Three-term U.S. Poet Laureate coming to LCCC for two-night event

CHEYENNE, Wyoming – Joy Harjo, a groundbreaking poet and musician who served three terms as U.S. Poet Laureate, will visit Laramie County Community College for two events Oct. 9 and 10 as part of the college’s Literary Series.

A member of the Muscogee Nation and the first Native American to hold the title of U.S. Poet Laureate, Harjo is known for work that fuses history, justice and healing with lyrical power and deep musicality. Her visit to LCCC will include a dinner and speaking event at 6 p.m. Oct. 9 and a poetry and music performance at 7 p.m. Oct. 10. Both events will take place in the ANB Bank Leadership Center in the Clay Pathfinder Building on LCCC’s Cheyenne campus.

Tickets for the Oct. 9 event are $40 through Sept. 15, or $50 after. The cost includes dinner, event entry and a book-signing opportunity. Tables for eight are available for $250 (early) or $300 (after Sept. 15). The Oct. 10 performance is $20 per person. A discounted two-night pass is available for $50 (early) or $60 (after Sept. 15). Tickets can be purchased at lccc.wy.edu/litcon.

Over the course of her career, Harjo has authored 10 acclaimed books of poetry, including Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, a Notable Book of the Year by the American Library Association and finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize, and Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years. Her honors include a National Humanities Medal, a Guggenheim Fellowship and Yale’s Bollingen Prize for American Poetry. In addition to her poetry, she has written two memoirs, children’s books, and plays, and released seven award-winning music albums.

Now serving as the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Harjo said she remains deeply connected to the spirit of college campuses.

“College campuses are the transformative fermenting places of young minds,” Harjo said. “As a student, a former professor and as someone who visits many campuses to speak and perform, I appreciate the opportunity to share and listen.”

Poetry first became central to her life during her time at the University of New Mexico, where she joined the Kiva Club, a Native student organization. Her creative voice emerged from, and still draws power from, the Native empowerment movements of the 1970s. “The impetus behind my writing has been justice and healing,” she said. “And the love of expression in language, in rhythmic cadences.”

Attendees can expect an experience that blends storytelling, rhythm and music. Harjo said she hopes the events leave people feeling inspired, grounded and more connected to the deeper rhythms of life. Her performances, which incorporate flute, saxophone and voice, often explore the space between poetry and song.

“The roots of poetry lead back to music, in all of our cultures,” she said. “They are a natural fit — they belong together.”