This past week American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois hosted Chicago poet Quraysh Lansana. Now, you may be wondering why the headline reads, “Oklahoma Poet.” It’s simple. Quraysh Lansana is an Okie from Enid, but like many of us, he left his birthplace to seek his artistic fortunes elsewhere. And did he ever!
Quraysh is the author of five books of poetry, and he is also the director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing at Chicago State University where he is also an associate professor. According to poet Renny Golden in the forward of Lansana’s latest poetry collection, bloodsoil (sooner red), 2009: “His voice, imagery, and spare lyricism are influenced by poets Lucille Clifton, Sterling Brown and Walt Whitman.”
Lansana’s other books include cockroach children: corner poems and street psalms (1995) and Southside Rain (2000) and They Shall Run (2004), a collection of poems based on the life of Harriet Tubman. He is the author of a children’s book, The Big World (1999), and co-editor of Dream of a Word: The Tia Chucha Press Poetry Anthology (2006) and Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art, published in 2002. On October 29, Quraysh gave a hot reading to an audience of around 30 at the IUB, a bookstore on the Illinois campus.
While in Urbana-Champaign, Quraysh also visited the Native American House and gave a short reading from a work-in-progress about Oklahoma. He is collaborating with two other Okies, uh-hum, poet and scholar Dean Rader, and me. Dean is one of those superstar Okies, too. He’s the author of four books. He left Weatherford, Oklahoma years ago to find fame and fortune in Texas, New York, Texas again, and now California where he is an associate professor in English at the University of San Francisco. I know, I know, we all left Oklahoma and wound up teaching in English departmentlands. Anyway, check out Dean’s blog, The Weekly Rader, it’s savvy and smart, and from time to time a little Okie-ness slips in to his posts. (I like.)
The three of us are working on a book that includes personal poems about growing up in Oklahoma, essays, and historical accounts of our state, (frankly a place that was never meant to be what it became.) As early as the late 1880s, statesmen and scoundrels alike were hoping to carve up the land every which way. It’s no wonder why we’re all a little . . . . . . you fill in the blank.
Stay tuned for more reports on our progress and tribulations as we write this dang book. (Here’s where you can mimic my Okie accent.)
Pictured here, left to right, are some of the people who attended Quraysh’s reading and talk at NAH last week. 
Kathy Perkins, (IL theater department and wonderwoman lighting expert), Louellyn White, (Mohawk). Lou and I ran into each other at a recent protest against, the Chief. Ask Lou about it. She’s a post-doc at AIS this year. Cheryl Cash and John Low are my friends. John (Pokagon Band Potawatomi Indian Nation) is a visiting assistant professor this year at AIS. John McKinn, (Maricopa) is the associate director of AIS. (I keep asking Mckinn for a raise.) Then, standing, Quraysh Lansana, and Geoff Summers, a creative writing major, fiction, at the University of Illinois.
We did take time for eating while Quraysh was in town. Pictured below are my colleagues, creative writers David Wright, and Audrey Petty at Kofusion in downtown Champaign, IL. (Quraysh is in the middle.) Goodness knows we’re all foodies!
PS: Stay tuned for my next report on the Washington summit President Obama is hosting on November 5, with leaders of American Indian tribes; over 550 natives are invited to attend. The first of its kind. (Well, not really, but watch for my report, anyway.)
Just returned from visiting the Aboriginal Studies Program at the University of Toronto. Boy Howdy do those First Nations’ folks know how to show their guests a good time! Upon arriving at Pearson International Airport, I was greeted by a longtime friend from home, Associate Professor Daniel Justice (Cherokee), and now a Salonnaire [See July 20, 22, posts, Salon Ada]. Daniel and I then high-tailed-it to UT’s Mississauga’s campus to visit the “Introduction to Indigenous North American Literature” class taught by Mareike Neuhaus. Her class had just finished reading Shell Shaker, and I was deeply honored by her students close reading of the text. I felt a stab of pride mixed with something like, well, I don’t quite know, longing, I guess. Longing for my friends/characters in Shell Shaker. It had been a quite a while since I’d thought about them. That’s what happens when you finish a book and begin thinking about drafting a new set of characters. New Plot. New everything. I have to consciously remind myself to stop thinking about the characters in the last book. It’s like moving on from an intense love affair that I knew was always destined to end. After a while, I begin to fall in love with new characters, new settings and the new love affair develops. Rarely do I ever think of using my old characters in a new novel. For me it would be like marrying the same person over and over again — and yet perhaps I could do it. That’s what visiting Mareike’s class in Toronto did for me. I realized as I was talking to the students that I had missed my old friends, the characters in Shell Shaker.
Anyway, Mareike’s students asked lots of insightful questions about Shakbatina, Auda, Redford McAlester, Divine Sarah, and the history of Choctaws. The credit for this goes to her teaching. That’s when I began to ask myself, what are Auda, Tema, Adair doing today? Just where are the Love sisters? Later that evening the three of us (pictured above) went out to dinner at an English pub for fish and chippies.
I also visited another English literature class taught by Kyle Wyatt at the UT Scarborough campus. His students were also full of great questions. They’d read either Miko Kings, Evidence of Red, or Shell Shaker. I’m afraid my head was swelling after his class. Later that evening, we went to a posh Indian restaurant. Foodies would love it! Great wines, too. It seems you can find every kind of cuisine in Toronto.
Then on Friday, I gave the Fall Distinguished Lecture for the Aboriginal Studies Program [bragging again, I know] explaining that Choctawans and other ancient indigenous people in the Lower Mississippi Valley invented the root game of baseball. The talk was held at the Bahen Centre on the UT campus and Daniel and I had fun doing “Q and A” as if we were on the Inside the Actors’ Studio program. By the way, I learned that I’m terrible at answering questions about myself. Another insight, from being in Toronto.
After the reading, playwright and actress Monique Mojica (Cuna/Rappahannock); PhD theater candidate Jill Carter (Ojibwe), Daniel Justice, and I went to Greek town in Toronto for some incredible edibles. If it isn’t obvious, I’m a Choctaw foodie. Pictured below are some friends that attended the reading, including beautiful Monique in the middle, and beautiful Jill, standing tall in the back with the rest of the beautiful women in the picture! 
Can’t wait to return to University of Toronto’s Aboriginal Studies Program. Next time I’m going to build in some research time at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. What a treat it was to see the amazing stacks. Next time, next time.
In these last beautiful days of autumn, I came upon a conference of pumpkins, orange, pink,
yellow-striped, gray, and even a green snake [languishing on the bench, left] at the Jefferies’ Farms outside of Athens, Illinois. Two sisters have worked their farmlands all their lives. Beginning in April they harvest acres of asparagus. In summer, it’s plums and peaches, and in fall, they sell apples, red and green peppers, apple cider, pumpkins, and wonderful, wonderful squash. All varieties.
For a writer, fall is a time when we harvest our memories during twilight’s golden hours . . . whilst munching on a crisp Snow apple. [Sorry for the "whilst" - I'm watching Sense and Sensibility starring Emma Thompson. Under the influence of the Brits, "whilst," and "felicity," come tumbling out, though I try to stop, but for naught. ]
Indeed.
Uh-hum. My own fall produce is to draft a new chapter of a memoir I’m writing, and revise the draft of my ten-minute play. That’s what I am about these days. [Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.] The new chapter begins with meeting poet William S. Burroughs in 1983 at the Caravan of Dreams in Fort Worth, Texas. The Caravan of Dreams is a venue where Roxy Gordon and I gave several readings from our fiction and poetry, and we once gave a reading from Big PowWow, a play we co-authored. At the Caravan of Dreams I also met Johnny Dolphin, aka John Allen, author of the Me and the Biospheres: A Memoir by the Inventor of Biosphere 2, and other books. Allen worked there as playwright, and creative director. He is an Okie from Minco, Oklahoma. Small world, no? Whether spelled Minco, or Miko, the word means, “leader,” in Choctaw.
Muskogee Creek photographer, writer, and artist-extraordinaire, Durango Mendoza captured this “woman to woman” moment at Joy Harjo’s recent craft lecture at the University of Illinois. And for me, this photo says it all: we are here to nurture the hearts and minds of those around us, as women, teachers, mothers, and grandmothers. Pictured left, Angie Naquayouma, Ho-Chunk/Hopi, 
is a 2009 graduate of the University of Illinois. She is now part of the growing staff at the Native American House on the Illinois campus.
In her craft lecture, Joy talked about the necessity of young writers learning how to be true to their own voice. “Be yourself,” she told the audience of approximately sixty undergraduate students, MFA candidates, and Illinois faculty. Several of my creative writing students said they connected very strongly with what Harjo was saying. They say they often feel compelled to write for their communities, or represent their ethnicities/identities, rather than be true to the stories rolling around inside them. I couldn’t agree more with Joy’s central thesis. We write for ourselves, and through that longing to understand a particular thing, we create art.
For more chances to hear Joy Harjo while’s she at Illinois, and pick up a copy f her new book, For a Girl Becoming, please see the American Indian Studies website and click on the calendar of events.
Joy Harjo is American Indian Studies artist in residence for 2009-10. She will be on campus until October 16, 2009, and her presence here has been a gift to all of us.
I know that’s a line from the theme song of Rawhide, a TV show from the dark ages starring Clint Eastwood, but it’s been my motto since returning to the University of Illinois at the end of August. And rollin is what American Indian Studies (AIS) is doing. So much so that I hardly know where to begin. [And it’s my excuse for not posting the last few weeks.]
AIS just held our first Indigenous Sexualities Symposium on September 26, 2009. Participants began arriving from as far away as Aoteoroa, New Zealand, Toronto, Canada, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Michigan, and California to talk about indigenous sex. [No, I’m not kidding, and don’t you wish you had come, I mean attended the symposium.]
Un-hum. All weak puns aside, the academic papers and respondents were amazing. Janice Gould, Daniel Heath Justice, Leilani Basham, Noenoe Silva, David Delgado Shorter, Kehaulani Kauanui, David Cornsilk, Brendan Hokowhitu, Sharon Holland, Siobhan Somerville, and Jessica Yee were stellar participants in our first symposium. American Indian Studies regulars Robert Warrior, Jodi Byrd, John Low, and Keith Camacho, John McKinn (and me) worked the symposium in our various capacities as presenters, hosts, and chief cooks and bottle washers. I counted over 60 people in the audience. Pictured above are David Cornsilk, (Cherokee) and Daniel Justice (Cherokee), in the background are Jodi Byrd, (Chickasaw) Sharon Holland, and Keith Camacho (Chamorro).
More pixs from the dinner at my house. Left to right: Lisa Tatonelli, Janice Gould, Joy Harjo, Kehaulani Kauanui [rolling out the zoom], and Leilani Basham.
Muskogee Creek poet and musician Joy Harjo and guitarist Larry Mitchell kicked off the symposium with a concert at the Illinois Union on Friday night, September 25. Joy is our artist- in-residence this fall at AIS. She’s given craft talks, visited classes at Illinois, attended readings, and given a great performance with Mitchell.
Drum roll please: On October 3, we got the fantabulist news that Joy Harjo won a Nammy Award for Best Female Artist. Everyone please give a shout-out to Joy Harjo and buy her new CD, Winding Through the Milky Way. Available at Joyharjo.com.
Now that fall is just around the corner, I’m happy to report that the Indian Territory Art House is nearing completion. We brought the property next door to my grandmother’s house in July. My grandmother’s house (now ours) served as a model for the Day family in Miko Kings. (Yes, Jay you are right about that.) We gutted the interior and have put in new wiring, walls, roof, plumbing, etc. Art House will also be a Writer’s Retreat and can host up to two writers at a time. While it’s missing the stain glass windows, new trim on the exterior, and some funky colors that we’ll pattern after the Painted Lady’s in San Francisco, we hope to have it finished by December. Art House will host Salon Ada each June. Salonaires have come to Ada from as far away as Colorado, Canada, and Ohio.
Seated here are Jacki Rand and Jim Wilson, relaxing with green tea lattes, guitar, laptop, and wireless connection. The Writer’s Retreat will have all the amenities, including a backyard arbor with peach, pair, apple, fig and plum trees. Woo-woo.
The University of Oklahoma brings out a new book about Indians and sports, titled, Coach Tommy Thompson and the Boys of Sequoyah by Patti Dickinson. Available this September from the OU Press, $19.95. Here is some of the text from the book’s flier:
“When eleven-year-old Tommy Thompson arrived at a government-run Indian boarding school in 1915, it seemed a last resort for the youngster. Instead, it turned out to be the first step toward a life dedicated to helping others. Thompson went on to become a star athlete and football coach—a Cherokee legend whose story is remembered by many and is now finally told for a wider audience.
“Following gridiron fame at Northeastern State College, Thompson returned to Sequoyah Vocational School in 1947 as Boys’ Coach and Advisor. More than a thousand boys attended the boarding school during the eleven years he coached there. Writing for readers old and young, Patti Dickinson tells the inspiring story of how this one man made a difference in the lives of a generation of Indian youth.”
And in other news, here’s 46-year-old Sheila Watson, playing hard for her team, the Chahtas! [Photo by Jay Watson.] It’s Fastpitch Softball time this week-end. Indians from all over the country will begin playing at Tuskahoma’s Red Warrior Park for the Choctaw Nation’s Fastpitch Tournament, September 4, 5, 6, 2009. I’ll be there to watch the games, eat turkey legs and corn on the cob just like every other Choctaw in the ten and 1/2 counties!
Here’s a Miko Kings’ shoutout to birthday girl Lorie Robins, and birthday boy Joe Craig. Happy Birthdays all yall. Hope to see you at Tuskahoma this week-end.
PS: Factoid: Did you know that in 1845 there were only 42 paces from home base to 1st base?
Gets a redux!
For those planning on attending the Choctaw Nation’s Labor Day Festival at Tushka Homa, September 4, 5, 6, 2009 you’re in for a surprise. This year the plaza in front of the Council House is being remodeled and beautified. When a friend and I visited Tushka Homa last week, stone masons were working on a circular rock wall and walking path around the building. I took this photo from the historic village grounds and from that vantage point I would swear that the tin roof has been refreshed in bright red paint.
It was a 104- plus-day, but this year’s Labor Day entertainment is even hotter than the temps. The opening act begins at 6 p.m. Friday night at the Pavilion with the Randy Rogers Band, followed by Billy Currington at 8 p.m. Wynonna Judd then takes center stage at 10 p.m. to smack the pretty. She’s coming straight to Choctaw Country from the 10th anniversary TV show, “Who Wants to be A Millionaire?” If you think the 11-night-Television-event is only for the playful, or the overimaginative and unrealistic, here’s a list of the other “Millionaire” guests:
Frankly, I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Cokie Roberts’ name on the “Millionaire” line-up. Since she left NPR she’s been on everything, all the time. And to think she recently asked her viewers if Obama was “over-exposed.”
However, of all the events I look forward to at Tushka Homa, it’s the Fast-pitch Softball Tournament at Red Warrior Park. The teams are already signing up for thr three-day tournament. Or so I hear from Larry Wade at the Choctaw Nation. I’ll be there chewing on a turkey leg between games. If your team is going to the tournament be sure and post your names on our weblog.
Hey, fast-pitch, slow-pitch teams, and lovers of the game! There’s an Indian co-ed softball tournament this week-end at Muskogee, Oklahoma. It’s a fundraiser for American Indian Students of Promise. The tourney is “Fry Bread Nations ((FBN) Fast Pitch Softball Teams.” The money goes to students who will attend the All-Indian State Softball Tournament. For more information contact Dr. Joseph Bohanon at Bacone College at 918-781-7312 or 918-316-3463.
Last night at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, eight writers rocked ESTEP Auditorium for two hours to a near packed house. Okay, there were 94 people and the auditorium holds about 120. Details, details. It was a fun evening for writers and audience alike. Ken Hada opened with a mix of new poetry, and read from his book The Way of the Wind, followed by poet Johnny Catfish who read from his Tilling Native Soil. Although I am recovering from shingles, I read from my new novel, followed by singer, songwriter, and fabtastic Choctaw-Chickasaw poet, Phil Morgan. Phil got the crowd up on their feet. Twice.
Next, Jacki Rand read from her new memoir, Grows in Poor Soil, followed by Chickasaw storyteller Lorie Robins who told 2 wonderful stories. (The last one made me tear up.) Lorie was followed by poet Sandra Soli who’s working on a new collection titled, Child’s Play. Memoirist Jim Wilson closed the evening’s performance with a reading from, Journeyman, his story of living ten years in
Lebanon and Syria during the Lebanese Civil War. Seven of the writers/storytellers were from part of Salon Ada, a literary event that takes place at my house each June. Pictured top left, Sandra Soli, Jacki Rand, and Phil Morgan (standing in background.)
Bottom right pix. Audience members, and writers in foreground are: far left, Johnny Catfish, front row left, Jim Wilson and Jacki Rand.
