Guests welcome Poet Laureate Joy Harjo at a reception at the Library of Congress
Joy Harjo performs on stage with her band members, Howard Cloud, Larry Mitchell, & Robert Muller
Celebrating Joy Harjo at the Library of Congress
This evening Joy Harjo delivered her inaugural reading as the 23rd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry at the United States Library of Congress. Of the occasion, she said, “This is the power of poetry. It’s brought all of us here. We are here tonight to celebrate poetry.”
Harjo’s reading comes just in time to celebrate her latest collection of poems, An American Sunrise. here are some lines from “The Story Wheel,” one of our favorites at HMR:
All for that welcome home dance,
The most favorite of all—
when everyone finds their way back together
to dance, eat and celebrate.
And tell story after story
of how they fought and played
in the story wheel
and how no one
was ever really lost at all.
Among the literary lights in attendance was Deborah Miranda (Ohlone/Costanoan Esselen Nation), poet and Thomas H. Broadus Professor of English at Washington and Lee University, who generously extended an invitation to HMR’s founding editor, Julie Phillips Brown.
For more, view the recorded livestream of Harjo’s full performance from the Library of Congress.