Soul Talk, Song Language: Conversations with Joy Harjo

by Joy Harjo, Tanaya Winder, Laura Coltelli (Other)

Overview

Intimate and illuminating conversations with one of America's foremost Native artists

Joy Harjo is a "poet-healer-philosopher-saxophonist," and one of the most powerful Native American voices of her generation. She has spent the past two decades exploring her place in poetry, music, dance/performance, and art. Soul Talk, Song Language gathers together in one complete collection many of these explorations and conversations. Through an eclectic assortment of media, including personal essays, interviews, and newspaper columns, Harjo reflects upon the nuances and development of her art, the importance of her origins, and the arduous reconstructions of the tribal past, as well as the dramatic confrontation between Native American and Anglo civilizations. Harjo takes us on a journey into her identity as a woman and an artist, poised between poetry and music, encompassing tribal heritage and reassessments and comparisons with the American cultural patrimony. She presents herself in an exquisitely literary context that is rooted in ritual and ceremony and veers over the edge where language becomes music.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819574183
Publisher:	Wesleyan University Press
Publication date:	09/24/2013
Pages:	164
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.75(h) x 0.41(d)

About the Author

JOY HARJO became the first Native American to be named Poet Laureate of the United States in 2019. She is a multitalented artist of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation. She is an internationally known poet, performer, writer, and musician. She has published seven books of acclaimed poetry including She Had Some Horses, In Mad Love and War, The Woman Who Fell from the Sky, and How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems. She has produced five award-winning albums of music and poetry including Letter from the End of the Twentieth Century, Winding through the Milky Way, and Red Dreams: A Trail Beyond Tears. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. TANAYA WINDER is a poet from the Duckwater Shoshone and Southern Ute nations. She is pursuing an MFA in poetry from University of New Mexico and working on her first collection of poetry. LAURA COLTELLI is a professor of American literature at the University of Pisa, Italy. Her publications include Winged Words, American Indian Writers Speak, and an edited collection of essays, Reading Leslie Marmon Silko.

Table of Contents

Foreword: A Carrier of Memory – Laura Coltelli
Acknowledgments
INTERVIEWS
Becoming the Thing Itself, Interview with Triplopia
Music, Poetry, and Stories: Returning to the Root Source, Interview with Rebecca Seiferle
Exploring the Depths of Creation and Meaning, Interview with Simmons Buntin
The Thirst for Artistic Brilliance, Interview with Pam Kingsbury
In the Horizon of Light with Joy Harjo, Interview with Ruben Quesada
Writing, Constructing the Next World, Interview with Bill Nevins
Transcending Writing on Singing Wings, Interview with Tanaya Winder
Song Language: Creating from the Heart, Out, Interview with Loriene Roy
You Might as Well Dance, Interview with Harbour Winn, Elaine Smokewood, and John McBryde
The Craft of Soul Talk, Interview with Susan Thornton Hobby
COLUMNS BY JOY HARJO
Global Roots, Muscogee Nation News, October 2006
Identity, Muscogee Nation News, December 2006
Censorship and the Power of Images, Muscogee Nation News, May 2007
It's Difficult Enough to Be Human, Muscogee Nation News, June 2007
Dehumanization Flatlines, Muscogee Nation News, August 2007
We Are Story Gatherers, Muscogee Nation News, June 2008
We Are the Earth, Muscogee Nation News, August 2009
A Way to Speak Their Souls, Muscogee Nation News, February 2010
Energy of the Transaction, Muscogee Nation News, April 2010
Watching the World Shift , Muscogee Nation News, July 2010
THE LAST WORD: PROSE PIECES BY JOY HARJO
Preface for She Had Some Horses, From the second edition, W.W. Norton, 2009
The Art of Resistance, Preface for Indigenous People's Journal of Law, Culture and Resistance, 2004
Afterword for The Delicacy and Strength of Lace, From the second edition, Graywolf Press, 2009
In Honor of Patricia Grace, World Literature Today, May–June 2009
I Used to Think a Poem Could Become a Flower, Introduction to Ploughshares, December 2004
Talking with the Sun, From This I Believe, July 2007
About the Authors

What People are Saying About This

Marilyn Kallet

“A new book by Joy Harjo is a major event in American literature, and this collection of interviews is no exception. Harjo is a virtual Renaissance woman, the singer who stands at the center of a newly created universe warmed by her voice and her ability to rock n’ roll. Harjo’s comments on her own work in all its guises will be invaluable to anyone who cherishes poetry, music, oral tradition lore, and Native American history. These interviews bring us inside, to the kitchen table, where the universe is created over and over, by Joy Harjo, poet, fierce and tender singer, who revitalizes creation, makes it personal in her breaths. There is no substitute for the poet’s own insights into her multifaceted body of work.”

From the Publisher

“In Soul Talk, Song Language Joy Harjo provides a rare and treasurable acoustic: the sound of an artist and woman thinking for herself, and for us. Never afraid of large questions of purpose and identity. But never remiss either in providing beautiful, small details of craft and commitment. This is an essential book.”—“In Soul Talk, Song Language Joy Harjo provides a rare and treasurable acoustic: the sound of an artist and woman thinking for herself, and for us. Never afraid of large questions of purpose and identity. But never remiss either in providing beautiful, small details of craft and commitment. This is an essential book.”
“A new book by Joy Harjo is a major event in American literature, and this collection of interviews is no exception. Harjo is a virtual Renaissance woman, the singer who stands at the center of a newly created universe warmed by her voice and her ability to rock n’ roll. Harjo’s comments on her own work in all its guises will be invaluable to anyone who cherishes poetry, music, oral tradition lore, and Native American history. These interviews bring us inside, to the kitchen table, where the universe is created over and over, by Joy Harjo, poet, fierce and tender singer, who revitalizes creation, makes it personal in her breaths. There is no substitute for the poet’s own insights into her multifaceted body of work.”—“A new book by Joy Harjo is a major event in American literature, and this collection of interviews is no exception. Harjo is a virtual Renaissance woman, the singer who stands at the center of a newly created universe warmed by her voice and her ability to rock n’ roll. Harjo’s comments on her own work in all its guises will be invaluable to anyone who cherishes poetry, music, oral tradition lore, and Native American history. These interviews bring us inside, to the kitchen table, where the universe is created over and over, by Joy Harjo, poet, fierce and tender singer, who revitalizes creation, makes it personal in her breaths. There is no substitute for the poet’s own insights into her multifaceted body of work.”
“A fascinating, complex portrait of Joy Harjo, the poet musician, emerges from these conversations. Soul Talk, Song Language focuses on her process of making an organic fusion of the musicality of words with the language of the saxophone. Everyone who loves her performances and her writing will want to read this book, which includes Joy’s monthly columns for the Muscogee Nation News.”—“A fascinating, complex portrait of Joy Harjo, the poet musician, emerges from these conversations. Soul Talk, Song Language focuses on her process of making an organic fusion of the musicality of words with the language of the saxophone. Everyone who loves her performances and her writing will want to read this book, which includes Joy’s monthly columns for the Muscogee Nation News.”
“Gathering stories, making stories, and sharing them in a dynamic back and forth defines our humanity. Soul Talk, Song Language gathers, makes, and shares stories that extend our vision of [Harjo’s] work in and out of Indian Country.”—“Gathering stories, making stories, and sharing them in a dynamic back and forth defines our humanity. Soul Talk, Song Language gathers, makes, and shares stories that extend our vision of [Harjo’s] work in and out of Indian Country.”

Eavan Boland

“In Soul Talk, Song Language Joy Harjo provides a rare and treasurable acoustic: the sound of an artist and woman thinking for herself, and for us. Never afraid of large questions of purpose and identity. But never remiss either in providing beautiful, small details of craft and commitment. This is an essential book.”

Leslie Marmon Silko

“A fascinating, complex portrait of Joy Harjo, the poet musician, emerges from these conversations. Soul Talk, Song Language focuses on her process of making an organic fusion of the musicality of words with the language of the saxophone. Everyone who loves her performances and her writing will want to read this book, which includes Joy’s monthly columns for the Muscogee Nation News.”

Susan Bernardin

“Gathering stories, making stories, and sharing them in a dynamic back and forth defines our humanity. Soul Talk, Song Language gathers, makes, and shares stories that extend our vision of [Harjo’s] work in and out of Indian Country.”

Editorial Reviews

"Soul Talk, Song Language gathers, makes, and shares stories that extend our vision of her work in and out of Indian Country."—Susan Bernardin, World Literature Today

"In Soul Talk, Song Language Joy Harjo provides a rare and treasurable acoustic: the sound of an artist and woman thinking for herself, and for us. Never afraid of large questions of purpose and identity. But never remiss either in providing beautiful, small details of craft and commitment. This is an essential book."—Eavan Boland, author of New Collected Poems

"In Soul Talk, Song Language Joy Harjo provides a rare and treasurable acoustic: the sound of an artist and woman thinking for herself, and for us. Never afraid of large questions of purpose and identity. But never remiss either in providing beautiful, small details of craft and commitment. This is an essential book."—Eavan Boland, author of New Collected Poems

"A new book by Joy Harjo is a major event in American literature, and this collection of interviews is no exception. Harjo is a virtual Renaissance woman, the singer who stands at the center of a newly created universe warmed by her voice and her ability to rock n' roll. Harjo's comments on her own work in all its guises will be invaluable to anyone who cherishes poetry, music, oral tradition lore, and Native American history. These interviews bring us inside, to the kitchen table, where the universe is created over and over, by Joy Harjo, poet, fierce and tender singer, who revitalizes creation, makes it personal in her breaths. There is no substitute for the poet's own insights into her multifaceted body of work."—Marilyn Kallet, author of Packing Light: New & Selected Poems

"A fascinating, complex portrait of Joy Harjo, the poet musician, emerges from these conversations. Soul Talk, Song Language focuses on her process of making an organic fusion of the musicality of words with the language of the saxophone. Everyone who loves her performances and her writing will want to read this book, which includes Joy's monthly columns for the Muscogee Nation News."—Leslie Marmon Silko, author of The Turquoise Ledge

"Gathering stories, making stories, and sharing them in a dynamic back and forth defines our humanity. Soul Talk, Song Language gathers, makes, and shares stories that extend our vision of [Harjo's] work in and out of Indian Country."—Susan Bernardin, World Literature Today

From the Publisher