Simon J. Ortiz: September 15, 2022

Simon Ortiz greets his audience in the language of the Acoma Pueblo, and speaks to the commonality of everyone present as "part of all that is taking place" and invokes "shared brotherhood, sisterhood, which is what I believe poetry is really about." 

He invokes Jim Pepper, late indigenous jazz saxophonist, singer and composer, who served as a connection with John-Carlos Perea, indigenous musician and scholar who introduced Ortiz, then starts with a poem dedicated to Pepper, "friend, who died February 10, 1992." 

Ortiz moves to his early book of poems from Sand Creek, telling the background of his work in recovery and the mileiu of that work occurring in the early 1970s during the US war on Vietnam, which he felt as close to the wars against the indigenous Americans.

He moves to read a story, "To Change Light in a Good Way," from his collection Men on the Moon. 

Ortiz closes with two poems from Light as Light, the first dedicated for Jack Hirschman, "Moon Croon by Red Boy," following it with "Forever Is True?"

Note: quality of the audio is badly compromised due to a loss of original digital files; audio was salvaged from the livestreamed video.

Simon Ortiz speaks directly to his audience on his understanding of poetry and its role, and opens to questions and comments, to which he responds generously. 

Note: quality of the audio is badly compromised due to a loss of original digital files; audio was salvaged from the livestreamed video.