2021 Hancock Symposium special event, "An Evening of Poetry and Music" by Joy Harjo,
23rd Poet Laureate of the United States
. September 15, 2021, at 7 pm in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury.
Joy gave a poetry reading and musical performance that focused on the value of the arts to sustain us. A book signing followed.
Joy Harjo was appointed the 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate in 2019, the first Native American to hold the position and only the second person to serve three terms in the role. Harjo’s nine books of poetry include An American Sunrise, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems, and She Had Some Horses. She is also the author of two memoirs, Crazy Brave (2013) and, most recently, Poet Warrior (2021), which invites her audience to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her “poet-warrior” road. Harjo has edited several anthologies of Native American writing, including When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through - A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry and Living Nations, Living Words, the companion anthology to her signature poet laureate project. Her many writing awards include the 2019 Jackson Prize from the Poetry Society of America, the Ruth Lilly Prize from the Poetry Foundation, the 2015 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. Harjo is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Board of Directors Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, and holds a Tulsa Artist Fellowship. A renowned musician, Harjo performs with her saxophone nationally and internationally; her most recent album is I Pray For My Enemies. She lives in Tulsa, OK.
The 2021 Hancock Symposium on "Beyond 2020: Finding Opportunity in an Age of Disruption" invited Westminster students to actively and creatively examine the disruptions of 2020 in order to cast a vision for our collective future. If we needed reminders that life will serve up challenges none of us would have predicted, the year 2020 provided plenty. The great pandemic, heated protests over racial injustice, and a disputed election dominated the headlines. But other great disruptions troubled us at least as much: some as global as environmental disasters, others as personal as the loss of a job or a loved one in the midst of COVID-19. Disruption is often painful, but with it comes opportunity. When the familiar ways forward are blocked, we explore new ways, whether in science and technology, business and finance, politics and justice, or even in how we imagine community and relationships. Beyond 2020, we have the chance to break new ground, letting go of old paradigms and embracing new, innovative ways of working and living together.
29 сен 2024
