#Gwen Nell Westerman

[lifeinpoetry]

Linear Process

— Gwen Nell Westerman, from Follow the Blackbirds

[ineedtoreadmorepoetry]

Dakota Homecoming by Gwen Nell Westerman

We are so honored that you are here, they said. We know that this is your homeland, they said. The admission price is five dollars, they said. Here is your button for the event, they said. It means so much to us that you are here, they said. We want to write an apology letter, they said. Tell us what to say.

[spoke9]

Dakota Homecoming | Gwen Nell Westerman

#nativeamericanheritagemonth2022

–Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate poet We are so honored that you are here, they said. We know that this is your homeland, they said. The admission price is five dollars, they said. Here is your button for the event, they said. It means so much to us that you are here, they said. We want to write an apology letter, they said. Tell us what to say. Her Work Website

[niibaataa]

Some Indigenous Poets to Read

Disclaimer: Some of these poems deal with pregnancy, colonialism, substance abuse, murder, death, and historical wrongs. Exercise caution.

Tacey M. Atsitty [Diné] : Anasazi, Lady Birds' Evening Meetings, Things to Do With a Monster.

Billy-Ray Belcourt [Cree] : NDN Homopoetics, If Our Bodies Could Rust, We Would Be Falling Apart, Love is a Moontime Teaching.

CooXooEii Black [Arapaho] : On Mindfulness, Some Notes on Vision, With Scraps We Made Sacred Food.

Trevino L. Brings Plenty [Lakota] : Unpack Poetic, Will, Massacre Song Foundation.

Julian Talamantez Brolaski [Apache] : Nobaude, murder on the gowanus, What To Say Upon Being Asked To Be Friends.

Gladys Cardiff [Cherokee] : Combing, Prayer to Fix The Affections, To Frighten a Storm.

Freddy Chicangana [Yanacuna] : Of Rivers, Footprints, We Still Have Life on This Earth.

Laura Da' [Shawnee] : Bead Workers, The Meadow Views: Sword and Symbolic History, A Mighty Pulverizing Machine.

Natalie Diaz [Mojave] : It Was The Animals, My Brother My Wound, The Facts of Art.

Heid E. Erdrich [Anishinaabe] : De'an, Elemental Conception, Ghost Prisoner.

Jennifer Elise Foerster [Mvskoke] : From "Coosa", Leaving Tulsa, The Other Side.

Eric Gansworth [Onondaga] : Bee, Eel, A Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function.

Joy Harjo [Muscogee] : An American Sunrise, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, A Map to The Next World.

Gordon Henry Jr. [Anishinaabe] : How Soon, On the Verve of Verbs, It Was Snowing on The Monuments.

Sy Hoahwah [Comanche/Arapaho] : Colors of The Comanche Nation Flag, Definitive Bright Morning, Typhoni.

LeAnne Howe [Choctaw] : A Duck's Tune, 1918, Iva Describes Her Deathbed.

Hugo Jamioy [Kamentsá] : PUNCTUAL, If You Don't Eat Anything, The Story of My People.

Layli Long Soldier [Lakota] : 38, WHEREAS, Obligations 2.

Janet McAdams [Muscogee] : Flood, The Hands of The Taino, Hunters, Gatherers.

Brandy Nālani McDougall [Kānaka Maoli] : He Mele Aloha no ka Niu, On Finding my Father's First Essay, The Island on Which I Love You.

dg nanouk okpik [Inupiaq-Inuit] : Cell Block on Chena River, Found, If Oil Is Drilled In Bristol Bay.

Simon J. Ortiz [Acoma Pueblo] : Becoming Human, Blind Curse, Busted Boy.

Sara Marie Ortiz [Acoma Pueblo] : Iyáani (Spirit, Breath, Life), Language (part of a compilation), Rush.

Alan Pelaez Lopez [Zapotec] : the afterlife of illegality, A Daily Prayer, Zapotec Crossers.

Tommy Pico [Kumeyaay] : From "Feed", from Junk, You Can't be an NDN Person in Today's World.

Craig Santos Perez [Chamorro] : (First Trimester), from Lisiensan Ga'lago, from "understory".

Cedar Sigo [Suquamish] : Cold Valley, Expensive Magic, Secrets of The Inner Mind.

M. L. Smoker [Assiniboine/Sioux] : Crosscurrent, Heart Butte, Montana, Another Attempt at Rescue.

Laura Tohe [Diné] : For Kathryn, Female Rain, Returning.

Gwen Nell Westerman [Cherokee/Dakota] : Dakota Homecoming, Covalent Bonds, Undivided Interest.

Karenne Wood [Monacan] : Apologies, Abracadabra, an Abecedarian, Chief Totopotamoi, 1654.

Lightning Round! Writers with poetry available on their sites:

Shonda Buchanan [Coharie, Cherokee, Choctaw].

Leonel Lienlaf [Mapuche].

Asani Charles [Choctaw/Chickasaw].

[kingdomsinthewild]

“Learning our Dakota language will be a lifelong journey for me, so I use it every day, in every way I can, including in my poetry. It is now part of who I am, a woman who cherishes her language, who continues to try harder to be a good human being and a good poet, and who does what she can to resist, to challenge that “endangered” label.”

[god-is-a-womyn]

Poems

Hey guys! 

I am surprised at how many amazing poets I have found in the process of finding poets and their poetry for my poetry anthology. My theme is social oppression and it’s really interesting to see what direction or events poets tend to lean on for their poem topics. Here is a list of some of the new poets I discovered!

“The Slave Auction” by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

“We Are Not Responsible” by Harryette Mullen

“To the Censorious Ones” by Anne Waldman

“The Sign in My Father’s Hands” by Martin Espada

“At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border” by William E. Stafford

“Bent to the Earth” by Blas Manuel De Luna

“Dakota Homecoming” by Gwen Nell Westerman

“Ghost Dance” by Sara Littlecrow-Russell

“Let them not say” by Jane Hirshfield

[syngularitysyn]

Books featured/referenced in Seeing White:

The History of White People, Nell Irvin Painter

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, Ibram Kendi

North Country: The Making of Minnesota, Mary Wingerd

Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota, Gwen Westerman

Good White People, Shannon Sullivan

Blood Done Sign My Name, Tim Tyson 

Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-Create Race in the Twenty-first Century, Dorothy Roberts

Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America, Elliot Jaspin

White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race, Ian Haney- López

When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America, Ira Katznelson

White Fragility (article), Robin DiAngelo

White Fragility (book), Robin DiAngelo

An Expert Responds to Ta-Nehisi Coates on Reparations, William “Sandy” Darity, Jr. 

From Here to Equality, William “Sandy” Darity, Kirsten Mullen

I posted about this podcast before and it got 0 notes. Hopefully more people will share this time, because season 2 of this podcast should be mandatory listening for all white people in my opinion.

It's well made, incredibly informative and educational. Most people are still in lockdown and this is the perfect way to spend some free time or maybe listen to it while you're doing chores.

Please give this podcast a listen on your favorite podcast app, you won't regret it. And please help me spread this post so it can reach a lot of people.

Scene On Radio: Seeing White

Listen to the first episode on spotify: