By Mariana Benitez Arreola
Writing has the power to heal, especially for Native and Indigenous minority groups who have suffered the oppression of their people and culture, says Joy Harjo, the 23rd poet laureate of the United States. “Poetry, it’s the use of language when you have no words and you need to speak the unspeakable,” Harjo told a UC Santa Barbara audience last month.
She is the first Native American to hold this title and is the second person ever to have served in the position for three terms. She is part of the Mvskoke Creek nation of Oklahoma, is a feminist poet and musician who writes about colonization, love, fear and empowerment —all through storytelling.
UCSB’s Multicultural Center hosted Harjo for a poetry reading and open discussion. The event was co-sponsored by the American Indian and Indigenous Cultural Resource Center and the AS Programs Board.
Harjo was speaking for the MCC’s Resilient Love Series which features artists who promote creative work that forges a long-driven response to hate, hurt and fear. “I love the name of this series, Resilient Love. That’s what it’s about,” Harjo said. “Everyone in here has a story.”
Joy Harjo, the 23rd poet laureate of the United States, came to UC Santa Barbara earlier this month for a poetry reading and Q&A session.
Through music and storytelling many Native and indigenous communities were able to keep their culture alive. Harjo said opening up and listening to stories that differ from your individual perspective allows for your life to develop a deeper meaning. She encouraged everyone to be fearless in discussing perspectives that were once considered “unspeakable.”
Harjo began the event by acknowledging keepers of the land, saying they are a part of something beyond just physical space. “Keepers of the land are also usually the culture keepers,” she said. “Because there’s no culture without land.”
In her presentations Harjo harnessed the power of music to honor “culture keepers” and she played a harmonious song on her flute, filling the room with a calming tone to create a poetic healing space.
The Mvskoke Creek native Americans came from the east coast but due to forced migration by the U.S. government, the nation ended up in Oklahoma. Harjo told a story of traveling to Tennessee and standing on a ledge where her family five generations ago would stand to look out for the best horses. By the time she stood there, this ledge no longer overlooked a beautiful valley but a highway intersection. “Part of removal was really an economic decision, I guess an economic takeover,” she said.
Harjo read a series of love poems, noting it is necessary to find joy amid all the negatives. In Remember Me, she linked environmental honor and ancestry. “Remember your birth, how your mother struggles to give you form and breathe. You are evidence of her life and her mother’s and hers,” she recited. “Remember the wind, remember her voice, she knows the origin of the universe.”
Joy Harjo, the 23rd poet laureate of the United States, presented a song to honor keepers of the culture and land earlier this month to a UC Santa Barbara audience.
She described how she transitioned from studying pre-medicine to majoring in poetry at the University of New Mexico. Poetry found Harjo, not the other way around. “You don’t see poetry on career day. It is more like a calling,” she joked.
Fearing insecurity after her career switch, she found comfort in poetry. I Give You Back, was a piece that came to Harjo to help overcome the burden of fear. “I release you my beautiful and terrible fear,” she recited. “You are my beloved and hated twin but now I don’t know you as myself.”
Then she brought out poems relating to ancestral healing. Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in its Human Feet unpacks the long-lasting agony of colonization that persists through generations. Harjo spoke powerfully about releasing violence in an effort to let in forgiveness. “Let go the pain of your ancestors and make way for those who are heading in our direction,” she urged the audience.
Micky Brown, interim program coordinator of the MCC Theater, said that Harjo’s approach speaks to the immense pain and burden that Native communities bear every day. “Intergenerational anguish of this immense pain that you feel all the time. And you put it in a poem to try to get some of it out, and I feel like Joy does this really well,” he said.
Brown said it is life altering for minority communities on campus to see role models like Harjo. “As marginalized people, it can be hard to see a future for yourself and to see a future where you are successful and where your movement is successful,” he said.
UCSB student Isabel Montalvo was so moved by Harjo’s experiences, that she asked a question about how Harjo was able to confront a risky passion-based career decision. “A lot of people asked her personal questions because you feel like you can just ask her anything and nothing would surprise her or nothing would seem off topic,” Montalvo said.
Mariana Benitez Arreola is a third-year at UC Santa Barbara who is double majoring in Sociology and Latin American and Iberian studies. She is currently pursuing the Professional Writing Minor and wrote this article for her Digital Journalism course.