Joy Harjo
Born: 1951-05-09 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
Known For: Writing
Biography
Joy Harjo, the 23rd Poet Laureate of the U.S., is a member of the Mvskoke Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv (Hickory Ground). She is only the second poet to be appointed a third term as U.S. Poet Laureate. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she left home to attend high school at the innovative Institute of American Indian Arts, which was then a Bureau of Indian Affairs school. Harjo began writing poetry as a member of the University of New Mexico’s Native student organization, the Kiva Club, in response to Native empowerment movements. She went on to earn her MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and teach English, Creative Writing, and American Indian Studies at University of California-Los Angeles, University of New Mexico, University of Arizona, Arizona State, University of Illinois, University of Colorado, University of Hawai’i, Institute of American Indian Arts, and University of Tennessee, while performing music and poetry nationally and internationally.
Filmography
2024
- Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae as Self - 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate
2022
- Cara Romero: Following the Light as Herself
2021
- Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting as Self - Interviewee
2020
- Love and Fury as Herself
2019
- Words from a Bear as Self
2016
- Medicine Woman as Self - Narrator (voice)
2011
- Games of the North as Narrator
2005
- A Thousand Roads ... (Screenplay)
1996
- Pepper's Pow Wow as Self
1994
- The Native Americans: The Tribal People of the Northwest as Self - Narrator (voice)
1982
- Jaune Quick-To-See Smith as Narrative Poetry