 align:middle line:90% Stephen Strom contacted me at-- 00:00:33.050 --> 00:00:34.400 align:middle line:90% forgot what year it was. 00:00:34.400 --> 00:00:39.440 align:middle line:84% 2004 or something, 2003, about writing this book. 00:00:39.440 --> 00:00:44.900 align:middle line:84% And so I said yes very quickly, because Canyon de Chelly-- 00:00:44.900 --> 00:00:48.590 align:middle line:84% or as we call it in the Navajo language, it's Tséyi, 00:00:48.590 --> 00:00:50.270 align:middle line:84% and that means "deep in the rock." 00:00:50.270 --> 00:00:54.528 align:middle line:84% And it's up near Chinle, Arizona on the Navajo reservation. 00:00:54.528 --> 00:00:56.570 align:middle line:84% If you've never been there, I would encourage you 00:00:56.570 --> 00:00:58.580 align:middle line:90% to go and spend a day there. 00:00:58.580 --> 00:00:59.870 align:middle line:90% It's very beautiful. 00:00:59.870 --> 00:01:03.500 align:middle line:84% But Stephen invited me to be the writer for this book, 00:01:03.500 --> 00:01:06.980 align:middle line:84% and I quickly said yes, because I think 00:01:06.980 --> 00:01:08.690 align:middle line:90% it's a very beautiful place. 00:01:08.690 --> 00:01:10.610 align:middle line:84% I grew up on the Navajo reservation 00:01:10.610 --> 00:01:13.500 align:middle line:84% just on the other side of the mountain from it, 00:01:13.500 --> 00:01:17.540 align:middle line:84% and I think I only visited the Canyon maybe once when 00:01:17.540 --> 00:01:20.150 align:middle line:90% I was in college. 00:01:20.150 --> 00:01:23.510 align:middle line:84% But after I left the reservation, 00:01:23.510 --> 00:01:28.070 align:middle line:84% I made it a point to visit it many times. 00:01:28.070 --> 00:01:32.390 align:middle line:84% So I wrote the poems for this over two seasons 00:01:32.390 --> 00:01:38.630 align:middle line:84% that we traveled into the Canyon with Steve and his wife Karen 00:01:38.630 --> 00:01:40.130 align:middle line:90% and a friend of mine. 00:01:40.130 --> 00:01:43.130 align:middle line:84% And while Steve took the photographs, 00:01:43.130 --> 00:01:46.910 align:middle line:84% I wrote down some ideas and talked 00:01:46.910 --> 00:01:49.580 align:middle line:84% to some of the people that lived in the Canyon. 00:01:49.580 --> 00:01:53.480 align:middle line:84% There is a longer history of the Canyon, 00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:57.380 align:middle line:84% and I wanted to make note of that 00:01:57.380 --> 00:02:00.350 align:middle line:90% when I was writing this book. 00:02:00.350 --> 00:02:04.910 align:middle line:84% In 1864, the Navajo people that lived in the Canyon 00:02:04.910 --> 00:02:07.910 align:middle line:84% were forced out of there by Kit Carson 00:02:07.910 --> 00:02:13.250 align:middle line:84% and removed to Fort Sumner, what is now in New Mexico. 00:02:13.250 --> 00:02:15.740 align:middle line:84% And they were imprisoned there for four years. 00:02:15.740 --> 00:02:18.770 align:middle line:84% And in 1868, they signed a treaty 00:02:18.770 --> 00:02:21.860 align:middle line:84% which allowed the Navajo people to return back 00:02:21.860 --> 00:02:23.810 align:middle line:90% to the Navajo homeland. 00:02:23.810 --> 00:02:26.720 align:middle line:84% And there are a lot of stories about what 00:02:26.720 --> 00:02:31.670 align:middle line:84% took place during that era just before the forced removal. 00:02:31.670 --> 00:02:34.370 align:middle line:84% I remembered some of the stories that my grandmother told me 00:02:34.370 --> 00:02:37.310 align:middle line:84% about what happened to some of the people 00:02:37.310 --> 00:02:39.920 align:middle line:84% as they were leaving, and I wrote 00:02:39.920 --> 00:02:44.040 align:middle line:90% some of that in this book. 00:02:44.040 --> 00:02:48.290 align:middle line:84% But I think that the main point I wanted 00:02:48.290 --> 00:02:51.020 align:middle line:84% to make in writing these poems is 00:02:51.020 --> 00:02:55.460 align:middle line:84% that the spirit of the Navajo people is resilient, 00:02:55.460 --> 00:02:57.020 align:middle line:90% and it's still strong. 00:02:57.020 --> 00:03:00.730 align:middle line:84% And I wanted to reflect that in the poems.