Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1233243
As United States Poet Laureate, what's your advice to young people who hope to be poets? To love and believe in your art. You have to take care of it by always reading, studying, learning and listening. I see the poet as someone singing of the history and mystery of what it means to be human. But learning and listening – that should be the same for any person who is alive and trying to make the most of this thing called living. I would also hope young poets understand poetry is not so much a career as a calling. Poetry is such a different art form than other art forms and not the easiest to make a living at. Most successful, published poets also take jobs in editing or teaching or something – we need to make a living! What do you hope your audiences will take away from hearing from you as a person? I think as a Muscogee (Creek), I want them to know my people didn't disappear; we are still here. Sometimes we're poets, sometimes saxophone players, sometimes accountants or ballerinas or homemakers. We're human beings who are still alive individually and as a people even though we were illegally run out of Georgia and unable to leave a living presence. There are homes still standing that belonged to Muscogee (Creek) that were illegally taken when we were forced to pick up and leave lands and farms and businesses. I've visited a home near Columbus once owned by a close relative. It's still there, still standing. One of the first times I performed in the Southeast, at Auburn University, I mentioned I was the granddaughter of Monahwee, whom they call Menawa, a central figure at the nearby Battle of Horseshoe Bend grounds. There was a collective gasp because suddenly I was essentially a ghost standing before them. They assumed we were all dead, massacred. No, I said, we are over 60,000 today. Get to know Joy Harjo, the first Native American Poet Laureate BY MICHAEL W. PANNELL | PHOTO BY MATIKA WILBUR JOY HARJO has been United States Poet Laureate since June 19, 2019. The first Native American Poet Laureate will be in Macon on Feb. 19 for poetry readings, discussions of her work and book signings at Middle Georgia State University (11 a.m.) and Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park (5:30 p.m.). Harjo is a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the last tribal nation to inhabit the Ocmulgee Mounds and surrounding southern areas prior to forceful and illegal relocation to the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). In addition to establishing her poetic voice, Harjo is a memoirist, playwright, children's author, popular saxophonist, teacher, editor and activist. Her books include "Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings" and "Crazy Brave," a memoir. She has received many awards and been elected Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. In announcing her as Poet Laureate, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said Harjo "tells an American story of tradition and loss, reckoning and myth-making. Her work powerfully connects us to the earth and the spiritual world with direct, inventive lyricism that helps us reimagine who we are." 2 6 M ACO N M AG A Z I N E.CO M | F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 2 0