United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo to Serve Rare Third Term

At PBS NewsHour, Joshua Barajas informs readers that Joy Harjo will serve a third term as U.S. Poet Laureate. She's the second to do so in the position's 77-year history. (Robert Pinsky was the first). Barajas writes that "Harjo’s new term officially begins in September next year." More: 

In a statement announcing the reappointment, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden wrote that, amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, Harjo “has shown how poetry can help steady us and nurture us.”

In October, Harjo said she was honored to serve during a crisis like the pandemic.

“We always go to poetry in times of transformation, you know — birth, death, marriage, falling in love, out of love,” she told the NewsHour. “But here we are at a time of tremendous transformation — and where do we go? And here we are with poetry. And I get to help during this huge, transformative event that we’re all part of.”

Harjo also completed her “Living Nations, Living Words” project, which formally launched today during Native American Heritage Month. The online map collects biographies and recordings from dozens of contemporary Native poets across the country. (You can explore the archive here.)

In an introduction to the project, Harjo explains that she wanted to map these poets and their work to “counter damaging false assumptions — that indigenous peoples of our country are often invisible or are not seen as human.”

Continue reading at PBS NewsHour.