Writing
Harjo first published her poetry in an Italian magazine, when she was 12 years old. "I began writing poetry because of the poetics and density of Cheyenne and Muscogee oral history as related by my Cheyenne mother and her parents and my Muscogee father and his parents," says Harjo. For the first International Women's Day in the 1970s, Harjo wrote the poem "gathering rites" and read it at "Women/Voices at Town Hall" in New York City, where she was one of 20 American women writers, including Alice Walker and Nikki Giovanni. Harjo also presented the poem on the West Steps of the US Capitol.
As an Eric and Barbara Dobkin Fellow and an IARC Summer School at the School for Advanced Research in 2004, Harjo developed oral history poetry about her experiences working for repatriation laws and policies.
Read more about this topic: Suzan Shown Harjo
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“... writing is the enemy of forgetfulness, of thoughtlessness. For the writer there is no oblivion. Only endless memory.”
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