Joy Harjo

Joy Harjo was born May 9, 1951 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Muscogee Tribe. She went to the Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico and studied painting and theater, and not music and poetry. She earned her B. A. from the University of New Mexico and her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. Her most recent book of poetry is How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems, which has gone on to win awards. She picked up the saxophone and put together a band that blended elements of tribal music, jazz, and rock. She says that “the band takes its name from this term because we are: a poet, an Indian water rights attorney, a tribal judge, two educators and a stock clerk; and because all of us have worked for justice in our lives, through any means possible and through music.” She also says that the term poetic justice “is a term of grace, expressing how justice can appear in the world despite forces of confusion and destruction.” She has taught at Arizona State University as a lecturer in 1980-81, at Santa Fe Community College, The Institute of American Indian Arts. She’s held Assistant and Associate Professorships at various academic institutions