Kimberly Blaeser - Keynote Reading, “Languages of The Land,” Write On, Door County Gala

Join Esther Belin and the 2024 James Welch Prize winning poets Kara Briggs and Kateri Menominee for an in-person reading and celebration of their work. Presented in partnership with Poetry Northwest and In-Na-Po (Indigenous Nations Poets). Barrier-free entry for all

About the winners:

Kara Briggs, a citizen of the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe, descended Yakama Nation, is a poet, journalist and author who lives north of Seattle. Her forthcoming book Rivers in my Veins from St. Julian Press is her first poetry collection. She recently graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the Institute of American Indian Art. As an undergraduate she studied abroad with Irish poets in Ireland. She was a national columnist for ICT and investigative journalist at The Oregonian. She is a former president of the Native American Journalists Association. Her poetry is lyrical and gives readers a view on the deep connections tribes have to their lands and waters. She writes in poetic forms, particularly Japanese forms of haiku and haibun. She also writes in the rhythms of social dance songs from her tribes. Deep in her work is a tribal political perspective that seeks to elevate the reader’s understanding of contemporary Native peoples. She serves as vice president of Ecotrust, where she leads work with tribes across the West Coast. 

Kateri Menominee writes from the smokey anchorage of Gnoozhekaning. She listens to Lofi Legend of Zelda playlists and plays Fallout.

About the judge:

2024 judge Esther Belin (Diné) is among the myriad of indigenous peoples on the planet to survive in urbanized areas. She is a graduate from the following institutions: UC Berkeley, IAIA, Antioch University. She considers the following locations her homeland: LA, Durango, Diné bike’yah. Her writing and art grows from an is an offering to the collective humanity, bila’ ashdla’ii. Esther is the author of two poetry books and coeditor of The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature. Belin’s visual art combines a variety of disciplines and works to reframe the mythical primitivism often associated with Indigenous cultures. She is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and lives on the Colorado side of the four corners. Belin is a member of Saad Bee Hózhǫ́:Diné Writers’ Collective, and teaches in the Native American and Indigenous Studies department at Fort Lewis College and in the low-residency MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. 

About the Prize:

Poetry Northwest’s James Welch Prize for Indigenous Poets is awarded for two outstanding poems, each written by an Indigenous U.S. poet. The prize is named for Blackfeet and Gros Ventre writer James Welch, whose early poems were featured in Poetry Northwest and who went on to become one of the region’s most important writers.

Finalists selected by poets from the board and advisory committee of In-Na-Po (Indigenous Nations Poets) with the editors of Poetry Northwest:

Mary Leauna Christensen  |  Kinsale Drake  |  Max Early  |  Chris Hoshnic  |  Ibe Liebenberg  |  Casandra Lopez  |  Malia Maxwell  |  Michael Wasson

Live from Storyknife featuring IN-NA-PO fellow Kale Kim.

Indigenous Nations Poets: Poetry Reading

The Minnesota Humanities Center (MHC), in partnership with Indigenous Nations Poets (IN-NA-PO) is honored to present an evening of poetry readings with this year’s IN-NA-PO fellows and visiting writers. Capping off their week-long retreat at MHC, a group of IN-NA-PO fellows and visiting writers will share some of their original work and engage each other and the audience in conversation. Hosting this event will be former Wisconsin Poet Laureate Kimberly Blaeser, City of Minneapolis Poet Laureate Heid E. Erdrich, and Minnesota Poet Laureate Gwen Nell Westerman.

Presenting Fellows include:
Bonney Hartley
Sunni Parisien
Anangookwe Wolf
Tacey Atsitty
Anthony Ceballos
Kinsale Drake
Kale Kim

In the spirit of nourishing our bodies and our minds, prior to the event, we invite you to join us for a complimentary community meal. Books will be available for purchase at the event through Birchbark Books, and book signing will take place after event activities have ended.

Join us for a very special evening of poetry and music with esteemed poets and writers, Kimberly Blaeser, Gordon Henry, Jr., and Gerald Vizenor. Our guests will share haiku, Anishinaabe dream songs, music, as well as conversation with one another and the audience on their work and inspirations. In the spirit of nourishing our bodies and our minds, prior to the event, we invite you to join us for a complimentary community meal, during which we will be joined by special musical guest, Phil Fried.

Books by Blaeser, Henry, and Vizenor will be available for purchase at the event through Birchbark Books, and book signing will take place after event activities have ended.

This event is presented in partnership with Indigenous Nations Poets (IN-NA-PO), a national Indigenous poetry community committed to mentoring emerging writers, nurturing the growth of Indigenous poetic practices, and raising the visibility of all Native writers past, present, and future. In-Na-Po recognizes the role of poetry in sustaining tribal sovereign nations and Native languages.

via Minnesota Humanities Center

The DAACBI Virtual Exhibition is to celebrate the work of 15 fellows in writing, weaving, and silversmithing. Special guests include Tanaya Winder, owner of Poetic Fire LLC, and Amy Denet Deal, owner of 4Kinship.

June 11th 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM MST

Indigenous Poetry Reading

6:00 - 8:00 PM MST

Featuring MC Yitazba Largo-Anderson & Poets Levi Long, Taté Walker, Laura Tohe, Ruben Cu:l Ba’ak

Happy Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian and Asian American Heritage Month!
Celebrate with us by joining Chamorrita Poet Arielle Tatiano Lowe for an online, Zoom workshop, Songs for Water: Hydropoetics & Pasifika Poetry.  

In honor of Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian and Asian American Heritage Month, we will discuss poems by Indigenous (and) Pasifika poets, exploring the following questions: What forms of water are present around and within us? How can we sing praise to bodies of water through poetry? This workshop encourages the use of Indigenous languages. 

About the Poet:

Arielle Taitano Lowe is the first Chamoru woman, Guam-born and raised, to publish a full-length book of poetry. She is a Sablan from Hågat and "Atulai" Taitano from Mangilao. Her debut book OCEAN MOTHER (University of Guam Press 2024) tells stories of her childhood and memories from Guam. Her poems have also been featured by the Academy of American Poets, Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures, and Under a Warm Green Linden, among others. She has received fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, Indigenous Nations Poets, Storyknife, and the East-West Center. 

Join us on Zoom Wednesday May 29th at 7 PM CST

Including IN-NA-PO Inaugural Fellow Rena Priest

2024 IN-NA-PO Spring Fellows Reading

Join us for our Spring Fellows Reading Wednesday May 1st with 1st and 2nd year IN-NA-PO Fellows representing 8 Indigenous groups across the United States. Poets Kalehua Kim, Tacey M. Atsitty, Manny Loley, Melanie Merle, m.s. RedCherries, Anthony Ceballos, Erin Marie Lynch, Boderra Joe, Arielle Lowe, & Kalilinoe Detwiler will be live on Zoom at 7 p.m. CST

Tuesday, April 30th at 6:30pm CST

Birchbark Books presents a reading and conversation between Summer J. Hart, Teresa Peterson, and Diane Wilson in celebration of Summer J. Hart’s wonderful book, Boomhouse

Celebrate National Poetry Month with Twin Cities Indies Press Poetry Open House.
Featuring Ed Bok Lee, Heid Erdrich, Chris Martin, Jim Moore, Mark Nowak & Clair Wahmanholm.

Tuesday, April 30th

Doors at 5:30 PM CST | Readings Begin at 6 PM CST

#LanguageBack Panel & Reading

Reading & panel with Kimberly Blaeser, Laura Tohe & Elise Paschen

Poetry Reading featuring Laura Tohe, current Navajo Nation Poet Laureate and author of Tseyí / Deep in the Rock (University of Arizona Press, 2005), KimberlyBlaeser, author of Ancient Light (University of Arizona Press, 2024), and Elise Paschen, author of Tallchief (Magic City Books, 2023). Presented as part of our series Native Writers in the 21st Century with support from the NEA.

Wednesday, April 24, 2024. 7:00 PM 9:00 PM CST

Laura Tohe is Diné, Sleepy-Rock People clan and born for the Bitter Water People clan. She is the current Navajo Nation Poet Laureate. Her books include No Parole Today, Making Friends with Water, Tséyi / Deep in the Rock, and Code Talker Stories. With Heid Erdrich, she edited the anthology Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community, and her commissioned libretto, Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio and Nahasdzáán in the Glittering World, made its world premiere in France in 2008. Among her awards are the 2020 Academy of American Poetry Fellowship; 2019 American Indian Festival of Writers Award; Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and Storytellers; the Joy Harjo & the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund Award; and the Arizona Book Association's Glyph Award for Best Poetry and Best Book. Tohe is Professor Emerita with Distinction from Arizona State University.

Kimberly Blaeser, past Wisconsin Poet Laureate and founding director of Indigenous Nations Poets, is the author of six poetry collections including Ancient Light, Copper Yearning, and the bilingual Résister en dansant/Ikwe-niimi: Dancing Resistance. Her photographs, picto-poems, and ekphrastic pieces have appeared in exhibits such as “Visualizing Sovereignty,” and “No More Stolen Sisters.” An enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, she is an Anishinaabe activist and environmentalist. An MFA faculty member at the Institute of American Indian Arts and a Professor Emerita at UW–Milwaukee, Blaeser currently serves as a Vassar College Tatlock Fellow and the 2024 Mackey Chair in Creative Writing at Beloit College. Her accolades include a Lifetime Achievement Award from Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. She lives in rural Wisconsin and in a seasonal cabin near the BWCA wilderness.

Elise Paschen’s next book of poetry, Blood Wolf Moon, will be published in 2025. An enrolled member of the Osage Nation, she is the author of six poetry collections, most recently, Tallchief. As an undergraduate at Harvard, she received the Garrison Medal for poetry. She holds M.Phil. and D.Phil. degrees from Oxford University. Her poems have been published widely, including in Poetry, the New Yorker, A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, and Best American Poetry. She has edited or co-edited numerous anthologies, including The Eloquent Poem,and the New York Times bestseller, Poetry Speaks. Paschen teaches in the MFA Writing Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Westminster Presents an evening of Native American poetry
with
Heid E. Erdrich, Marcie R. Rendon, and Louise K. Waakaa’igan. hosted by artist-in-residence Wendy Brown-Báez

Westminster Presbyterian Church
1200 Marquette Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55403

free and in person please RSVP
followed by reception, and book signing with Birchbark Books

Monday April 8th, 1:30 - 3:00 PM PST

Kicking off National Poetry Month this April with a Book Talk at UW Tacoma in Tacoma WA. Moderated by Dr. Tabitha Espina in collaboration with the AAPI Thrive cohort, Asian American Rhetorics and Native Women’s Literatures cohorts.