In the midst of an epidemic on MMIW, in the midst of a global
pandemic that has devastated Native communities, in the midst
of tragic revelations of mass unmarked graves at boarding
schools, why art? Why poetry, dance, or song? This program of
picto-poems and poetry, will look at how Native Arts feed
Indigenous Flourishing. Drawing on the work and statements of
Indigenous artists from Joy Harjo to James Luna, touching on
tribal traditions from the healing jingle dress dance to trickster
antics to activist poetics, Anishinaabe writer and photographer
Kimberly Blaeser will celebrate Indigenous arts and the role they
play in building relatedness and teaching survivance.

Diane Glancy’s poetry and prose has long considered the entangled threads of community, history, and language. In her latest work, A Line Of Driftwood: The ADA Blackjack Story (Turtle Point Press), Glancy creates a new narrative based on the historical record of a young Inupiat woman who survived on a small island 200 miles off the Arctic Coast of Siberia for two years after traveling there as a cook and seamstress along with four professional explorers. At this special TCBF event, Glancy will be in conversation about the book and the fascinating history behind it with Wisconsin writer Kimberly Blaeser.