Joy Harjo

“Joy Harjo, the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. 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.

“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 served as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and as a founding board member and Chair of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. She has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Philosophical Society, the National Native American Hall of Fame, and the National Woman’s Hall of Fame. 

“She lives on the Muscogee Nation Reservation in Oklahoma where she is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence of Tulsa’s Bob Dylan Center.” (Source: Artist website)

Music genres: rock, traditional, Americana

poet, musician, author, educator, public speaker

Flute, Saxophone, Vocals