"In the summer of 2012 I drove across the United States of America and aimed to photograph this country from an indigenous, queer perspective. It is part of a Work in Progress titled TRANSPLANT///. At one point I pulled over on the side of a stretch road in South Dakota to observe a thunderstorm. After taking a few photographs, I continued to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation--the ancestral lands of the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota. I checked into a room at the tribal casino and in the morning when I awoke I spoke with a local Native woman at the front desk. We shared a brief and sweet interaction that involved much laughter. As we parted ways I reached into my bag and handed her a book of poetry by Joy Harjo. It was from her milestone published work, She Had Some Horses. I had just finished driving over 7,500 miles and Joy accompanied me along the way. I picked up a copy of Crazy Brave at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. and savored each page from Portland, ME to Providence, RI to New York City, and finished it en route to Detroit, MI. I keep two copies of She Had Some Horses at all times. One is my personal copy, and the other is meant to be given away at another chance encounter. " -Demian Diné Yazhi ________________________________________. Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) in collaboration with Museum of Contemporary Craft (MoCC) is honored to welcome celebrated author, activist, and musician Joy Harjo, who will deliver the 2014 Alfred Edelman Lecture on Wednesday, March 12, 6:30 pm. Harjo’s lecture is part of Illuminations, a city-wide event series celebrating Native arts and cultures centered around This is Not a Silent Movie at Museum of Contemporary Craft. About Joy Harjo: Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She just published her memoir, Crazy Brave, detailing her journey to becoming a poet. Harjo’s seven books of poetry, which includes such well-known titles as How We Became Human-New and Selected Poems, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, and She Had Some Horses have garnered many awards. These include the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas; and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. In 2009 For A Girl Becoming was published. She has released four award-winning CD’s of original music and in 2009 won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year for Winding Through the Milky Way. Her most recent CD release is a traditional flute album: Red Dreams, a Trail Beyond Tears. She performs nationally and internationally with her band, the Arrow Dynamics. She also performs her one-woman show, Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light,which premiered at the Wells Fargo Theater in Los Angeles in 2009 with recent performances at the Public Theater in NYC and LaJolla Playhouse as part of the Native Voices at the Autry. She has received a Rasmusson: US Artists Fellowship and is a founding board member of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Harjo writes a column “Comings and Goings” for her tribal newspaper, the Mvskoke Nation News. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. http://cal.pnca.edu/haps/993
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