Hello Nikashi,

Nikashi means “people” in Wazhazhe ie, and I’d like to invite all you Nikashi to enjoy our final student reading tonight from 6-8:30 p.m. via Zoom. You are also invited to attend in person at Tulsa University, with an Osage dinner cooked by Michelle Redcorn, served at 5 p.m.

Tulsa University, Alan Chapman Student Union

3135 E. 5th Place Tulsa, Oklahoma 74104 

Use Google Maps to navigate (not Apple).

FINAL THANK-YOU DINNER & STUDENT READING

5-8 p.m.

Dinner at Tulsa University in the Alan Chapman Student Union | IN-PERSON.

6-8:30 p.m.

Student Reading, Alan Chapman Student Union | IN-PERSON & DIGITAL.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://iaia-edu.zoom.us/j/96593862851

Meeting ID: 965 9386 2851

9 p.m.

Parting Blessing (Cedar and Prayer) 

Thali^,

Chelsea T. Hicks

Hawe Zani:

Welcome to Words of the People, beginning tomorrow morning at Archer Studios, 109 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Tulsa, OK 74103. Complementary coffee and pastries from Black Wall Street Liquid Lounge will be available starting at 8:30 a.m. in the kitchen, and Laura Da’ and Zêdan Xelef will kick off their workshops starting at 9 a.m. In the afternoon, Dr. Mogri Lookout and Bill Hamm will present a revitalization exercise, and at 6 p.m. Dr. Phil Cash Cash will give the WTP Keynote Speech, open to the public at TAF’s Flagship Location, 112 N. Boston Ave. Tulsa, OK 74103 (one block from Archer Studios).

Please find the full schedule below — registration will be closing soon, so sign up now!

Schedule

Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022

8:30-9 a.m.

Coffee & Snacks From Black Wall Street Liquid Lounge

WORKSHOPS

9 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Oral Tradition & Contemporary Poetry, Zêdan Xelef | IN PERSON & DIGITAL: Register.

Walking the Idea, Breaking Ground, and Places in Time, Laura Da’ | DIGITAL: Register.

10:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m.

Creative Process of the Heart, Inés Hernández-Avila | DIGITAL: Register.

Lunch

12 p.m.

Sandwiches, Fruits and Snacks | IN-PERSON.  

AFTERNOON WORKSHOP

12:30 – 2 p.m.

Bät Riting, “Good” Translations, and the Myth of Accuracy, Shook | email to sign up

IMMERSION SESSIONS & CRAFT TALKS

2-3 p.m.

Dr. Mongrain Lookout and Bill Hamm | IN-PERSON & DIGITAL.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://iaia-edu.zoom.us/j/99188555782
Meeting ID: 991 8855 5782

3-4 p.m.

Immersion Reading & Listening Scenarios, Chelsea T. Hicks | IN-PERSON & DIGITAL.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://iaia-edu.zoom.us/j/99188555782
Meeting ID: 991 8855 5782

WELCOME ADDRESS

6-7 p.m.

Dr. Phil Cash Cash at TAF Flagship | IN-PERSON & DIGITAL.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://iaia-edu.zoom.us/j/94171638764

Meeting ID: 941 7163 8764

Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022

8:30-9 a.m.

Coffee & Snacks From Black Wall Street Liquid Lounge

WORKSHOPS

9 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Oral Tradition & Contemporary Poetry, Zêdan Xelef | IN PERSON & DIGITAL: Register.

Walking the Idea, Breaking Ground, and Places in Time, Laura Da’ | DIGITAL: Register.

10:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m.

Creative Process of the Heart, Inés Hernández-Avila | DIGITAL: Register.

Lunch

12 p.m.

Sandwiches, Fruits and Snacks | IN-PERSON.  

IMMERSION SESSIONS & CRAFT TALKS

2-3 p.m.

Dr. Phil Cash Cash | IN PERSON & DIGITAL. 

Join Zoom Meeting
https://iaia-edu.zoom.us/j/95372129446

Meeting ID: 953 7212 9446

3-4 p.m.

Zêdan Xelef | IN PERSON & DIGITAL

Join Zoom Meeting
https://iaia-edu.zoom.us/j/95372129446

Meeting ID: 953 7212 9446

FACULTY READING

6-7:30 p.m.

At TAF Flagship Space with Whitty Books | IN-PERSON & DIGITAL.

Zêdan Xelef, Laura Da’, Chelsea T. Hicks, Shook

Join Zoom Meeting
https://iaia-edu.zoom.us/j/96805868237

Meeting ID: 968 0586 8237

Friday, Oct. 28, 2022

8:30-9 a.m.

Coffee & Snacks From Black Wall Street Liquid Lounge

WORKSHOPS

9 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Literature for our Speakers, Ofelia Zepeda | IN-PERSON & DIGITAL: Register.

Ná’iiłná: Writing from Listening & Memory, Manny Loley | IN-PERSON & DIGITAL: Register.

Form/Beauty/Grammar: Writing from Indigenous Languages, Beth Piatote | DIGITAL: Register.

Walking the Idea, Breaking Ground, and Places in Time, Laura Da’ | DIGITAL: Register.

Lunch

12 p.m.

Sandwiches, Fruits and Snacks | IN-PERSON.  

AFTERNOON WORKSHOP

12:30 – 2 p.m.

Bät Riting, “Good” Translations, and the Myth of Accuracy, Shook | email to sign up

IMMERSION SESSIONS & CRAFT TALKS

2-3 p.m.

Ofelia Zepeda | IN PERSON & DIGITAL. 

Join Zoom Meeting
https://iaia-edu.zoom.us/j/94132537178

Meeting ID: 941 3253 7178

3-4 p.m.

My Breath Is Rain Essence: Voice and the Natural World, Manny Loley | IN PERSON & DIGITAL. 

Join Zoom Meeting
https://iaia-edu.zoom.us/j/94132537178

Meeting ID: 941 3253 7178

FACULTY READING

6-7:30 p.m.

At TAF Flagship Space with Whitty Books | IN-PERSON/DIGITAL.

Ofelia Zepeda, Manny Loley, Beth Piatote, Inés Hernández-Avila

Join Zoom Meeting
https://iaia-edu.zoom.us/j/93443713678

Meeting ID: 934 4371 3678

Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022

8:30-9 a.m.

Coffee & Snacks From Black Wall Street Liquid Lounge

WORKSHOPS

9 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Literature for our Speakers, Ofelia Zepeda | IN-PERSON & DIGITAL: Register.

Ná’iiłná: Writing from Listening & Memory, Manny Loley | IN-PERSON & DIGITAL: Register.

Walking the Idea, Breaking Ground, and Places in Time, Laura Da’ | DIGITAL: Register.

Lunch

12 p.m.

Sandwiches, Fruits and Snacks | IN-PERSON.  

PUBLISHER PRESENTATIONS

2-2:30 p.m.

Amber McCrary, Abalone Mountain Press | IN-PERSON & DIGITAL.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://iaia-edu.zoom.us/j/96379865255

Meeting ID: 963 7986 5255

2:30-3:00 p.m.

Hyphen Reads, Unnamed Press, Phoneme Media | IN-PERSON & DIGITAL.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://iaia-edu.zoom.us/j/96379865255

Meeting ID: 963 7986 5255

3-4 p.m.

Publisher Resources Visit Session | IN-PERSON & DIGITAL.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://iaia-edu.zoom.us/j/96379865255

Meeting ID: 963 7986 5255

FINAL THANK-YOU DINNER & STUDENT READING

5-8 p.m.

Dinner at Tulsa University in the Alan Chapman Student Union | IN-PERSON.

8-9 p.m.

Student Reading, Alan Chapman Student Union | IN-PERSON & DIGITAL.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://iaia-edu.zoom.us/j/96593862851

Meeting ID: 965 9386 2851

9 p.m.

Parting Blessing (Cedar and Prayer) 

See you soon–

Chelsea T. Hicks

http://www.wtpgathering.org

Hello Writers & Revitalizers,

Registration is still open, and scholarships are available. If you need to request support in order to take time off of work for your workshop, please apply for a stipend.

Laura Da’, Inés Hernández-Ávila and Beth Piatote still have spots open. Information on their workshops and a full course menu is at the link below. Register here now.

See you at the Gathering.

With care,

Chelsea T. Hicks

Full Course Menu

Hello Revitalizers,

Please enjoy perusing the full course menu for WTP workshops at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zKss5On1CxjoxbnjsgJSeyLjiC2WNEGP/edit#heading=h.gjdgxs.

With care,

Chelsea

Hello Indigenous Writers & Revitalizers,

Wishing you a beautiful weekend, and sending you the full and complete schedule for Words of the People right here. I hope you find a moment to dream about and with your language this weekend, and perhaps imagine yourself in our upcoming gathering.

In that full schedule, you’ll find two new additions to the workshop offerings…

Bät Riting, “Good” Translations, and the Myth of Accuracy

by Shook | Oct. 26 & 28, 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

AND…

Working with our Languages/Finding Poetry: The Creative Process of the Heart

by Inés Hernández-Avila | Oct. 26 & 27, 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

More info about both workshops, as well as some recent press follows below:

ABOUT Bät Riting, “Good” Translations, and the Myth of Accuracy

by Shook | Oct. 26 & 28, 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

The workshop begins with a lecture contextualizing the craft and business of literary translation. Students will be introduced to both the basic theoretical framework and practical strategies of literary translation, using a Guarañol—a hybrid of Spanish and Guaraní—poem by the Paraguayan Jorge Canese as our example text. For the second session, participants will try their hand at translating five haiku by Sierra Zapotec writer Pergentino José, using provided cribs (intermediate translations). The workshop will include ample time for discussion of the contemporary publishing landscape for literature in translation, as well as the translator’s role as advocate. 

Shook is a poet and translator based at Newt Beach, California, on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Coast Miwok.They have translated over a dozen books, including Víctor Terán’s The Spines of Love (Gato Negro Ediciones, 2022), from the Isthmus Zapotec, and Mikeas Sánchez’ How to Be a Good Savage (Milkweed Editions, 2023), co-translated from the Zoque and Spanish with Wendy Call. With Terán they edited Like a New Sun (Phoneme Media/Deep Vellum Publishing, 2015), an anthology featuring six contemporary Indigenous writers of Mexico. In 2013, Shook founded Phoneme Media (today an imprint of Deep Vellum Publishing), a nonprofit publishing house that has since published translations from over 35 languages, including the first ever from Castrapo, Lingala, and Uyghur. A fellow of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities at the University of Southern California and a Visiting Teaching Fellow at the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University, Shook also teaches the literary translation workshop for Antioch University’s MFA in Creative Writing. 

ABOUT Working with our Languages/Finding Poetry: The Creative Process of the Heart by Inés Hernández-Avila | Oct. 26 & 27, 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

This workshop offers ways to do language work for those who are not fluent in their languages, but who are in the process of learning, and who wish to incorporate language learning into a creative writing process. Materials for the workshop, ideally, should include each person’s language dictionary, and/or, if you have them, your own notes on your language, plus your writing materials. The workshop is focused on how to unite language work with creative writing, addressing some of the following themes and questions: the relationship with our language dictionaries (exploration, intimacy, trust); how to feel our way through our dictionaries; how to allow our hearts to guide us when working with our dictionaries; what does your heart/mind/bodyspirit want and need from your language?; what understandings do you most want from your language?; is there a term in your language for “the true human being”?

Ines Hernandez-Avila is Niimiipuu/Nez Perce, of Chief Joseph’s band, enrolled on the Colville Reservation, Washington, on her mother’s side, and Tejana (and Mexican Indigenous) on her father’s side. A scholar, poet, and visual artist, her research and teaching focus on contemporary Indigenous literature of the Americas, and Indigenous religious traditions. She is a Ford Foundation Fellow at the doctoral and postdoctoral levels, and a member of the Society of Senior Ford Fellows. She is one of the six founders of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA). She received the Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award for her work mentoring graduate students (2009), and she also received the Outstanding Mentor Award from the Consortium for Research on Women. She is active in the following professional associations: NAISA, LASA (Latin American Studies Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), and the AAR (American Academy of Religion), particularly with the Native Traditions in the Americas Group. From 2013-2016, she was Co-Director of the three-year UCD Social Justice Initiative funded by the Mellon Foundation: http://socialjusticeinitiative.ucdavis.edu/. During Fall 2015, she was a member of a Residential Research Group (RRG) on “The History of Mortality” at the UC Humanities Research Institute, UC Irvine. In April 2017, she received the Frank Bonilla Public Intellectual Award from the Latino Studies section of the Latin American Studies Association annual meeting in Lima, Peru. The Frank Bonilla award cited Professor Hernández-Ávila’s “tireless mentoring of junior scholars” and her work as a “feminist pioneer.” In August 2017, she received a Community Award from the Organización de Organizaciones, Chiapas, Mexico, for her work as an ally to the cultural and linguistic revitalization movements of Mayan and Zoque people in Chiapas. In Fall 2019 she began to develop formal relationships with Mapuche scholars and poets from Chile. She is a member of the luk’upsíimey/North Star Collective, a Niimiipuu creative writers’ group, which began in September 2020.

For all classes, please register at: https://iaia.empower-xl.com/community/index.cfm/main/classlist?fw1pk=2.

In other news, Words of the People was featured today on Native America Calling! Listen in here at minute 51:00: https://www.nativeamericacalling.com/. Don’t forget to apply for your scholarship: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/14Y9kCM1P5KY_qwO7ywRqzkGXk0pdI55O7EDfSnNepWM/edit.

Create a beautiful weekend.

My best,

Chelsea T. Hicks

Words of the People is offering seven scholarship to writers registered to attend in-person workshops during the WTP Gathering, October 26-29, 2022 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. These scholarships are designed to support travel needs ranging from local language learners/writers in need of gas money, to those living in a distant metropolis or rez who are wanting to come to Tulsa in person for the Gathering.

In-person classes requiring travel include: Ofelia Zepeda, Zêdan Xelef, Manny Loley, and Inés Hernández-Avila*. Enroll now, and then go to the application.

Inés class is still being finalized, but check for updates at https://wtpgathering.org/.

Dear Indigenous Language Writers,

Words of the People is delighted to invite you to attend our inaugural Indigenous language gathering and workshop this October 26-29, 2022 at the Tulsa Artist Fellowship’s Archer Studios. Registration is now open!

WTP Gathering is offered in collaboration with the Institute of American Indian Arts and the Tulsa Artist Fellowship with support from the Mid-America Arts Alliance and the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. The purpose of the Gathering is to support Indigenous languages through writing and storytelling, and to bring together speakers to gain practice in their languages. The Gathering will follow the Neustadt World Literature Festival at the University of Oklahoma to promote worldwide connection through Indigenous languages and translations. To secure your spot at the Gathering, you can now register at the Institute of American Indian Arts’ Continuing Education course listings page. Classes range from $15 to $30, and are accredited as continuing education. Participants can select up to two workshops, as the course offerings are two days long (allowing you to attend two in total over the four days of the Gathering).

WTP Gathering is proud to provide accredited workshops at a low-cost, and we are looking into the possibility of scholarships in the near future, to cover travel expenses. At this time, we recommend that attendees plan their own travel and lodging, and we will write soon with an application and instructions for receiving need-based hardship reimbursements. If for any reason you are not able to consider attending in person, please know all classes will be available digitally via Zoom. Laura Da’s class is specifically designed for remote learners, and will last all four days of the workshop. Beth Piatote will offer her two-day workshop digitally as well, while Zêdan Xelef, Ofelia Zepeda and Manny Loley will teach in person, with remote learners joining via Zoom. Look for new faculty announcements soon.

We expect to have the majority of writers in person, as the presence of our faculty, visiting publishers, readings and attending writers will allow for many meaningful connections, conversations and shared memories. Each workshop is limited to ten participants total, so don’t wait to register! If you are ready to make plans to travel to Tulsa, please feel free to request the special “Guest of the Tulsa Artist Fellowship” rate at the Fairfield Inn & Suites, which is one block away from the Gathering’s location at Archer Studios. And if you have any questions, please write to me at chelseatayrien@gmail.com.

Looking forward to seeing you soon, and hearing your language.

With gratitude,

Chelsea T. Hicks

WTP Organizer

WORKSHOPS OPEN NOW!

Ofelia Zepeda | Register

Beth Piatote | Register

Laura Da’ | Register (Digital Only)

Zêdan Xelef | Register

Manny Loley | Register