intangible - madisen kuhn
To celebrate National Poetry Month I wanted some collections by voices that are familiar to me.
More you might like
I’m about to head out on vacation but I’m leaving you with something very cool, since after all it is National Poetry Month – every year the organizers of the O, Miami Poetry Festival spend the month of April attempting to make sure that everyone in Miami sees at least one poem.
That means sneaking poetry in everywhere – on bandaids and beer cans, in gumball machines, on buses and random city walls, even in sourdough starters and the sides of old strip clubs. And though there have been some big-name guests over the years, most of the poetry is by the people of Miami themselves. (The bandaids, by the way, will be given out to cover COVID-19 needle sticks at some health care facilities.)
This bus stop poem really spoke to me – though any peacock that stole MY bagel would be in trouble.
If you’re not lucky enough to be in Miami right now, you can find a list of all this year’s projects here, along with detailed descriptions of each one.
So please enjoy some poetry, and I’ll see y’all back here in two weeks!
– Petra
Images courtesy of O, Miami
We’re coming to the end of National Poetry Month. Did you read any new poems or revisit an old favorite this month?
jan 10, 2022
annotating poetry and journaling, what else is new? also, i am immensely enjoying my current reads and coffee to keep me warm.
Coloring Pages in Honor of Poetry Month
Whether you like to color inside the lines or out, take a break with some Poetry Month-themed coloring from our Digital Collections.
ALTCarl Phillips, "Fixed Shadow, Moving Water", Then the War: New and Selected Poems [ID'd]
Native American/First Nations Woman Writer of the Week
NORA MARKS DAUENHAUER
Continuing on our trek through what remains of March, I offer you another Indigenous woman writer, Nora Marks Keixwnéi Dauenhauer (1927-2017), a Tlingit writer from Juneau, Alaska. Born in Juneau, Dauenhauer grew up there as well as in Hoonah, Alaska with a father who was a fisherman and carver, and a mother who was a beader. Dauenhauer lived at times with her parents on a fishing boat and in seasonal camps. Being a member of the Tlingit tribe, her first language was Łingít, and she did not learn English until she was eight.
Following her mother in the Tlingit matrilineal system, she was a member of the Raven moiety of the Tlingit nation, of the Yakutat Lukaax̱.ádi (Sockeye Salmon) clan, of the Shaka Hít or Canoe Prow House, from Alsek River. She was chosen as clan co-leader of Lukaax̱.ádi (Sockeye Salmon) in 1986 and as trustee of the Raven House and other clan property. She was then given the title Naa Tláa (Clan Mother) in 2010, becoming the ceremonial leader of the clan.
Dauenhauer earned a BA in anthropology from Alaska Methodist University in Anchorage. In the early 1970s, she married poet and Tlingit scholar Richard Dauenhauer and together they made significant contributions to preserve the Tlingit oral traditions in their Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature book series. Nora Dauenhauer became a Tlingit language researcher for the Native Language Center at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks from 1972-1973, and then became the principal researcher in language and cultural studies at the Sealaska Heritage Foundation in Juneau from 1983-1997.
On the subject of preserving the Tlingit oral tradition and its importance, Dauenhaur said:
People are now beginning to take action for language and cultural survival, and my work is to help provide inspiration and tools for this through my writing.
Dauenhauer had several accomplishments, including being named the 1980 Humanist of the Year by the Alaska Humanities Forum. Together, the Dauenhauers were awarded the Alaska Governor’s Award for the Arts, two American Book Awards, and a Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award. In 2005, Nora Dauenhauer was the recipient of the Community Spirit Award from the First People’s Fund.
As a poet, Nora Dauenhauer published two collections, one of which we hold in Special Collections, Life Woven With Song, published by the University of Arizona Press in 2000 (the other is The Droning Shaman, Black Current Press, 1989). This book recreates the oral tradition of the Tlingit people through written language in a variety of literary forms, and records memories of Dauenhauer’s heritage from old relatives and Tlingit elders, to trolling for salmon and preparing food in the dryfish camps and making a living by working in canneries.
Author Photo is by Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie
See other writers we have featured in Native American/First Nations Woman Writer of the Week.
View other posts from our Native American Literature Collection.
– Elizabeth V., Special Collections Undergraduate Writing Intern
