17207
Joy Harjo announced as Common Reading Experience author
The Common Reading Experience is happy to announce Joy Harjo’s memoir Crazy Brave as the 2017-2018 CRE book. Harjo, an author and musician, will visit the FLC campus in February to work with students and speak to the Durango community.
“Crazy Brave is a wonderful book that many people can relate to,” says Martha Talman, FLC’s library director and a CRE board member. “She’s an internationally known Native American author, and we’re thrilled to honor that role at Fort Lewis.”
Harjo’s memoir is grounded in tribal myth and ancestry, music, and poetry. It deals with her hardscrabble experiences in youth and young adulthood, and her ultimate transformation into an award-winning poet and performer.
The annual Common Reading Experience aims to provide an avenue for discussion among students, faculty, administration, and the Durango community, via a shared reading that connects academic disciplines. As part of the CRE, the book will be integrated into classes across disciplines, from Music to Native American & Indigenous Studies, among others.
“CRE bridges campus and town,” Talman says. “It facilitates discussion and education between the community and the students. And it’s an extension of the curriculum for our students.”
The schedule is still being finalized, but Harjo will give a free presentation, reading, and book signing to the community on Monday, February 12, in Whalen Gymnasium on the FLC campus. The next day she will work with several classes. And as a special treat, in conjunction with local public radio station KSUT, she will perform with her band during her visit as well.
To aid in the campus-wide experience, copies of Crazy Brave are available free of charge to current FLC students. The CRE program is made possible thanks to support from Provost Barbara Morris and President Dene Kay Thomas.