Awarding-winning poet Joy Harjo gives her inaugural reading as the 23rd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress. A member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, Harjo is the first Native American to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate.
This event marks the beginning of Harjo’s laureateship, which traditionally launches the Library’s 2019-2020 literary season. This year's reading is being presented as part of the Library’s new National Book Festival Presents series, featuring high-caliber authors, their books and related Library treasures. In addition to reading from her repertoire of poems spanning a 40-year career, Harjo, an award-winning musician, also will perform with bassist Howard Cloud, keyboardist Robert Muller and guitarist Larry Mitchell.
Learn more about Harjo's appointment as poet laureate at https://www.loc.gov/poetry/laureate.html.
To kick off Native American Heritage Month, Joy Harjo, the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate, joins Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary, in a conversation with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.