Joy Harjo, Poet Laureate of the United States


 Humanities Center     Nov 16 2021 | 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM Zoom



Register HERE

Please join us for a stirring evening of poetry by Joy Harjo, Poet Laureate of the United States. This author event supports the year-long theme, “For a more perfect union?” and contributes to campus-wide discussions of wisdom in the world.

Hear Joy Harjo read her poem, A Map to the Next World.

Hear Professor Alicia Carroll talk about Joy Harjo’s poem.

About Joy Harjo: In 2019, Joy Harjo was appointed the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold the position. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Harjo is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She is the author of nine books of poetry, several plays and children’s books, and two memoirs.

Harjo’s poetry collections include An American Sunrise (W.W. Norton, 2019); Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings (2015)—shortlisted for the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize and added to ALA’s 2016 Notable Books List, this book is hailed by Yusef Komunyakaa as “a marvelous instrument that veins through a dark lode of American history”; How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems; and She Had Some Horses.

Her first memoir Crazy Brave (W.W. Norton, 2012) won several awards including the PEN USA Literary Award for Creative Non-Fiction and the American Book Award. It was called by Ms Magazine, “The best kind of memoir, an unself-conscious mix of autobiography, spiritual rumination, cultural evaluation, history and political analysis told in simple but authoritative and deeply poetic prose.” Harjo’s second memoir Poet Warrior (W. W. Norton, 2021) invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her “poet-warrior” road.

Co-sponsored by Illuminations, Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture and Inclusion, and Office of Inclusive Excellence.

UCI DIY: an Opportunity for Undergraduates
 

The UCI DIY project, in partnership with the Division of Undergraduate Education, UCI Illuminations and the Humanities Center’s ‘To Form a More Perfect Union?’ series, invites undergraduates to submit a range of creative and critical work in robust conversation with the speakers appearing this coming academic year.  In 2021-2022, Illuminations will feature some of our country’s must important, award-winning writers and thinkers, including Tracy K. Smith and Joy Harjo (fall), Viet Thanh Nguyen (winter), and Sandra Cisneros (spring).

Students will have the opportunity to create their own work responding to these speakers’ writing. For each writer, starting with both Smith and Harjo, the UCI DIY website will issue a challenge and call to participate, asking students to create their responses to a speaker using a particular form.  Work can be poems, stories, art work, sound essays, or videos.  Selected student work will be posted on the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) website for the UCI DIY project.

See more info HERE.