Atlanta, GA — Current U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, the first Native American poet laureate, will read her poems at a virtual event hosted by the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University on Saturday, March 20, at 4 p.m. After registering, attendees will receive a viewing link prior to the event.

Harjo became the 23rd poet laureate of the United States in 2019 and was recently appointed by the Library of Congress to a rare third term, to begin in September 2021. She is an internationally renowned musician, writer, and citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma.

Emory University was founded in 1836 on the historic lands of the Muscogee (Creek) people, 15 years after the First Treaty of Indian Springs (1821) through which the US government acquired this area of land from the Muscogee Nation. After this treaty, many Muscogee people relocated to Alabama, and were then forcibly removed to present-day Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears in 1836.

Harjo’s poetry directly engages these histories of removal, displacement, dispossession, loss, resilience, and resistance.

She is the author of nine books of poetry, among them “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 editor of two anthologies, including the recently released “Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry.”

To register for the event, click here.

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