WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.310 align:middle line:90% 00:00:04.310 --> 00:00:07.820 align:middle line:84% So thank you so much everyone for just being here tonight 00:00:07.820 --> 00:00:09.410 align:middle line:90% in conversation. 00:00:09.410 --> 00:00:11.240 align:middle line:84% It was an amazing reading, and I'm really 00:00:11.240 --> 00:00:14.360 align:middle line:84% excited to ask you a few questions. 00:00:14.360 --> 00:00:17.150 align:middle line:84% So tonight's program is being supported 00:00:17.150 --> 00:00:19.070 align:middle line:90% by the Hurand Connection Fund. 00:00:19.070 --> 00:00:20.900 align:middle line:84% And it's a new fund that was started 00:00:20.900 --> 00:00:22.910 align:middle line:90% in Tucson this past year. 00:00:22.910 --> 00:00:25.100 align:middle line:84% And the fund is designed to bring people together 00:00:25.100 --> 00:00:28.940 align:middle line:84% across differences, and to use art and creativity as a means 00:00:28.940 --> 00:00:30.050 align:middle line:90% to connect. 00:00:30.050 --> 00:00:35.370 align:middle line:84% It's rooted in the Jewish values of justice, humanism, and love. 00:00:35.370 --> 00:00:37.290 align:middle line:84% Can you talk a little bit about how 00:00:37.290 --> 00:00:40.290 align:middle line:84% poetry can be a site for justice and/or 00:00:40.290 --> 00:00:44.475 align:middle line:84% how this anthology might work to connect people? 00:00:44.475 --> 00:00:49.030 align:middle line:90% 00:00:49.030 --> 00:00:51.660 align:middle line:84% I mean, where do you start with-- 00:00:51.660 --> 00:00:54.090 align:middle line:84% I don't even know where to start with justice because even 00:00:54.090 --> 00:00:57.660 align:middle line:84% the act of writing as Indigenous peoples, that's 00:00:57.660 --> 00:00:59.220 align:middle line:90% an act for justice. 00:00:59.220 --> 00:01:06.270 align:middle line:84% And even in my poem, "Running," that 00:01:06.270 --> 00:01:09.390 align:middle line:84% was my primary impulse for writing poetry when I first 00:01:09.390 --> 00:01:11.910 align:middle line:84% began writing, was not like everybody else 00:01:11.910 --> 00:01:13.860 align:middle line:84% I know who wanted to be a writer from the time 00:01:13.860 --> 00:01:15.270 align:middle line:90% they were 5-years-old. 00:01:15.270 --> 00:01:19.110 align:middle line:84% For me, it was being part of Native rights movements. 00:01:19.110 --> 00:01:25.030 align:middle line:84% And then you can see that also in Elise Paschen's poem. 00:01:25.030 --> 00:01:29.650 align:middle line:84% That poem came about absolutely for the site. 00:01:29.650 --> 00:01:36.145 align:middle line:84% Yeah, the place where a tribal member 00:01:36.145 --> 00:01:40.960 align:middle line:90% was killed to steal their land. 00:01:40.960 --> 00:01:42.850 align:middle line:84% That poem was to bring back-- was 00:01:42.850 --> 00:01:44.590 align:middle line:90% to actually replicate the site. 00:01:44.590 --> 00:01:48.290 align:middle line:84% The poem replicates the site and says here, 00:01:48.290 --> 00:01:51.220 align:middle line:90% this is what happened. 00:01:51.220 --> 00:01:52.700 align:middle line:90% This is what happened. 00:01:52.700 --> 00:01:54.520 align:middle line:90% This was a woman. 00:01:54.520 --> 00:01:58.870 align:middle line:84% She has a family, this is what she was wearing. 00:01:58.870 --> 00:01:59.960 align:middle line:90% These are the lands. 00:01:59.960 --> 00:02:02.080 align:middle line:84% These lands where she probably came down here 00:02:02.080 --> 00:02:04.900 align:middle line:84% many times in these lands, fed her spirit 00:02:04.900 --> 00:02:06.460 align:middle line:90% and they're a part of us. 00:02:06.460 --> 00:02:09.580 align:middle line:90% And this is the site. 00:02:09.580 --> 00:02:16.540 align:middle line:84% The poem actually in a way re-enacts the murder site 00:02:16.540 --> 00:02:19.630 align:middle line:84% even as it re-enacts the beauty of that place. 00:02:19.630 --> 00:02:23.731 align:middle line:84% It's all in the same place in the poem. 00:02:23.731 --> 00:02:26.560 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:29.520 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Joy. 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:34.690 align:middle line:84% I was just thinking about this quote from James Baldwin that 00:02:34.690 --> 00:02:40.570 align:middle line:84% was recently mentioned somewhere as it should be all the time, 00:02:40.570 --> 00:02:43.670 align:middle line:84% not everything that is faced can be changed, 00:02:43.670 --> 00:02:48.350 align:middle line:84% but nothing can be changed unless it is faced. 00:02:48.350 --> 00:02:53.260 align:middle line:84% And I think about poetry as a way-- 00:02:53.260 --> 00:02:56.590 align:middle line:84% it's a language that enables us to really face things 00:02:56.590 --> 00:02:58.330 align:middle line:90% in a multidimensional way. 00:02:58.330 --> 00:03:01.630 align:middle line:84% That some languages, some other aspects of language 00:03:01.630 --> 00:03:03.910 align:middle line:84% even just how we're talking right now 00:03:03.910 --> 00:03:06.850 align:middle line:84% doesn't always quite get at or needs a different kind 00:03:06.850 --> 00:03:08.770 align:middle line:90% of length of time to get at. 00:03:08.770 --> 00:03:10.690 align:middle line:84% But there's something about the compression 00:03:10.690 --> 00:03:14.770 align:middle line:84% of poetry and the way that it challenges 00:03:14.770 --> 00:03:18.430 align:middle line:84% us to see different dimensions of things, 00:03:18.430 --> 00:03:20.560 align:middle line:84% to see interconnectivity of things. 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:22.720 align:middle line:84% Not just through using metaphorical language 00:03:22.720 --> 00:03:27.850 align:middle line:84% but through associations and bringing memories 00:03:27.850 --> 00:03:31.000 align:middle line:84% in and triggering sounds and smells and all the senses, 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:33.050 align:middle line:90% we feel something. 00:03:33.050 --> 00:03:36.520 align:middle line:84% And so this is a way of facing, like truly facing. 00:03:36.520 --> 00:03:40.660 align:middle line:84% Not just addressing it but seeing it 00:03:40.660 --> 00:03:43.510 align:middle line:84% with our face both forward-looking and 00:03:43.510 --> 00:03:45.550 align:middle line:90% backward-looking. 00:03:45.550 --> 00:03:47.890 align:middle line:84% And so in that way, I think poetry 00:03:47.890 --> 00:03:52.030 align:middle line:84% is an apt language for justice and for social change 00:03:52.030 --> 00:03:55.350 align:middle line:84% because it allows that kind of change to happen. 00:03:55.350 --> 00:03:57.150 align:middle line:84% It's like seeing with your spirit. 00:03:57.150 --> 00:03:57.790 align:middle line:90% Mm-hmm. 00:03:57.790 --> 00:03:59.310 align:middle line:90% Right. 00:03:59.310 --> 00:04:01.170 align:middle line:90% Right. 00:04:01.170 --> 00:04:08.610 align:middle line:84% When you asked that question, I also immediately thought, well, 00:04:08.610 --> 00:04:14.700 align:middle line:84% what led me to think about words for social justice, 00:04:14.700 --> 00:04:16.026 align:middle line:90% and [INAUDIBLE]. 00:04:16.026 --> 00:04:23.800 align:middle line:90% 00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:28.810 align:middle line:84% And I don't know if any of you remembered the story of Emile 00:04:28.810 --> 00:04:32.350 align:middle line:90% Zola and J'Accuse! 00:04:32.350 --> 00:04:33.550 align:middle line:90% I was probably 11. 00:04:33.550 --> 00:04:37.180 align:middle line:84% It was an old movie at the time but the poetry of "I Accuse." 00:04:37.180 --> 00:04:44.560 align:middle line:84% He was writing this chant to the newspapers 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:52.020 align:middle line:90% about Alfred Dreyfus. 00:04:52.020 --> 00:04:55.500 align:middle line:84% And that has stuck with me all my life. 00:04:55.500 --> 00:04:59.520 align:middle line:84% I've looked it up, I've thought a lot about that language, 00:04:59.520 --> 00:05:07.110 align:middle line:84% and the power of that I accuse, the repetition of that. 00:05:07.110 --> 00:05:11.070 align:middle line:84% And it linked, as a kid, it linked me 00:05:11.070 --> 00:05:16.470 align:middle line:84% to my grandmother's stories of what happened to the land, what 00:05:16.470 --> 00:05:18.270 align:middle line:90% happened to our people. 00:05:18.270 --> 00:05:23.310 align:middle line:84% And those kinds of things, I think those events-- 00:05:23.310 --> 00:05:30.840 align:middle line:84% those events of seeking justice, those events 00:05:30.840 --> 00:05:36.060 align:middle line:84% for Native people of being removed from our land-- 00:05:36.060 --> 00:05:42.210 align:middle line:84% they really influenced people, especially in the Southeast 00:05:42.210 --> 00:05:47.430 align:middle line:84% but everywhere, everywhere to use language, 00:05:47.430 --> 00:05:55.980 align:middle line:84% this heightened language to seek justice, 00:05:55.980 --> 00:05:59.670 align:middle line:84% compassion for the things that have happened. 00:05:59.670 --> 00:06:04.110 align:middle line:84% And the Osage murders, it makes perfect sense 00:06:04.110 --> 00:06:07.500 align:middle line:84% that this new collection is a way 00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:15.380 align:middle line:84% to get at things that are not spoken, the injustices. 00:06:15.380 --> 00:06:28.240 align:middle line:84% And I can't imagine not using the sacred language of poetry 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:32.570 align:middle line:90% to talk about justice. 00:06:32.570 --> 00:06:38.320 align:middle line:84% I know Phillip Carroll Morgan in his poem in this anthology 00:06:38.320 --> 00:06:43.760 align:middle line:84% is using Choctaws and a chant to get at certain issues. 00:06:43.760 --> 00:06:47.860 align:middle line:90% So only poetry can do this. 00:06:47.860 --> 00:06:51.160 align:middle line:84% And I'm a fiction writer, but poetry 00:06:51.160 --> 00:06:58.600 align:middle line:84% can infuse other people in ways that I 00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:01.435 align:middle line:90% don't think another genre can. 00:07:01.435 --> 00:07:06.270 align:middle line:90% 00:07:06.270 --> 00:07:12.220 align:middle line:84% Jennifer, you used a phrase that I am very curious, 00:07:12.220 --> 00:07:14.710 align:middle line:84% and there are certain positioning 00:07:14.710 --> 00:07:17.670 align:middle line:84% that's very visual where you talk about looking 00:07:17.670 --> 00:07:20.400 align:middle line:90% forward and looking backward. 00:07:20.400 --> 00:07:24.360 align:middle line:84% And I think you might have used the word "in seeing." 00:07:24.360 --> 00:07:26.520 align:middle line:84% And can you just say a little bit more about that 00:07:26.520 --> 00:07:30.570 align:middle line:84% because I'm very curious about this not only in your work 00:07:30.570 --> 00:07:32.040 align:middle line:84% but also in the work of those that 00:07:32.040 --> 00:07:34.010 align:middle line:90% are presented in the anthology. 00:07:34.010 --> 00:07:36.540 align:middle line:90% 00:07:36.540 --> 00:07:39.550 align:middle line:90% Yeah, thank you for asking. 00:07:39.550 --> 00:07:43.440 align:middle line:84% Well, I write a lot and think a lot about images. 00:07:43.440 --> 00:07:46.350 align:middle line:84% And image is really important to my work as a poet, 00:07:46.350 --> 00:07:50.460 align:middle line:84% and also I'm just compelled by imagery and poetry. 00:07:50.460 --> 00:07:53.040 align:middle line:84% But particularly the kind of imagery 00:07:53.040 --> 00:07:57.420 align:middle line:84% that really can't be depicted or painted or photographed. 00:07:57.420 --> 00:08:01.260 align:middle line:84% It's the kind of image that you can't describe 00:08:01.260 --> 00:08:02.550 align:middle line:90% like the image of a dream. 00:08:02.550 --> 00:08:04.620 align:middle line:84% You can't really tell the story of that dream, 00:08:04.620 --> 00:08:06.330 align:middle line:84% you can't really say what that image is. 00:08:06.330 --> 00:08:08.590 align:middle line:84% But the poem somehow is able to create it. 00:08:08.590 --> 00:08:13.110 align:middle line:84% And so I think about it as the invisible image. 00:08:13.110 --> 00:08:15.540 align:middle line:84% And an image that is both visible 00:08:15.540 --> 00:08:18.930 align:middle line:90% but it's inside visibility. 00:08:18.930 --> 00:08:20.880 align:middle line:84% And it makes me think of insight. 00:08:20.880 --> 00:08:24.090 align:middle line:84% When we have insight, we have intuition, all these things 00:08:24.090 --> 00:08:26.580 align:middle line:84% that are about the interior knowledge which 00:08:26.580 --> 00:08:28.270 align:middle line:90% is not on the surface level. 00:08:28.270 --> 00:08:33.070 align:middle line:84% So I like thinking about in seeing 00:08:33.070 --> 00:08:37.690 align:middle line:90% as like making active insight. 00:08:37.690 --> 00:08:39.039 align:middle line:90% So it's not something you have. 00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:42.850 align:middle line:84% I don't own insight but I'm in the process of in seeing. 00:08:42.850 --> 00:08:44.980 align:middle line:84% I can choose to be in the process of in seeing 00:08:44.980 --> 00:08:46.880 align:middle line:90% as a way of being in the world. 00:08:46.880 --> 00:08:50.620 align:middle line:84% And I think that's how I am in writing poems. 00:08:50.620 --> 00:08:52.105 align:middle line:90% I'm trying to see inside. 00:08:52.105 --> 00:08:55.230 align:middle line:90% 00:08:55.230 --> 00:09:01.590 align:middle line:84% And also it's being able to see through the layers and layers 00:09:01.590 --> 00:09:03.960 align:middle line:84% of narratives that have-- especially 00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:07.140 align:middle line:84% oppressive narratives that have dominated 00:09:07.140 --> 00:09:14.325 align:middle line:84% lands and peoples, that have created injustices, so. 00:09:14.325 --> 00:09:16.530 align:middle line:84% And I think within this anthology-- 00:09:16.530 --> 00:09:20.880 align:middle line:84% I mean, this is an anthology of such a vast array of poets 00:09:20.880 --> 00:09:22.500 align:middle line:90% that are all different. 00:09:22.500 --> 00:09:25.350 align:middle line:84% The common thread is that poets are members 00:09:25.350 --> 00:09:28.290 align:middle line:84% of Native nations and several other threads, 00:09:28.290 --> 00:09:30.840 align:middle line:84% but ultimately, we're all different people, 00:09:30.840 --> 00:09:32.790 align:middle line:84% different cultures, different identities, 00:09:32.790 --> 00:09:37.890 align:middle line:84% different ways of being poets, different means of language. 00:09:37.890 --> 00:09:41.520 align:middle line:84% But I do see as a kind of commonness 00:09:41.520 --> 00:09:45.300 align:middle line:84% through many of the poems an engagement with in seeing. 00:09:45.300 --> 00:09:47.760 align:middle line:84% And maybe that's because I see that in any poem, 00:09:47.760 --> 00:09:49.860 align:middle line:84% the nature of poem is in seeing, I think. 00:09:49.860 --> 00:09:55.500 align:middle line:84% But particularly because so much of the work of poets 00:09:55.500 --> 00:10:00.010 align:middle line:84% from this land where so much of our memories, cultures, 00:10:00.010 --> 00:10:04.800 align:middle line:84% languages is so attempted to be erased, 00:10:04.800 --> 00:10:08.490 align:middle line:84% we have to work that much harder to see, and to remind 00:10:08.490 --> 00:10:09.750 align:middle line:90% other people to see. 00:10:09.750 --> 00:10:12.990 align:middle line:84% Not just their stereotype of what they think they 00:10:12.990 --> 00:10:14.610 align:middle line:90% should see. 00:10:14.610 --> 00:10:19.860 align:middle line:84% I like that the homonym for insight is I-N-C-I-T-E. 00:10:19.860 --> 00:10:21.930 align:middle line:90% Oh yeah. 00:10:21.930 --> 00:10:24.270 align:middle line:84% Which goes a long way, like incite, 00:10:24.270 --> 00:10:26.250 align:middle line:90% it becomes the activation. 00:10:26.250 --> 00:10:27.340 align:middle line:90% Oh yeah. 00:10:27.340 --> 00:10:27.960 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:10:27.960 --> 00:10:31.050 align:middle line:84% --so that you're insighting with your-- 00:10:31.050 --> 00:10:31.855 align:middle line:90% That is exciting. 00:10:31.855 --> 00:10:32.610 align:middle line:90% --with inciting. 00:10:32.610 --> 00:10:34.110 align:middle line:84% Actually, I hadn't think about that. 00:10:34.110 --> 00:10:36.300 align:middle line:84% I hadn't made that connection, that's very cool. 00:10:36.300 --> 00:10:38.550 align:middle line:84% Yeah, it struck me there for some reason that way, 00:10:38.550 --> 00:10:42.210 align:middle line:84% and I thought, boy, you could really play-- 00:10:42.210 --> 00:10:43.740 align:middle line:90% go with that. 00:10:43.740 --> 00:10:44.610 align:middle line:90% Mm-hmm. 00:10:44.610 --> 00:10:47.550 align:middle line:84% And inciting can be a very positive thing. 00:10:47.550 --> 00:10:52.110 align:middle line:84% Kind of to incite the blooming, to incite the knowledge, 00:10:52.110 --> 00:10:53.730 align:middle line:90% and the recollection. 00:10:53.730 --> 00:10:55.668 align:middle line:90% To incite the insight. 00:10:55.668 --> 00:10:56.604 align:middle line:90% Mm-hmm, yeah. 00:10:56.604 --> 00:11:00.350 align:middle line:90% 00:11:00.350 --> 00:11:03.857 align:middle line:84% Packing that, I just was really fascinated by that, 00:11:03.857 --> 00:11:04.940 align:middle line:90% and I wanted to know more. 00:11:04.940 --> 00:11:08.430 align:middle line:90% 00:11:08.430 --> 00:11:11.760 align:middle line:84% It's really obvious we've talked about the anthology 00:11:11.760 --> 00:11:17.160 align:middle line:84% beginning with the land and this idea of place, 00:11:17.160 --> 00:11:21.010 align:middle line:90% and I just wanted to know-- 00:11:21.010 --> 00:11:24.880 align:middle line:84% I can't even imagine putting together an anthology 00:11:24.880 --> 00:11:29.710 align:middle line:84% this big of such importance, and I 00:11:29.710 --> 00:11:32.290 align:middle line:84% wanted to know what type of considerations 00:11:32.290 --> 00:11:33.970 align:middle line:90% did you have to-- 00:11:33.970 --> 00:11:36.040 align:middle line:84% how did you even begin to think about it, 00:11:36.040 --> 00:11:38.320 align:middle line:84% and how did it move forward in a way 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:43.540 align:middle line:84% that you felt did all of these different places justice, 00:11:43.540 --> 00:11:46.070 align:middle line:90% if you will? 00:11:46.070 --> 00:11:47.240 align:middle line:90% Well, it started-- 00:11:47.240 --> 00:11:49.010 align:middle line:84% I'll start this off because I have 00:11:49.010 --> 00:11:52.610 align:middle line:84% been in conversation for a few years, I mean, not constant. 00:11:52.610 --> 00:11:57.490 align:middle line:84% But I had been thinking that we had no Norton 00:11:57.490 --> 00:12:02.350 align:middle line:84% anthology of Native literature, and then I would think, 00:12:02.350 --> 00:12:06.100 align:middle line:90% but where would we even start? 00:12:06.100 --> 00:12:07.900 align:middle line:90% But I still ran it by them. 00:12:07.900 --> 00:12:09.130 align:middle line:90% I ran it by them. 00:12:09.130 --> 00:12:11.800 align:middle line:84% And my editor, Jill had written to the college, 00:12:11.800 --> 00:12:16.160 align:middle line:84% talked to the college rep there and she said, well, 00:12:16.160 --> 00:12:18.730 align:middle line:84% we've thought about that but there's 00:12:18.730 --> 00:12:22.150 align:middle line:84% no way we could pay all the permissions. 00:12:22.150 --> 00:12:24.530 align:middle line:84% Which doesn't totally make sense to me, 00:12:24.530 --> 00:12:28.480 align:middle line:84% but they didn't think they would reap a profit 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:30.710 align:middle line:90% after paying the permissions. 00:12:30.710 --> 00:12:33.020 align:middle line:84% But she said we would love to have a Norton 00:12:33.020 --> 00:12:36.150 align:middle line:90% anthology of Native poetry. 00:12:36.150 --> 00:12:37.970 align:middle line:84% So I had to think about it, but I 00:12:37.970 --> 00:12:39.560 align:middle line:84% was teaching that time at University 00:12:39.560 --> 00:12:40.760 align:middle line:90% of Tennessee, Knoxville. 00:12:40.760 --> 00:12:44.330 align:middle line:84% They'd given me an assistant, they'd given me-- 00:12:44.330 --> 00:12:46.610 align:middle line:84% I had wonderful students and I looked around 00:12:46.610 --> 00:12:48.680 align:middle line:90% and I thought, hmm. 00:12:48.680 --> 00:12:50.660 align:middle line:84% And so I went to my department chair 00:12:50.660 --> 00:12:54.290 align:middle line:84% and asked if I could teach two of my graduate classes 00:12:54.290 --> 00:12:58.430 align:middle line:84% as how to put together native literature. 00:12:58.430 --> 00:13:00.740 align:middle line:84% They were on native literature and how to put together 00:13:00.740 --> 00:13:02.690 align:middle line:90% a Norton anthology. 00:13:02.690 --> 00:13:06.060 align:middle line:84% And they would work with me through the process. 00:13:06.060 --> 00:13:08.360 align:middle line:84% And so the first class was giving them-- 00:13:08.360 --> 00:13:10.220 align:middle line:84% I had sent a proposal into Norton 00:13:10.220 --> 00:13:12.480 align:middle line:90% and that's how it started. 00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:18.020 align:middle line:84% And I was talking with the class, OK, 00:13:18.020 --> 00:13:19.350 align:middle line:90% it starts with the land. 00:13:19.350 --> 00:13:23.480 align:middle line:84% So then we laid it out in terms of different [? land ?].. 00:13:23.480 --> 00:13:30.590 align:middle line:84% And then I got the contract, and then I asked LeAnne to come on. 00:13:30.590 --> 00:13:34.550 align:middle line:84% I got together and I decided that each of the regions 00:13:34.550 --> 00:13:36.260 align:middle line:90% needed-- 00:13:36.260 --> 00:13:38.150 align:middle line:90% we needed-- 00:13:38.150 --> 00:13:40.640 align:middle line:90% I guess the decision was to-- 00:13:40.640 --> 00:13:43.100 align:middle line:84% all the Norton anthologies I'd seen, 00:13:43.100 --> 00:13:47.420 align:middle line:84% they have the experts, panels of experts, all the editors. 00:13:47.420 --> 00:13:50.960 align:middle line:84% Usually there's quite a number of experts. 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:54.050 align:middle line:84% I thought, well-- and I thought about it. 00:13:54.050 --> 00:13:55.610 align:middle line:90% I thought, well, why not? 00:13:55.610 --> 00:13:57.890 align:middle line:84% We have a lot of incredible Native poets. 00:13:57.890 --> 00:14:01.010 align:middle line:84% Our experts are going to be all Native poets. 00:14:01.010 --> 00:14:02.922 align:middle line:84% We have a lot of other non-Natives 00:14:02.922 --> 00:14:04.880 align:middle line:84% who have been excellent with Native literature, 00:14:04.880 --> 00:14:06.360 align:middle line:90% and I thought about that. 00:14:06.360 --> 00:14:10.620 align:middle line:84% I thought, no, this would be all Native poets. 00:14:10.620 --> 00:14:12.250 align:middle line:90% And that was important. 00:14:12.250 --> 00:14:15.180 align:middle line:84% So with those first classes, we would 00:14:15.180 --> 00:14:18.330 align:middle line:84% pull together and have Skype meetings, 00:14:18.330 --> 00:14:21.030 align:middle line:90% this was "BZ," before Zoom. 00:14:21.030 --> 00:14:27.780 align:middle line:84% We'd have Skype meetings and with the different entities 00:14:27.780 --> 00:14:31.230 align:middle line:84% from say, mountains and plains editors. 00:14:31.230 --> 00:14:32.890 align:middle line:84% So that was great for the students too. 00:14:32.890 --> 00:14:36.690 align:middle line:84% But it kind of started that way where we were in discussions 00:14:36.690 --> 00:14:40.770 align:middle line:84% about our different areas, discussions 00:14:40.770 --> 00:14:43.590 align:middle line:84% that covered all the aesthetics, what it would look like. 00:14:43.590 --> 00:14:48.760 align:middle line:84% We had to put in a little fight to get more than 300 pages. 00:14:48.760 --> 00:14:52.210 align:middle line:84% That was the first contract offered was for 300 pages, 00:14:52.210 --> 00:14:57.100 align:middle line:84% and it's like, wait a minute we have 570 something 00:14:57.100 --> 00:15:01.150 align:middle line:84% federally recognized tribes, they're state recognized. 00:15:01.150 --> 00:15:04.210 align:middle line:84% Some of them are legit, many of them are not. 00:15:04.210 --> 00:15:06.490 align:middle line:84% And we're given 300 pages and this 00:15:06.490 --> 00:15:08.740 align:middle line:84% is supposed to be like from time immemorial 00:15:08.740 --> 00:15:14.530 align:middle line:84% to the present of North America and the island specific, 00:15:14.530 --> 00:15:16.580 align:middle line:90% how do we do this? 00:15:16.580 --> 00:15:19.220 align:middle line:84% I mean, it was a big undertaking. 00:15:19.220 --> 00:15:25.390 align:middle line:84% So it took working with the different-- just working 00:15:25.390 --> 00:15:29.450 align:middle line:84% with each geographical area team. 00:15:29.450 --> 00:15:34.080 align:middle line:84% And then all of us weighing in until we found-- 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:36.910 align:middle line:90% we worked together through-- 00:15:36.910 --> 00:15:38.090 align:middle line:90% we worked together. 00:15:38.090 --> 00:15:42.380 align:middle line:84% And Jennifer started out as one of the contributing editors, 00:15:42.380 --> 00:15:43.670 align:middle line:90% we call them. 00:15:43.670 --> 00:15:47.540 align:middle line:90% And she was absolutely-- 00:15:47.540 --> 00:15:52.475 align:middle line:84% it became very obvious that she was part of the-- 00:15:52.475 --> 00:15:53.860 align:middle line:90% The team. 00:15:53.860 --> 00:15:58.180 align:middle line:84% Yeah, the hardcore center of the team, yeah, our team. 00:15:58.180 --> 00:15:58.810 align:middle line:90% So. 00:15:58.810 --> 00:16:01.390 align:middle line:90% She was essential too, I think. 00:16:01.390 --> 00:16:02.710 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:16:02.710 --> 00:16:07.780 align:middle line:90% Nicely made the triangle. 00:16:07.780 --> 00:16:09.160 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:16:09.160 --> 00:16:09.680 align:middle line:90% I think. 00:16:09.680 --> 00:16:14.650 align:middle line:84% And yes, we're all Muscogee, and we're all women. 00:16:14.650 --> 00:16:18.400 align:middle line:90% That has been noted negatively. 00:16:18.400 --> 00:16:21.160 align:middle line:84% Negatively because we did work to try 00:16:21.160 --> 00:16:24.580 align:middle line:90% to get a balance within the-- 00:16:24.580 --> 00:16:26.920 align:middle line:84% every team of editors worked to try 00:16:26.920 --> 00:16:32.470 align:middle line:84% to get a balance within their group. 00:16:32.470 --> 00:16:34.390 align:middle line:84% Somebody asked me yesterday or today 00:16:34.390 --> 00:16:38.440 align:middle line:84% about the balance between male and female writers. 00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:43.595 align:middle line:84% I think it's pretty balanced but I don't remember any numbers. 00:16:43.595 --> 00:16:46.610 align:middle line:84% But we did work to get a balance. 00:16:46.610 --> 00:16:48.580 align:middle line:90% It was part of the discussion. 00:16:48.580 --> 00:16:50.000 align:middle line:90% Yeah, it was part of it. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:53.560 align:middle line:84% So we could have made one three times as thick, 00:16:53.560 --> 00:16:55.810 align:middle line:90% three or four times as thick. 00:16:55.810 --> 00:16:58.840 align:middle line:84% So that was the difficulty is that we had to-- 00:16:58.840 --> 00:17:02.500 align:middle line:90% 00:17:02.500 --> 00:17:04.248 align:middle line:84% there are people and poems left out 00:17:04.248 --> 00:17:05.790 align:middle line:84% we would have loved to have included. 00:17:05.790 --> 00:17:08.460 align:middle line:90% 00:17:08.460 --> 00:17:11.730 align:middle line:84% So I don't know that any anthology is ever 00:17:11.730 --> 00:17:16.530 align:middle line:84% definitive, especially one where we've got-- 00:17:16.530 --> 00:17:18.569 align:middle line:90% this is just a-- 00:17:18.569 --> 00:17:21.180 align:middle line:84% it gives you a sampling so to speak. 00:17:21.180 --> 00:17:24.180 align:middle line:90% It gives you a sense. 00:17:24.180 --> 00:17:26.339 align:middle line:84% I think it's successful in that you 00:17:26.339 --> 00:17:33.666 align:middle line:84% do get a sense of the comprehensiveness 00:17:33.666 --> 00:17:36.660 align:middle line:90% of our presence. 00:17:36.660 --> 00:17:40.450 align:middle line:84% Of our presence in the field of American poetry 00:17:40.450 --> 00:17:44.310 align:middle line:84% and even within our own communities. 00:17:44.310 --> 00:17:53.280 align:middle line:84% We were so fortunate to have all these powerful, powerful voices 00:17:53.280 --> 00:17:55.350 align:middle line:90% within the regions. 00:17:55.350 --> 00:18:03.080 align:middle line:90% And, excuse me, I'm sorry. 00:18:03.080 --> 00:18:08.060 align:middle line:84% I just think that the groups from those regions 00:18:08.060 --> 00:18:15.620 align:middle line:84% also were fairly comprehensive, and it made the work 00:18:15.620 --> 00:18:17.180 align:middle line:90% really a joy. 00:18:17.180 --> 00:18:23.000 align:middle line:84% I think we have to remember that sometimes these organizations 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:28.640 align:middle line:84% or groups have had to work through some conflicts. 00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:32.360 align:middle line:84% That is not what happened with this work. 00:18:32.360 --> 00:18:40.790 align:middle line:84% We, from my memory, we worked together, had meetings. 00:18:40.790 --> 00:18:47.570 align:middle line:84% And the people brought a good heart, a good way 00:18:47.570 --> 00:18:49.130 align:middle line:90% into those discussions. 00:18:49.130 --> 00:18:53.780 align:middle line:84% And I think it's amazing to look back 00:18:53.780 --> 00:19:01.610 align:middle line:84% on a lot of those meetings, the gatherings, the work it was-- 00:19:01.610 --> 00:19:05.690 align:middle line:84% people brought their good heart into the project. 00:19:05.690 --> 00:19:09.800 align:middle line:84% And I think it shows in the text. 00:19:09.800 --> 00:19:10.407 align:middle line:90% I agree. 00:19:10.407 --> 00:19:11.990 align:middle line:84% I mean, I think that one of the things 00:19:11.990 --> 00:19:16.040 align:middle line:84% that I thought a lot about, it was just about community. 00:19:16.040 --> 00:19:19.970 align:middle line:84% It just created a community on the page, which I loved. 00:19:19.970 --> 00:19:22.640 align:middle line:90% 00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:26.000 align:middle line:84% My next question has to do with the Institute 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:28.850 align:middle line:84% that we're creating over at the Poetry Center. 00:19:28.850 --> 00:19:32.330 align:middle line:84% And our theme for the Fall Institute 00:19:32.330 --> 00:19:35.000 align:middle line:84% is how imaginative language and poems can help 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:37.470 align:middle line:90% create a sense of belonging. 00:19:37.470 --> 00:19:40.370 align:middle line:84% And I know we've talked a little bit about justice, community 00:19:40.370 --> 00:19:45.350 align:middle line:84% and connectedness, but can you share a little bit more 00:19:45.350 --> 00:19:48.860 align:middle line:84% about what that means to you just as 00:19:48.860 --> 00:19:50.630 align:middle line:90% writers of what that means. 00:19:50.630 --> 00:19:54.990 align:middle line:90% 00:19:54.990 --> 00:20:02.240 align:middle line:84% Man, where do we start in the history of all of it? 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:04.720 align:middle line:90% The sense of belonging. 00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:08.900 align:middle line:84% It so strange, a sense of belonging in a country 00:20:08.900 --> 00:20:15.350 align:middle line:84% that if you look at Indigenous literature and Indigenous 00:20:15.350 --> 00:20:23.400 align:middle line:84% peoples who were at the root of the imagination of the land. 00:20:23.400 --> 00:20:26.120 align:middle line:84% And here we are, and then we were disappeared-- 00:20:26.120 --> 00:20:29.600 align:middle line:84% I say disappeared, using a term that probably came out 00:20:29.600 --> 00:20:33.050 align:middle line:90% of South America. 00:20:33.050 --> 00:20:39.440 align:middle line:84% But we were essentially disappeared from history 00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:45.070 align:middle line:84% and from anything American, American literature, 00:20:45.070 --> 00:20:48.290 align:middle line:90% American poetry. 00:20:48.290 --> 00:20:50.780 align:middle line:90% American, American. 00:20:50.780 --> 00:20:57.850 align:middle line:84% Because to be present, we're present as ghosts in a way. 00:20:57.850 --> 00:21:02.890 align:middle line:84% And yet, we're absolutely essential. 00:21:02.890 --> 00:21:06.390 align:middle line:84% So it creates a very strange relationship I think, 00:21:06.390 --> 00:21:08.280 align:middle line:90% a perverted. 00:21:08.280 --> 00:21:09.020 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:21:09.020 --> 00:21:14.316 align:middle line:84% It becomes a very perverted relationship with 00:21:14.316 --> 00:21:16.850 align:middle line:90% to be there and not there. 00:21:16.850 --> 00:21:18.550 align:middle line:84% And then the images of being there 00:21:18.550 --> 00:21:24.100 align:middle line:84% were savage, heathen, without culture, which 00:21:24.100 --> 00:21:26.455 align:middle line:90% is the opposite of the truth. 00:21:26.455 --> 00:21:30.460 align:middle line:90% 00:21:30.460 --> 00:21:36.250 align:middle line:84% Language has the possibility to create such exclusion. 00:21:36.250 --> 00:21:38.920 align:middle line:84% In one way, in so many ways, one way, for example, 00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:40.840 align:middle line:90% grammatically. 00:21:40.840 --> 00:21:43.220 align:middle line:84% Just English grammar, for example, 00:21:43.220 --> 00:21:46.960 align:middle line:84% the way that it's set up creates exclusion. 00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:51.310 align:middle line:84% It demands pronouns, it excludes gender fluidity. 00:21:51.310 --> 00:21:53.830 align:middle line:84% I mean, there are so many levels where language is used 00:21:53.830 --> 00:21:55.800 align:middle line:90% in a manner that is excluding. 00:21:55.800 --> 00:21:58.360 align:middle line:90% 00:21:58.360 --> 00:22:01.840 align:middle line:84% And it's very difficult to innovate language in-- 00:22:01.840 --> 00:22:03.860 align:middle line:84% I was a grant writer for 10 years, 00:22:03.860 --> 00:22:06.760 align:middle line:84% it's really hard to innovate the language of a grant 00:22:06.760 --> 00:22:10.150 align:middle line:90% because you need to make sense. 00:22:10.150 --> 00:22:13.720 align:middle line:84% But you can really innovate language and flex language 00:22:13.720 --> 00:22:17.620 align:middle line:90% to be inclusive in poetry. 00:22:17.620 --> 00:22:22.840 align:middle line:84% It refuses the authority of ordinary meanings of things, 00:22:22.840 --> 00:22:26.260 align:middle line:84% and it refuses the dominant language 00:22:26.260 --> 00:22:28.240 align:middle line:84% that says this is right and this is wrong. 00:22:28.240 --> 00:22:30.760 align:middle line:84% This person does not belong, this person 00:22:30.760 --> 00:22:33.550 align:middle line:84% is not a part of America-- a, la, da. 00:22:33.550 --> 00:22:35.800 align:middle line:84% It refuses all of those gestures, 00:22:35.800 --> 00:22:39.520 align:middle line:84% those attempts to define and exclude. 00:22:39.520 --> 00:22:41.400 align:middle line:90% Oh it can. 00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:42.400 align:middle line:90% And if it's a good poem. 00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:43.360 align:middle line:90% It does I believe. 00:22:43.360 --> 00:22:46.190 align:middle line:90% 00:22:46.190 --> 00:22:49.750 align:middle line:84% It creates a different kind of legibility. 00:22:49.750 --> 00:22:52.880 align:middle line:90% And I like to think of-- 00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:55.400 align:middle line:84% I mean, I remember once a friend told me 00:22:55.400 --> 00:23:00.020 align:middle line:84% a story his daughter had told her some story 00:23:00.020 --> 00:23:04.010 align:middle line:90% about seeing a bird in the sky. 00:23:04.010 --> 00:23:06.740 align:middle line:84% And the way that it was told was so poetic. 00:23:06.740 --> 00:23:11.640 align:middle line:84% And listening to her, as if this girl is a poet, 00:23:11.640 --> 00:23:14.100 align:middle line:84% you can hear that she's talking about so much 00:23:14.100 --> 00:23:15.930 align:middle line:90% more than this bird in the sky. 00:23:15.930 --> 00:23:17.970 align:middle line:84% She's talking about all kinds of states 00:23:17.970 --> 00:23:22.350 align:middle line:84% of being in her perception of things and a range of emotions. 00:23:22.350 --> 00:23:27.540 align:middle line:84% And the language of poetry allows her insight 00:23:27.540 --> 00:23:29.430 align:middle line:90% to not be flattened. 00:23:29.430 --> 00:23:31.680 align:middle line:90% It allows it to thrive and grow. 00:23:31.680 --> 00:23:34.057 align:middle line:90% And poetry is always changing. 00:23:34.057 --> 00:23:34.890 align:middle line:90% It's always growing. 00:23:34.890 --> 00:23:36.780 align:middle line:84% Every time you read a poem, it changes, 00:23:36.780 --> 00:23:39.240 align:middle line:84% it's never flattened into a singular meaning. 00:23:39.240 --> 00:23:42.180 align:middle line:84% So all of that I think translates on a social level 00:23:42.180 --> 00:23:47.280 align:middle line:90% to be why poetry can create. 00:23:47.280 --> 00:23:49.530 align:middle line:84% I like this phrase that you have, through the radical 00:23:49.530 --> 00:23:50.100 align:middle line:90% belonging. 00:23:50.100 --> 00:23:52.560 align:middle line:90% I think that's awesome. 00:23:52.560 --> 00:23:54.930 align:middle line:84% And poetry really can create that on 00:23:54.930 --> 00:23:59.150 align:middle line:90% really just a craft level. 00:23:59.150 --> 00:24:02.570 align:middle line:84% Well, it can get down to you can talk intimately 00:24:02.570 --> 00:24:04.520 align:middle line:90% across generations. 00:24:04.520 --> 00:24:06.170 align:middle line:90% I'm writing a memoir. 00:24:06.170 --> 00:24:08.690 align:middle line:84% Well, I'm doing tweaking right now 00:24:08.690 --> 00:24:11.150 align:middle line:84% that will be a memoir that will be out from Norton 00:24:11.150 --> 00:24:14.780 align:middle line:84% in the next fall next September, and there's a scene in there 00:24:14.780 --> 00:24:18.290 align:middle line:84% where I'm listening to reading in the closet where 00:24:18.290 --> 00:24:21.080 align:middle line:90% I would hide Emily Dickinson. 00:24:21.080 --> 00:24:24.200 align:middle line:84% And I have my knees up and the poetry between my knees, 00:24:24.200 --> 00:24:27.020 align:middle line:84% sitting there with my knees and thinking of her 00:24:27.020 --> 00:24:31.640 align:middle line:84% on the other end of time through time talking to me as if she 00:24:31.640 --> 00:24:34.430 align:middle line:84% were sitting there almost like a kid 00:24:34.430 --> 00:24:37.670 align:middle line:84% because the poem spoke to me in that way. 00:24:37.670 --> 00:24:40.430 align:middle line:84% And poetry can work that way even though my image 00:24:40.430 --> 00:24:42.110 align:middle line:90% of a poet at that time-- 00:24:42.110 --> 00:24:43.820 align:middle line:84% she was probably one of the few females 00:24:43.820 --> 00:24:45.920 align:middle line:90% that were all of these-- 00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:48.170 align:middle line:84% I always saw poets as old white men 00:24:48.170 --> 00:24:53.120 align:middle line:84% living in England or the East Coast of the United States 00:24:53.120 --> 00:24:54.630 align:middle line:90% where it rained all the time. 00:24:54.630 --> 00:24:56.180 align:middle line:90% That was my image. 00:24:56.180 --> 00:24:57.410 align:middle line:90% But to have that-- 00:24:57.410 --> 00:25:00.920 align:middle line:84% but yet the poems could speak to me intimately. 00:25:00.920 --> 00:25:05.930 align:middle line:84% That I always remember Emily Dickinson's voice as being it 00:25:05.930 --> 00:25:06.540 align:middle line:90% was a doorway. 00:25:06.540 --> 00:25:09.140 align:middle line:90% 00:25:09.140 --> 00:25:13.493 align:middle line:84% It was like how lonely like a frog, 00:25:13.493 --> 00:25:14.910 align:middle line:84% and it's like what does that mean? 00:25:14.910 --> 00:25:19.940 align:middle line:84% It doesn't matter because it gives me 00:25:19.940 --> 00:25:26.240 align:middle line:84% a place for loneliness to perch in this bog of terror 00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:27.920 align:middle line:90% and that I did. 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:30.680 align:middle line:90% 00:25:30.680 --> 00:25:32.690 align:middle line:90% And that's the power. 00:25:32.690 --> 00:25:34.640 align:middle line:84% You talk about radical belonging, 00:25:34.640 --> 00:25:37.970 align:middle line:90% everybody wants to belong. 00:25:37.970 --> 00:25:40.280 align:middle line:84% I mean, that's even at the root of our-- 00:25:40.280 --> 00:25:43.940 align:middle line:84% at our very desperate important leader. 00:25:43.940 --> 00:25:46.677 align:middle line:84% Everybody wants to belong in some ways. 00:25:46.677 --> 00:25:48.260 align:middle line:84% They want to belong in their families, 00:25:48.260 --> 00:25:50.720 align:middle line:84% they want to belong with each other. 00:25:50.720 --> 00:25:53.060 align:middle line:84% They want to feel like they have a place. 00:25:53.060 --> 00:25:54.830 align:middle line:84% And that's where we get into trouble 00:25:54.830 --> 00:25:58.770 align:middle line:84% is when people feel separated and feel like they don't belong 00:25:58.770 --> 00:26:01.490 align:middle line:84% or they're made to feel like they don't belong. 00:26:01.490 --> 00:26:05.285 align:middle line:84% Or to belong means that you have to destroy someone else. 00:26:05.285 --> 00:26:08.030 align:middle line:90% 00:26:08.030 --> 00:26:10.400 align:middle line:84% And so then I think that's why we've all been coming, 00:26:10.400 --> 00:26:12.080 align:middle line:84% the world's been coming to poetry 00:26:12.080 --> 00:26:15.440 align:middle line:84% or appears to be coming to poetry during this time is 00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:18.770 align:middle line:84% because there's a place to belong 00:26:18.770 --> 00:26:23.180 align:middle line:84% in the midst of revolution, in the midst of terror, 00:26:23.180 --> 00:26:28.100 align:middle line:84% in the midst of the Earth's destruction, in the midst-- 00:26:28.100 --> 00:26:33.380 align:middle line:84% we come to it to find a place, OK, I can belong in this poem, 00:26:33.380 --> 00:26:37.220 align:middle line:84% and in this poem I can memorize it, I can hold it in here, 00:26:37.220 --> 00:26:39.560 align:middle line:90% I can carry it around with me. 00:26:39.560 --> 00:26:43.890 align:middle line:90% And I can go back to it. 00:26:43.890 --> 00:26:46.035 align:middle line:90% I'm nobody, who are you? 00:26:46.035 --> 00:26:48.570 align:middle line:90% I'm nobody too. 00:26:48.570 --> 00:26:51.162 align:middle line:90% That makes two of us. 00:26:51.162 --> 00:26:51.870 align:middle line:90% I'm a little kid. 00:26:51.870 --> 00:26:55.310 align:middle line:90% 00:26:55.310 --> 00:26:57.635 align:middle line:84% Tyger, Tyger burning bright, in the forest. 00:26:57.635 --> 00:26:58.782 align:middle line:90% [AUDIO OUT] 00:26:58.782 --> 00:27:03.294 align:middle line:90% 00:27:03.294 --> 00:27:07.320 align:middle line:84% Do you all have anything that you wanted to share? 00:27:07.320 --> 00:27:11.718 align:middle line:84% I have one last quick question for Joy before we close up. 00:27:11.718 --> 00:27:13.260 align:middle line:84% But is there anything that you wanted 00:27:13.260 --> 00:27:17.070 align:middle line:84% to either speak about or share or ask one another 00:27:17.070 --> 00:27:21.510 align:middle line:90% before I head to the finale? 00:27:21.510 --> 00:27:24.570 align:middle line:90% I just wanted to say how-- 00:27:24.570 --> 00:27:28.380 align:middle line:84% I expressed appreciation for everyone's work on this 00:27:28.380 --> 00:27:34.110 align:middle line:84% anthology because every time I look at or read it, I mean, 00:27:34.110 --> 00:27:36.930 align:middle line:90% it's-- 00:27:36.930 --> 00:27:41.760 align:middle line:84% doing part of this work was an honor to be able to serve. 00:27:41.760 --> 00:27:46.260 align:middle line:84% I think we're all in service, poets are in service. 00:27:46.260 --> 00:27:49.880 align:middle line:84% We're in service to the place beyond words. 00:27:49.880 --> 00:27:52.790 align:middle line:84% And then to be able to come together and serve 00:27:52.790 --> 00:27:56.030 align:middle line:84% and in compiling this, which there's 00:27:56.030 --> 00:27:59.720 align:middle line:84% the works of so many people and so many different lands and so 00:27:59.720 --> 00:28:03.440 align:middle line:84% many generations, this is cross-generational. 00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:06.230 align:middle line:84% And it's like when you hold it, it's 00:28:06.230 --> 00:28:07.850 align:middle line:90% just like what a poem can hold. 00:28:07.850 --> 00:28:11.810 align:middle line:84% You can hold-- there's grief in here, there's immense sorrow. 00:28:11.810 --> 00:28:17.630 align:middle line:84% There's joy, there's-- some of the poets are hilarious. 00:28:17.630 --> 00:28:19.310 align:middle line:90% It's all history. 00:28:19.310 --> 00:28:22.880 align:middle line:84% There's so much history winding through here. 00:28:22.880 --> 00:28:26.940 align:middle line:84% It's American history, it's world history. 00:28:26.940 --> 00:28:30.210 align:middle line:84% It's intimate tribal histories that are through here. 00:28:30.210 --> 00:28:36.620 align:middle line:84% And so to be able to be part of this, to be called on to be 00:28:36.620 --> 00:28:38.120 align:middle line:90% part of this is-- 00:28:38.120 --> 00:28:43.650 align:middle line:84% to me it's a great honor to help bring this here 00:28:43.650 --> 00:28:49.890 align:middle line:84% to say that, yes, this is a testament of radical belonging. 00:28:49.890 --> 00:28:54.170 align:middle line:90% 00:28:54.170 --> 00:28:59.100 align:middle line:84% We belong here, our words belong here. 00:28:59.100 --> 00:29:05.490 align:middle line:84% And it gives me even more respect of there's 00:29:05.490 --> 00:29:09.290 align:middle line:84% an ancestral belonging that is here, 00:29:09.290 --> 00:29:12.110 align:middle line:84% that is part of American ancestry too. 00:29:12.110 --> 00:29:15.540 align:middle line:84% I think whoever you are in American poetry, 00:29:15.540 --> 00:29:17.990 align:middle line:84% this is part of your ancestry right here. 00:29:17.990 --> 00:29:23.040 align:middle line:90% 00:29:23.040 --> 00:29:24.824 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Joy. 00:29:24.824 --> 00:29:29.640 align:middle line:90% I also think that the-- 00:29:29.640 --> 00:29:36.540 align:middle line:84% I also think that the book called us, we didn't call it. 00:29:36.540 --> 00:29:40.110 align:middle line:84% Like a story calls itself into being, 00:29:40.110 --> 00:29:43.110 align:middle line:84% like a poem calls itself into being, and calls 00:29:43.110 --> 00:29:45.370 align:middle line:90% the people to it. 00:29:45.370 --> 00:29:50.190 align:middle line:84% It feels to me like the book called itself. 00:29:50.190 --> 00:29:53.280 align:middle line:84% And we're, as Joy just said, we're 00:29:53.280 --> 00:30:00.150 align:middle line:84% in service to those works, those words, those people. 00:30:00.150 --> 00:30:02.550 align:middle line:90% I don't feel like-- 00:30:02.550 --> 00:30:06.030 align:middle line:84% I mean, and I'm speaking only for myself. 00:30:06.030 --> 00:30:12.960 align:middle line:84% I feel like I am in service to this work. 00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:20.730 align:middle line:84% And that it is sacred in its compilation as well. 00:30:20.730 --> 00:30:25.370 align:middle line:90% 00:30:25.370 --> 00:30:26.120 align:middle line:90% Thank you, LeAnne. 00:30:26.120 --> 00:30:31.490 align:middle line:90% 00:30:31.490 --> 00:30:35.250 align:middle line:84% So Joy, I have one last question that I'll close with, 00:30:35.250 --> 00:30:37.230 align:middle line:84% and it's more of just out of a curiosity 00:30:37.230 --> 00:30:39.150 align:middle line:90% and it's less intellectual. 00:30:39.150 --> 00:30:41.370 align:middle line:90% I just wanted to know what-- 00:30:41.370 --> 00:30:44.130 align:middle line:84% you spoke about this time when you 00:30:44.130 --> 00:30:46.650 align:middle line:84% were eating berries and whale meat, 00:30:46.650 --> 00:30:49.298 align:middle line:84% and I wanted to know what the whale meat tasted like. 00:30:49.298 --> 00:30:51.090 align:middle line:84% Whale meat, it doesn't taste like anything. 00:30:51.090 --> 00:30:52.810 align:middle line:90% That's been on my mind. 00:30:52.810 --> 00:30:57.810 align:middle line:84% I just want to know everything, a poet to describe that to me, 00:30:57.810 --> 00:31:01.050 align:middle line:90% what that was like. 00:31:01.050 --> 00:31:04.800 align:middle line:84% I can imagine it, but I'm really interested in hearing more 00:31:04.800 --> 00:31:06.810 align:middle line:90% about that. 00:31:06.810 --> 00:31:10.760 align:middle line:90% It tasted like Northern Ocean. 00:31:10.760 --> 00:31:12.030 align:middle line:90% Wow. 00:31:12.030 --> 00:31:15.540 align:middle line:84% Yeah, it tasted like that, the ocean. 00:31:15.540 --> 00:31:17.400 align:middle line:90% I love the oceans up there. 00:31:17.400 --> 00:31:18.740 align:middle line:90% I love flying over them. 00:31:18.740 --> 00:31:22.820 align:middle line:84% I like-- I don't know, I have a connection. 00:31:22.820 --> 00:31:26.930 align:middle line:84% I always feel connected to that part of the world. 00:31:26.930 --> 00:31:27.575 align:middle line:90% That's amazing. 00:31:27.575 --> 00:31:29.580 align:middle line:84% It'll make no sense at all, but I do, 00:31:29.580 --> 00:31:32.510 align:middle line:84% and I love the poetry up that way. 00:31:32.510 --> 00:31:33.380 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:31:33.380 --> 00:31:35.190 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:31:35.190 --> 00:31:38.070 align:middle line:84% Well, I want to thank you all for being here 00:31:38.070 --> 00:31:41.550 align:middle line:84% and for taking time, and for just working with us on this 00:31:41.550 --> 00:31:45.480 align:middle line:84% because we're so honored to have the three of you, including 00:31:45.480 --> 00:31:49.710 align:middle line:84% Bojan, to just be part of this to launch our Institute. 00:31:49.710 --> 00:31:52.980 align:middle line:84% I'm just going to hold up the book for people. 00:31:52.980 --> 00:31:57.090 align:middle line:84% If you have not already purchased this book, When 00:31:57.090 --> 00:31:59.310 align:middle line:84% The Light Of The World Was Subdued, 00:31:59.310 --> 00:32:02.790 align:middle line:84% Our Songs Came Through, A Norton Anthology Of Native Nations 00:32:02.790 --> 00:32:05.310 align:middle line:90% Poetry, please get this. 00:32:05.310 --> 00:32:07.590 align:middle line:84% And I just want to say goodnight to everyone, 00:32:07.590 --> 00:32:12.440 align:middle line:84% and I just am in gratitude for all that you've done. 00:32:12.440 --> 00:32:13.340 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:32:13.340 --> 00:32:14.210 align:middle line:90% Mvto. 00:32:14.210 --> 00:32:15.500 align:middle line:90% Thank you so much. 00:32:15.500 --> 00:32:17.050 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:32:17.050 --> 00:32:23.000 align:middle line:90%