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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha. I'm welcome to Steff.

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Speaker 1: I never told your protection of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: And welcome. We are currently entering Native American Heritage Month

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Speaker 2: here in the US, so of course we had to

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Speaker 2: start our activists around the world celebrating a Native Indigenous

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Speaker 2: activist and advocate. Yeah, just so you know, I guess

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Speaker 2: today is November fourth of twenty twenty four. During November

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Speaker 2: is when the US does the Native American Heritage Month,

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Speaker 2: not necessarily the same as the Indigenous People's Day, which

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Speaker 2: is when we do all instead of Columbus Day. We've

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Speaker 2: had many conversations about that, so because around what is

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Speaker 2: the US Thanksgiving? Realizing how kind of atrocious some of

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Speaker 2: these holidays are are the US just like you know,

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Speaker 2: we're going to stamp a time of celebration for the

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Speaker 2: you know, oppressed peoples. So if people don't get too

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Speaker 2: upset with us, So this month is celebrated as Native

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Speaker 2: American Heritage Month. And of course there's also a big

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Speaker 2: conversation about like the commonalities of titles and names. We

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Speaker 2: have gone through waves of different types of names for

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Speaker 2: the Native American communities. A lot of the Natives, I

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Speaker 2: think have said they rather be called first nations, which

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Speaker 2: makes perfect sense. I've had people say that native in general,

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Speaker 2: just point blank. And so there's a lot of deep

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Speaker 2: conversation Native Americans, even Harjoe, who were about to talk about,

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Speaker 2: you know, like who has talked about this situation about

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Speaker 2: you know, being okay with say Native American as is.

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Speaker 2: But things can change. So please note at this point

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Speaker 2: in time it is Native American Heritage Month. If that

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Speaker 2: changes in the future, we will change with the times

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Speaker 2: as the preferences have changed and will change throughout the years.

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Speaker 1: Just put that caveat there.

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Speaker 2: I love it with that. But today we are celebrating,

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Speaker 2: as we said, Joy Harjo a poet, musician, writer, activist,

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Speaker 2: so many things for her native community and just Native

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Speaker 2: communities in general. Harjo made history by being named the

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Speaker 2: first Native person to be a US Poet Laureate, and

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Speaker 2: she was appointed that in twenty nineteen and served every

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Speaker 2: year until twenty twenty one. And she has been recognized

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Speaker 2: for all her works before this, and of course continues

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Speaker 2: to get much praise since then. So we're not just

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Speaker 2: saying this is her only thing, but it was pretty

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Speaker 2: big significance. As you know, we love to talk about

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Speaker 2: first in general, which is atrocious that it was. Anyway, like,

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Speaker 2: there's so many things when it comes to writing and

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Speaker 2: arts where the people of color are just left behind

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Speaker 2: because the system is racist. But anyway, still we're gonna

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Speaker 2: celebrate this. As I say this in a very negative,

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Speaker 2: pessimistic way, but we celebrate her and the fact that

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Speaker 2: she was the first to be appointed as a poet

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Speaker 2: Laureate in twenty nineteen and again, as we said, she

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Speaker 2: said for three years. Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma,

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Speaker 2: in nineteen fifty one and is a part of the

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Speaker 2: Muskogee Creek Nation, and though her childhood was a rough one,

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Speaker 2: she was able to turn to her love for the

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Speaker 2: arts and education as a way of coping in her

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Speaker 2: teenage years. Harjo talked about how she joined an all

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Speaker 2: Native rock band, she wrote songs for them, and then

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Speaker 2: also a theater group at the Institute of American Indian

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Speaker 2: Arts or IAIA in New Mexico, and.

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Speaker 1: It was here she really started to understand the importance

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Speaker 1: of her heritage and of art. She told Southwest Contemporary

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Speaker 1: magazine this about her experience, quote, I was there during

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Speaker 1: the time of the contemporary Native art revitalization that changed

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Speaker 1: everything in the art world. It was an exciting time

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Speaker 1: to be at Iaia. Even we younger high school students

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Speaker 1: knew we were in the middle of a crucial time

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Speaker 1: in Indian country politics and thought we were part of

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Speaker 1: the gen racial current in which we were thinking about

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Speaker 1: cultural sovereignty before sovereignty was a common word on our tongues.

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Speaker 2: Right and throughout her life she has only grown in

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Speaker 2: her love for her community into bringing awareness for her community.

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Speaker 2: And it was through her art that she was able

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Speaker 2: to express herself and a love for her people. Here's

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Speaker 2: a bit from womenhistory dot Org. Harjo had a hard

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Speaker 2: time speaking out loud because of her many harsh experiences.

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Speaker 2: She said, quote, I remember the teachers at school threatening

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Speaker 2: to write my parents because I was not speaking in class,

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Speaker 2: but I was terrified. Instead, Harjo started painting as a

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Speaker 2: way to express herself. And yeah, she even talked about

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Speaker 2: the influences in her life as well. They said, growing up,

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Speaker 2: Harjo was surrounded by artists and musicians, but she didn't

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Speaker 2: know any poets. Her mother wrote songs, and her grandmother

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Speaker 2: and her aunt were both artists. These influential women inspired

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Speaker 2: Harjo to explore her creative side. Harjo recalls the very

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Speaker 2: first poem she wrote, which was in eighth grade, which

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Speaker 2: I feel like you and I have had these experiences

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Speaker 2: as well. We're like poetry have feeling. It's not on

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Speaker 2: her lif level. Like pretty sure about that, but still

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Speaker 2: we understand this need. So after graduating school, Harjo would

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Speaker 2: go on to attend the University of New Mexico and

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Speaker 2: eventually publish a book of our Poems in nineteen seventy

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Speaker 2: five titled The Last Song, which includes like nine of

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Speaker 2: her poems. After graduating, Harjo went on to attend the

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Speaker 2: University of Iowa for a Master of Fine Arts, and

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Speaker 2: then she continued her education at several other institutes for

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Speaker 2: film and other arts. So she just kept going. I

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Speaker 2: feel like she just loved the exploration part, and I love.

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Speaker 1: That for her.

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Speaker 2: And though she continues her time in the different variations

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Speaker 2: of artistry, including painting and music, her love for poetry remains.

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Speaker 1: Yes. And here's what she told Southwest Contemporary dot Com

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Speaker 1: when they asked her about the role of poetry and

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Speaker 1: why she continues to write it. Quote, I believe the

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Speaker 1: role of poetry is what it has always been our

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Speaker 1: hearts get broken again and again, but can be put

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Speaker 1: back together again with poetry. It is the art closest

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Speaker 1: to music. It Trump's rhetoric can carry grief, ecstasy, celebration, despair,

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Speaker 1: or joy. It is a tool for the kind of

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Speaker 1: disruption needed to clean a wound and heal. It predicts

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Speaker 1: how we will know who we are in forthcoming generations.

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Speaker 1: Without it, we will no longer be human. I keep

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Speaker 1: writing poems because it is kind of a calling, one

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Speaker 1: I didn't actually choose. I was in an art path.

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Speaker 1: I loved painting and photography. Poetry first came to me

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Speaker 1: through music. My very early years are marked by my

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Speaker 1: mother's song making and love of poetry. I loved poetry,

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Speaker 1: but had no intention of becoming a poet. It came

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Speaker 1: upon me and essentially asked me to take care of it.

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Speaker 1: Poetry has become my most demanding teacher. On that I

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Speaker 1: honor with poetry and music.

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Speaker 2: That sounds like a poem right there.

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Speaker 1: I love just her interviews.

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Speaker 2: I don't like that as well, so with the many

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Speaker 2: books she has written. She's also written in autobiography. In it,

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Speaker 2: she speaks about her becoming an advocate for her community

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Speaker 2: and the Native people. In an NPR interview, they asked

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Speaker 2: her about this, and she said, quote the sixties, I

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Speaker 2: equated with you know, civil rights. You know, it was

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Speaker 2: a humanity alert that this country is huge, there's more

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Speaker 2: of us, and not everyone has equal rights. In the

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Speaker 2: late sixties, I was at Indian boarding school in Santa Fe,

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Speaker 2: New Mexico. Not your usual boarding school, but it was

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Speaker 2: an art school. And I remember hearing about Martin Luther

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Speaker 2: King being killed and all of that was on the news.

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Speaker 2: And we were all young Native artists there from eighth

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Speaker 2: grade to two years postgraduate. We'd stay up late nights

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Speaker 2: talking and making art together and talking about what it

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Speaker 2: meant to be a Native person and about history and

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Speaker 2: about how our art was part it was part of

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Speaker 2: history making. And she continues, and I think what I've

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Speaker 2: become to realize that what has motivated my art making

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Speaker 2: is really a strong need for justice, for people to

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Speaker 2: be treated for everyone. And when I say people, I

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Speaker 2: also mean animals and insects and the birds, and the

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Speaker 2: earth and the earth person that we are all part of.

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Speaker 2: That there's a key element, and that's respect. And you know,

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Speaker 2: when I became more actively involved as a student at

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Speaker 2: the University of New Mexico. I was painting then and

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Speaker 2: just starting to write poetry. I remember thinking, if my

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Speaker 2: work does nothing else, when I get to the end

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Speaker 2: of my life, I want Native peoples to be seen

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Speaker 2: as human beings. And this message has been something she's

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Speaker 2: been spreading in her poems, books, songs, and paintings, and

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Speaker 2: along with her being appointed as a Poet Laureate for

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Speaker 2: three years, she has earned many other accolades, including winning

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Speaker 2: Yale's twenty twenty three Bulligan Prize for American Poetry. And

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Speaker 2: of course, she has won several awards for her music

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Speaker 2: album as well, including a recent work she just did.

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Speaker 2: And with all of that, we also had to end

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Speaker 2: with one of her poems. So that's how we're gonna go.

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Speaker 2: Apologies if we butcher it as pretty usual, and this

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Speaker 2: one is called fire. A woman can't survive by her

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Speaker 2: own breath alone. She must know the voices of mountains,

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Speaker 2: She must recognize the foreverness of blue sky. She must

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Speaker 2: flow with the elusive bodies of night winds who will

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Speaker 2: take her into herself.

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Speaker 1: Look at me, I am not a separate woman. I

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Speaker 1: am a continuance of blue sky. I am the throat

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Speaker 1: of the mountain's night wind, who burns with every breath

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Speaker 1: she takes.

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Speaker 2: Gorgeous and yeah, she has like ten books I believe,

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Speaker 2: just of her poetry alone, so definitely worth reading. She

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Speaker 2: has a lot out there that's just open, so if

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Speaker 2: you just want to look her up again. Her name

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Speaker 2: is Joe Harjo. She's pretty famous, so just because we're

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Speaker 2: featuring her doesn't mean she's not known obviously. Yeah, but

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Speaker 2: we just really wanted to celebrate what she's doing, give

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Speaker 2: her the flowers that she deserves, and many more as

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Speaker 2: she is still with us, and continue to see what

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Speaker 2: she does and how she publishes more and more of

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Speaker 2: her works.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes, so go check her out listeners if you

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Speaker 1: have not already, and if you have and you have

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Speaker 1: a favorite poem, we do love poems here, so send

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Speaker 1: that our way. You can email us at stuffaniamom stuff

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Speaker 1: atiheartmedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter at

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Speaker 1: mom Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff.

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Speaker 1: I've never told you. We have a tea public store

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Speaker 1: and a book you can get wherever you get your

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Speaker 1: books things. As always to a super producer, Christina, our

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Speaker 1: executive producer May and our contributor Joey. Thank you and

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Speaker 1: thanks to you for listening. Stuff I Never Told You

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Speaker 1: is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts or

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Speaker 1: my heart Radio, you can check out the heart Radio

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