EIU Booth Library

Recording of U.S. Poet Laureate program available

Posted on November 11th, 2020

U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo read from her book, “An American Sunrise,” during a special virtual event on Jan. 30. The program was part of EIU Booth Library’s Big Read program.

Harjo, a member of the Mvskoke/Creek, read from “An American Sunrise” and participated in a moderated Q+A discussion. A recording of the program will be available until March 1 on YouTube here.

Harjo’s program was sponsored by Booth Library, the Broward County Library (Florida), Broward Public Library Foundation Inc., and Florida Center for the Book. The event was part of the annual Lions in Winter festival sponsored by the EIU Department of English.

In 2019, Harjo was appointed the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold the position. She has since been reappointed to the position twice, with her third term scheduled to begin in September 2021. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Harjo is an internationally known award-winning poet, writer, performer, and saxophone player of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation.

In “American Sunrise,” Harjo’s eighth collection of poems, she revisits the homeland from which her ancestors were uprooted in 1830 as a result of the Indian Removal Act. The book explores the power of nature, spirituality, memory, violence, and the splintered history of America’s indigenous peoples.

NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.