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Soul Talk, Song Language: Conversations with Joy Harjo
Intimate and illuminating conversations with one of America's foremost Native artists
Joy Harjo is a "poet-healer-philosopher-saxophonist," and one of the most powerful Native American voices of her generation. She has spent the past two decades exploring her place in poetry, music, dance/performance, and art. Soul Talk, Song Language gathers together in one complete collection many of these explorations and conversations. Through an eclectic assortment of media, including personal essays, interviews, and newspaper columns, Harjo reflects upon the nuances and development of her art, the importance of her origins, and the arduous reconstructions of the tribal past, as well as the dramatic confrontation between Native American and Anglo civilizations. Harjo takes us on a journey into her identity as a woman and an artist, poised between poetry and music, encompassing tribal heritage and reassessments and comparisons with the American cultural patrimony. She presents herself in an exquisitely literary context that is rooted in ritual and ceremony and veers over the edge where language becomes music.
Joy Harjo is a "poet-healer-philosopher-saxophonist," and one of the most powerful Native American voices of her generation. She has spent the past two decades exploring her place in poetry, music, dance/performance, and art. Soul Talk, Song Language gathers together in one complete collection many of these explorations and conversations. Through an eclectic assortment of media, including personal essays, interviews, and newspaper columns, Harjo reflects upon the nuances and development of her art, the importance of her origins, and the arduous reconstructions of the tribal past, as well as the dramatic confrontation between Native American and Anglo civilizations. Harjo takes us on a journey into her identity as a woman and an artist, poised between poetry and music, encompassing tribal heritage and reassessments and comparisons with the American cultural patrimony. She presents herself in an exquisitely literary context that is rooted in ritual and ceremony and veers over the edge where language becomes music.
164 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2011
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About the author
Joy Harjo
99 books2,021 followersBio Joy Harjo
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She has released four award-winning CD's of original music and won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year. She performs nationally and internationally solo and with her band, The Arrow Dynamics. She has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, in venues in every major U.S. city and internationally. Most recently she performed We Were There When Jazz Was Invented at the Chan Centre at UBC in Vancouver, BC, and appeared at the San Miguel Writer’s Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her one-woman show, Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, which features guitarist Larry Mitchell premiered in Los Angeles in 2009, with recent performances at Joe’s Pub in New York City, LaJolla Playhouse as part of the Native Voices at the Autry, and the University of British Columbia. Her seven books of poetry include such well-known titles as How We Became Human- New and Selected Poems and She Had Some Horses. Her awards include the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She was recently awarded 2011 Artist of the Year from the Mvskoke Women’s Leadership Initiative, and a Rasmuson US Artists Fellowship. She is a founding board member and treasurer of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Harjo writes a column Comings and Goings for her tribal newspaper, the Muscogee Nation News. Soul Talk, Song Language, Conversations with Joy Harjo was recently released from Wesleyan University Press. Crazy Brave, a memoir is her newest publication from W.W. Norton, and a new album of music is being produced by the drummer/producer Barrett Martin. She is at work on a new shows: We Were There When Jazz Was Invented, a musical story that proves southeastern indigenous tribes were part of the origins of American music. She lives in the Mvskoke Nation of Oklahoma.
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She has released four award-winning CD's of original music and won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year. She performs nationally and internationally solo and with her band, The Arrow Dynamics. She has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, in venues in every major U.S. city and internationally. Most recently she performed We Were There When Jazz Was Invented at the Chan Centre at UBC in Vancouver, BC, and appeared at the San Miguel Writer’s Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her one-woman show, Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, which features guitarist Larry Mitchell premiered in Los Angeles in 2009, with recent performances at Joe’s Pub in New York City, LaJolla Playhouse as part of the Native Voices at the Autry, and the University of British Columbia. Her seven books of poetry include such well-known titles as How We Became Human- New and Selected Poems and She Had Some Horses. Her awards include the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She was recently awarded 2011 Artist of the Year from the Mvskoke Women’s Leadership Initiative, and a Rasmuson US Artists Fellowship. She is a founding board member and treasurer of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Harjo writes a column Comings and Goings for her tribal newspaper, the Muscogee Nation News. Soul Talk, Song Language, Conversations with Joy Harjo was recently released from Wesleyan University Press. Crazy Brave, a memoir is her newest publication from W.W. Norton, and a new album of music is being produced by the drummer/producer Barrett Martin. She is at work on a new shows: We Were There When Jazz Was Invented, a musical story that proves southeastern indigenous tribes were part of the origins of American music. She lives in the Mvskoke Nation of Oklahoma.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 9, 2021
This slim volume is a compilation of interviews with Joy Harjo and a selection of columns she wrote for the Muscogee Nation News and other publications. The book includes nuggets of wisdom about crafting poetry and writing in general, as well as the author's musings about the world and the people who occupy it. I read a library copy but plan to purchase the book to add my notes. The contents help answer a question posed by one of my students: How often do professional writers reflect on their work? Harjo clearly is a contemplative author; I plan to include one short column in my current poetry unit. I recommend Soul Talk, Song Language for readers who enjoy a quiet visit inside a poet's mind.
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September 11, 2025This title is available at McCain Library as an eBook.
Follow the link to check availability and more information: https://agnesscott.on.worldcat.org/oc...
If you need help locating it or requesting it for pickup, just ask a librarian or visit the Check Out Desk!
Follow the link to check availability and more information: https://agnesscott.on.worldcat.org/oc...
If you need help locating it or requesting it for pickup, just ask a librarian or visit the Check Out Desk!
January 8, 2019
A great read to kick off the new year.
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July 13, 2023This was a really good read I would suggest it to anyone
June 4, 2024
A book about finding inner peace and our essential roll of creating a peaceful world through the examples and lives of others.
May 29, 2012
Disappointing. I love Harjo's poetry (and to a slightly lesser extent her music) and was hoping this book of interviews and columns she wrote for the Muskogee nation's newspaper would enrich my appreciation (in the manner of Yusef Komunyakaa's Blue Notes). It didn't. There are a few phrasings that remind me of her poems, but mostly the interviews re-hash the same turf (the relationship between oral and written expression; Harjo's experience in the Iowa Writers Workshop; her relationship to the landscapes of New Mexico and Hawai'i) and after a while the answers feel canned. The high point, Harjo's definition of poetry as soul talk and song language, is in the title.
Read In Mad Love and War or She Had Some Horses. Forget about this one.
Read In Mad Love and War or She Had Some Horses. Forget about this one.
February 23, 2020
I really enjoyed hearing her thoughts about her poetry and stories and culture. As a collection of interviews given in various forums at various times, there is some similar ground covered multiple times, which is occasionally repetitive, but it's good stuff being repeated, so this is only a minor nuisance.
June 27, 2014
at times a very lively mind - perhaps she is at her best with the most astute questions.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews