11/26/2025
Something we love to revisit during Native American Heritage Month: 23rd Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s signature project.
Created in 2020, it features a sampling of work by contemporary Native poets from across the nation to show, through poetry, that Native people and poets have vital and unequivocal roots in the United States.
The poets included in “Living Nations, Living Words” chose their poem and commentary based on the theme of place and displacement, and with four touchpoints in mind: visibility, persistence, resistance, and acknowledgment.
This online presentation comprises sound recordings, transcripts, poems, photos, and biographies for each participating poet: https://www.loc.gov/programs/poetry-and-literature/poet-laureate/poet-laureate-projects/living-nations-living-words/?loclr=fbloc
Image: Joy Harjo, 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, June 6, 2019. Harjo is is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. Photo by Shawn Miller/Library of Congress.