#50: Joy Harjo on Poetry, Mysticism, and Becoming Poet Laureate

THE IDEALISTS.

In this episode of The Idealists. (formerly Grit & Grace), host and entrepreneur Melissa Kiguwa interviews Joy Harjo, who served three terms as the 23rd Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2022. She is the author of nine books of poetry, several plays and children's books, and two memoirs. Her many honors include the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, two NEA fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In this episode, Joy shares how she moves between the physical and mystical in order to make sense of the world around her.

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In the episode:

- Joy begins the episode by describing how her work as a writer is to see humanity’s beauty and atrocity.

- She then describes how she sees the world in both the physical and metaphysical sense.

- Joy shares the tensions she’s experienced trying to bring her indigenous wisdom traditions to academia.

- At the end of the episode, Joy shares her audacious vision for the world.

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