Internationally known poet, writer, performer, and musician Joy Harjo will discuss “Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings” at Eastern Kentucky University on Thursday, Nov. 3.
Her lecture, free and open to the public, will begin at 7:30 p.m. in O’Donnell Hall of the Whitlock Building. It is part of the year-long Chautauqua series “Order and Chaos” and will serve as the Keynote Address for Native American Heritage Month.
Harjo, born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is an award-winning Native American poet from the Mvskoke/Creek Nation. She has published eight well-known books of poetry, including “How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems” and “She Had Some Horses.” In 2015, she won the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets for proven mastery in the art of poetry. She has also received the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Rasmuson United States Artist Fellowship, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. In 2014, she was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.
In addition to her work as a poet, Harjo has published essays, interviews, a memoir, and a young adult book. Her memoir, “Crazy Brave,” won the American Book Award as well as the PEN USA Literary Award for Creative Non-Fiction. Her young adult book, “For a Girl Becoming,” won a Moonbeam Award and a silver medal from the Independent Publishers Awards. She is currently writing her next memoir as well as a musical play, “We Were There When Jazz Was Invented.”
Harjo is also a renowned musician, playing saxophone solo and with her band, The Arrow Dynamics, nationally and internationally. She has released five CDs of poetry and music, including “A Trail Beyond Tears” and “Winding Through the Milky Way,” which won her the Native American Music Award for Best Female Artist of the Year in 2009.
The Harjo lecture is sponsored by the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences; the Department of Anthropology, Sociology and Social Work; the Department of English and Theatre; the Department of Languages, Cultures and Humanities; and EKU Honors.
For more information about the Chautauqua lecture series, visit www.chautauqua.eku.edu or contact Chautauqua Lecture Coordinator Erik Liddell at erik.liddell@eku.edu.