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Unread 08-14-2021, 06:20 AM
Jennifer Reeser's Avatar
Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
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Default Call for IBPOC Submissions

prairie fire has put out a call, seeking indigenous, black, and writers of color for a special graphic issue:

https://www.prairiefire.ca/submissio...graphic-issue/

I have noticed a trend towards these "hunts," along with a move to cancel reading fees for us. Say if you will that it's reverse discrimination, or what have you. My mother was the first to escape the terrible repercussions of genocide and generational trauma, but much of my Indian family still lives in impoverished conditions -- so I say, God bless their charity.

My maternal great-grandmother looked like Geronimo and was not even permitted to operate a wagon, like the white women.

Jennifer

Last edited by Jennifer Reeser; 08-14-2021 at 06:26 AM.
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Unread 08-14-2021, 04:14 PM
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Sarah-Jane Crowson Sarah-Jane Crowson is offline
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For what it's worth, I think it's a good thing. The world is in a horrible state, from what I can make out. Partly that might be because our understanding of wisdom privileged a particular kind of voice, of being. I'd like to listen to different voices, tbh.

And different voices, from my very limited perspective (of working in a rural school in an area of acute deprivation), need, really need, people telling them that their perspectives are welcomed/wanted. Confidence is a weird thing.

Sarah-Jane
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Unread 08-15-2021, 03:42 AM
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Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
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Be well, Sarah-Jane. That is very generous.

One other, while I am here. "Ecotone" has an impending window. This is out of the creative writing department at the University of North Carolina (N.C. being tribal lands of the Cherokee). https://ecotonemagazine.org/submissions/

"Upcoming submissions windows: From August 20 to 25, 2021, Ecotone will be open to no-fee Submittable submissions from BIPOC writers only."

Coincidentally, "Verse Daily" today features a poem by an indigenous, Plains Cree poet, from "Prairie Fire." http://versedaily.com/

land defenders don't depend
on written word or stamp-seal
or emergency call
to prove themselves steward—
they occupy the land.


#NoTrespass
Tawahum Bige
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Unread 08-15-2021, 04:40 AM
John Isbell John Isbell is offline
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I agree with Sarah-Jane about confidence. I'll put it this way. In, oh, let's call it middle school, in singing practice, the teacher would put the 'good' singers up front and encourage the 'bad' ones to make as little noise as possible. This seems to me antithetical to the purpose of a singing class. Singing is joy, there's a reason tribal societies sing together. But it's common enough to see that happen. Then you get people - Rachel Maddow, for one, the other day - saying "I can't sing." Nonsense. Anyone can sing. Being tone-deaf is rare. But plenty of people - more than we might like - are told they can't. At which point, learning to sing again is hard. So yes to BIPOC voices.
I have a Zuni ring I got on the Cherokee reservation you reach coming over the Smokey Mountains from Tennessee. But I'm wearing the one I got in New Mexico. It draws a lot of comments, which is maybe why I wear it. I have a Mayan ring on the other hand, silver and obsidian.
Represent.

Update: I also just picked up Joy Harjo's anthology of Native American poetry. It looks really good! I have an older one too.
Update II: I just put inverted commas around good and bad up top. With reason.

Cheers,
John

Last edited by John Isbell; 08-15-2021 at 04:53 AM.
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Unread 08-15-2021, 05:06 AM
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Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
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John, that Cherokee rez -- I know it well. I hope you got to try the bison burgers, down the road from our museum.

Only two days ago, a four-year-old white child looked at me and said, "You're part Indian and part human." I calmly replied, "Indians are human beings." She shook her head indignantly: "No, they're not!"

The struggle is real, ongoing and pervasive, and if we reach no one else, we MUST reach these children, both those who, still -- astonishingly -- hold the notion we are not even human beings, and also those BIPOC who desperately need role models, people of their own to inspire and guide them, and keep them from this terrible problem with the suicidal, self-destroying despair.
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Unread 08-15-2021, 05:19 AM
John Isbell John Isbell is offline
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I was only passing through, and I don’t know if it’s fair, but I felt that despair almost tangibly on the Pine Ridge reservation in the 1990s. That’s a reason I’ve given to Lakota charities.
Funny that The Human Beings means Native Americans. That would really have blown that child’s mind.

Update: bison burgers. I may well have had one. We came in from the North to that little town - Cherokee, NC? just inside the reservation, and walked left to where we found the silversmith and the place we ate. I feel like there was a visitor information center to the right, and maybe a statue of a bear? It's been a while. it was a nice town. And we drove on South to Georgia. It was good to come into town over those mountains.
Here meanwhile is Adam and the Ants singing "The Human Beings." They were kind of a UK punk band: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JipPo-tb5wg

Cheers,
John

Last edited by John Isbell; 08-15-2021 at 05:42 AM.
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Unread 08-15-2021, 06:26 AM
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Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
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Love it! I actually saw this guy in person, as a teenager when I played drums (because of course, what else would I play, right? ) and he stayed at the same Los Angeles hotel where Percussive Arts Society had invited my corps to perform at its international convention.

And yes -- that's the one, in Cherokee, North Carolina. There is a harrowing, nightmarish drive along Chilhowee Mountain (the lair of the Cherokee's infamous monster, Spearfinger). It's known as The Tail of the Dragon. Having braved the thing myself, you have my everlasting respect, if you went that way to the rez!

Thank you so much for your compassionate support of the Lakota. Sioux are noble people, who composed powerful (and highly formal) oral poetry.
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Unread 08-15-2021, 04:30 PM
John Isbell John Isbell is offline
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Hi Jennifer,

I love that you play the drums. The Ants had two drummers, you’ll remember, which gave them a great sound.

Yup, we came over that mountain but missed Spearfinger. I met a man today in a Smokey Mountains bike jersey - he’s hiked it and plans to cycle it.
Any people who can do the Sun Dance have my unquestioned respect.

Cheers,
John
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Unread 08-17-2021, 01:27 AM
John Isbell John Isbell is offline
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Hi Jennifer,

I was thinking about human beings. Here on the topic of human beings is Chief Dan George, going up the mountain for an errand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwgnDn8ez9g

Cheers,
John
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Unread 08-17-2021, 02:14 AM
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Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
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Hokahey, John -- it is a good day to die. George was such a gem. "Endeavour to persevere." Though sometimes observing the world, I wonder if it is really such a bad thing, when I am excluded from the designation, "Human Being."

Here is a link to the permanent archive for that poem from Prairie Fire:

http://www.versedaily.org/2021/NoTrespass.shtml

Be well.
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