32
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
BOOKS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 2004
Native American poet to give lecture
By Miranda Lenning mlenning@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
There is a story behind every family picture featured in Carter Revard's most recent book, Winning the Dust Bowl. He tells them as if they happened yesterday, describing every detail, remembering each family member, who they married, and their children's names.
Reyard will share some of his writings tonight when he gives a reading at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire St., at 7 p.m.
He will read from each of his three volumes of poetry, Cowboys and Indians, Ponca War Dancers and An Eagle Nation. He may also read from his book of essays, Family Matters and Tribal Affairs.
Reward is an emeritus professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, as well as a poet. Each summer the Multicultural Literary Institute invites an author of minority literature to the University.
"He is well-known and has a high reputation as a scholar in American Indian
"I figured there would be no chance that we could get him because he is invited to speak all over the world," said Hirsch, who is sponsoring Revard's visit.
literature," said Bud Hirsch, associate professor of English.
Reward will be in Lawrence until July 9, teaching a two-week graduate seminar in American Indian literature at the University.
Reward is hard of hearing, so when you ask him about one of his three volumes of poetry, his book of essays, or Winning the Dust Bowl, you have to speak loudly and slowly, and you don't get short answers.
He may speak for hours, but few get bored listening to him because his Native American ethnicity compels him to speak with such passion about his culture.
Professor Emeritus Carter Revard, author of An Eagle Nation and Winning the Dust Bowl, is conducting a two-week seminar on Native American writing. Revard is a member of the Osage tribe and his books contain poems and essays both autobiographical and not.
Revard's poem, "Ponca War Dancers," published in 1980, is just one product of his family and culture. It's an elegy for his uncle Gus who won the first championship in fancy war dancing in Lawrence in 1926. That victory won the right for the Ponca's to hold the annual world championship for fancy dancing.
The curriculum for the two-week seminar, which consists of about 10 students, is divided into four sections — each section being the study of one author. The first week they will study two books from Osage author John Joseph Mathews, The Osage and the White Man's Road and Sundown, and poems by Simon J. Oritz. In the second week, Revard will concentrate on novels by Luis Godrich and poems by Sherman Elexie.
"When I start with Mathews, I am working on a time when the Osage struggled to communicate with the white man and I can show continuity between the different time periods of the great books," Revard said.
Reward said that by studying the different authors, instead of time periods, he could better communicate the changes in Native American life.
Edited by Marc Ingber