The Creation Story
Music by Joy Harjo & Poetic Justice
Joy Harjo is an enrolled member of the Mvskoke Nation and is the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. Harjo is the author of nine books of poetry, including her most recent, the highly acclaimed American Sunrise (2019), and Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings (2015), which was shortlisted for the Griffin Prize and named a Notable Book of the Year by the American Library Association. Her memoir, Crazy Brave, was awarded the PEN USA Literary Award in Creative Non Fiction and the American Book Award. She has published two award-winning children’s books; several screenplays, anthologies, and collections of prose interviews; and three plays, including Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, A Play, which she toured as a one-woman show and was recently published by Wesleyan Press.
Her awards include the prestigious Ruth Lily Prize from the Poetry Foundation, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Harjo performs with her saxophone and flutes, solo and with her band, the Arrow Dynamics Band, and previously with Joy Harjo and Poetic Justice. She/they have toured across the U.S. and in Europe, South America, India, Africa, and Canada. Harjo has produced five award-winning music albums including Winding Through the Milky Way, for which she was awarded a NAMMY for Best Female Artist of the year. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and holds a Tulsa Artist Fellowship. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.