Native Writers and Audiences Come Together at Indigenous Reading Series

[Wetzelbill]

Indian Country Today Media Network interviewed me and several other indigenous writers and did an article on the reading series that I produce. - Bill


Native Writers and Audiences Come Together at Indigenous Reading Series


Christina Rose
12/28/13


Bill Wetzel, Blackfeet, is trying to do something he doesn’t think has been done before. Using the original word for Tucson, Arizona, Wetzel started the Stjukshon Indigenous Reading Series at Casa Libre En La Solana in Tucson, giving Native writers from across the United States an opportunity to showcase their talent.

Wetzel, 39, said, “I sit very much within my generation of writers, and we are writing about a different world than 40 years ago, when the really famous (Native) writers were coming on the scene. We are not always in conflict with the world anymore. We are in conflict within ourselves.”



Wetzel said today’s writers are taking on subjects like blood quantum, fractionization of land and intertribal disputes—and he said that today, there is a great need for cultural pluralism. “There are people who aren’t from the reservation and I don’t judge people on blood. I keep it open to most views. This is about art, and I don’t want to limit that.”

While Natives and non-Natives attend the events, the writings celebrate a purely Native experience. Bojan Louis, Diné, is one such writer. Louis was excited to present his work to a Native audience. For an emerging writer, he said, “It’s sort of frustrating to be in Arizona, because there are so many writers around the area. There are people who put on reading series, and often when Indians are invited, they are usually asked to come as speakers, but rarely as writers. Having such a large Indian population, we rarely get that opportunity.”

Another author agreed. “When you read in graduate school, they (the audience) are other people in your program. This was the first time that the audience was 100 percent American Indian,” Sterling HolyWhiteMountain, Blackfeet, said after his experience reading for Wetzel’s series.

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/12/28/native-writers-and-audiences-come-together-indigenous-reading-series-152824