Crazy Brave: A Memoir

The Utah Humanities Book Festival, in conjunction with Holmgren Historical Farm, are excited to present acclaimed indigenous poet, musician and activist Joy Harjo reading from her new memoir Crazy Brave in the Holmgren Historical Barn.

 

Date: Friday, Oct. 5, 2012
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Holmgren Historical Farm

460 North 300 East Tremonton, UT

 

Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is an internationally known poet, performer, writer, and saxophone player of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation. Her seven books of poetry include 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, all published by W.W. Norton. Her poetry has garnered many awards including the New Mexico Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, 1998 Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. Harjo's memoir, Crazy Brave, tells of her journey to becoming a poet and was called "the best kind of memoir, an unself-conscious mix of autobiography, spiritual rumination, cultural evaluation, history and political analysis told in simple but authoritative and deeply poetic prose" by Ms Magazine.

In this transcendent memoir, grounded in tribal myth and ancestry, music and poetry, Joy Harjo, one of our leading Native American voices, details her journey to becoming a poet. Harjo grew up learning to dodge an abusive stepfather by finding shelter in her imagination, a deep spiritual life, and connection with the natural world. She attended an Indian arts boarding school, where she nourished an appreciation for painting, music, and poetry; gave birth while still a teenager; and struggled on her own as a single mother, eventually finding her poetic voice.

A renowned musician, Harjo 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. 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 other performances at the Public Theater in NYC and LaJolla Playhouse as part of the Native Voices at the Autry. She lives in Glenpool, OK.

Other key sponsors of this event include Weller's Book Works, The Women and Gender Center at Utah State University and Utah State University Library's Special Collections and Archives Division.