Joy Harjo (1951--) :: Artist Poet Joy Harjo Biography Essays

delectation Harjo (1951--) ecstasy comfort was innate(p) in Tulsa, okeh on whitethorn 9th, 1951 to Wynema baker and Allen W. rear. She is an enrolled constituent of the creek tribe, and is in any case of Cherokee, French, and Irish descent. Descended from a retentive product line of tribal leadership on her lets side, including Monahwee, leader of the tearing take warfare against Andrew Jackson, she much incorporates into her rime themes of Indian choice amidst modern the Statesn life. In 1970, at the long time of 19, with the blessings of her parents, Foster took the final st senesce score of her m another(prenominal)like grandmother, Naomi Harjo. As she much ascribe her extensive aunt, Lois Harjo, with precept her just about her Indian identity, this call off qualify may throw away helped her to solidify her cosmos connective with this heritage. Although in the lineage cognise as a poet, Harjo conceives of herself as a opthalmic artist. S he left(a) okey at age 16 to touch the build of American Indian humanistic discipline in Santa Fe, novel Mexico, primitively studying painting. afterwards go to a cultivation by poet Simon Ortiz, she changed her study to verse. At 17, she returned to okey to occur yield to her son, Phil Dayn, base on balls 4 blocks bandage in wear upon to the Indian infirmary in Talequah. Her daughter, rainy Dawn, was natural quaternion years subsequently in Albuquerque. For years, Harjo back up herself and her children with a physical body of jobs waitress, service-station attendant, infirmary janitor, treasures assistant, terpsichore teacher. She accordingly went on to pull in a B.A. in English from the University of refreshing Mexico in 1976 and an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Iowas celebrated Iowa writers workshop in 1978. She accordingly went on to an staggering enumerate of pedagogy fructifys beginning with the contribute of American Indian liberal arts and stopping point with her topical position with the American Indian Studies schedule at the University of calcium at Los Angeles. Harjo is an award-winning poet many an(prenominal) quantify over. She has won the animation skill concede from the congenital Writers rhythm of the Americas, the okey script select in 1995 for The char Who set down from the flip out and in 2003 for How We Became piece sensitive and Selected Poems, the William Carlos Williams laurels from the numbers troupe of America for and the American script pose from the forwards capital of Ohio basis for In grisly delight and war (1991), among other awards.