Poetry Promise, Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival, Clark County Poet Laureate Present:

LET THERE BE NO REGRETS:

an online series featuring our United States Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo

The history and cultural identity of Indigenous Peoples and the Jewish people share legacies that help shape the most pressing issues of our society.

From the American Holocaust (the genocide of our indigenous people and subsequent ethnic cleansing through the Indian Schools) to the Nazi Holocaust and other global genocides, we must come to reconcile truths of unimaginable injustice to teach our children the meaning and value of our shared humanity.

The Las Vegas Jewish Film explored the subject in three events: a documentary screening and discussion, a poetry reading and a discussion of Indigenous Peoples literature.

The Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival wass honored to collaborate with Joy Harjo, an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She is also the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States.

Event #1: “Unspoken Americas: Native American Boarding Schools” Screening and Discussion, Wednesday, September 23

The 20th annual Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival (LVJFF) is presenting a free online screening of a PBS documentary film entitled Unspoken Americas: Native American Boarding Schools, as part of its ongoing virtual film series.

Watch Unspoken Americas

A post screening discussion of the documentary was moderated by Joshua Abbey, Director of LVJFF featuring Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis and Professor Andrew Woolford Ph.D. with the University of Manitoba.

Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis is the first Native American Justice to serve on the Washington State Supreme Court, and the second Native American to serve on a state supreme court nationwide. Justice Montoya-Lewis has spent her career as a practicing attorney, tribal court judge, superior court judge, associate professor, and advocate for juvenile justice reform, equity, and tribal communities
Professor Andrew Woolford Ph.D. is the former president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars whose research is centered in the field of genocide studies, with specific emphasis on cultural techniques of group destruction deployed against Indigenous Peoples in North America. He is the author of This Benevolent Experiment: Indigenous Boarding Schools, Genocide and Redress in North America.

The documentary discussion took place September 23, 2020. Below is a recording of the discussion.

Event #2: Joy Harjo Poetry Reading

Joy Harjo read poems from her new publication An American Sunrise. From the poet’s website:

In An American Sunrise, Harjo finds blessings in the abundance of her homeland and confronts the site where her people, and other indigenous families, essentially disappeared. From her memory of her mother’s death, to her beginnings in the native rights movement, to the fresh road with her beloved, Harjo’s personal life intertwines with tribal histories to create a space for renewed beginnings. Her poems sing of beauty and survival, illuminating a spirituality that connects her to her ancestors and thrums with the quiet anger of living in the ruins of injustice.

The poetry reading will take place via Zoom on Tuesday, September 29, 2020. Below is a recording.

POETRY READING REGISTRATION

Event #3: Joy Harjo and Terry Tempest Williams Discussion, Thursday, October 1

Joy Harjo will also participate in a webinar conversation with author Terry Tempest Williams about the August, 2020 publication of the first When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through, A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, on Thursday, October 1 at 5:00 p.m.

The author of nine books of poetry, plays and children's books, and a memoir, her honors include the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, a PEN USA Literary Award, Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund Writers’ Award, a Rasmuson US Artist Fellowship, two NEA fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Harjo is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and is a founding board member of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation.

Terry Tempest Williams is an American writer, educator, conservationist, and activist. Williams' writing is rooted in the American West.

Watch the Conversation