Joy
8/31/10
I THINK I LOVE YOU, AN ALL NIGHT ROUND DANCE
I'm writing to introduce you to my new project: I Think I Love You, An All Night Round Dance. I am excited about this project because it pulls together theater, music and dance in an innovative manner. I am inspired by Greek theater, a stomp dance/funk musical meld, and want to explore romantic love against the backdrop of indigenous freedom movements.
I want to start work on this new piece of indigenous musical theater this fall, but I need your help.
To learn more about the project and how you can be a part of it please click on the link.
http://projectsite.unitedstatesartists.org/project/i_think_i_love_you_an_all_night_round_dance
I am excited to be part of this new project site by United States Artists to assist artists in funding for their projects.
Thank you for taking a look.
Joy
8/16/10
Roots and Rhythm Festival Aug. 19
Joy Harjo & The Arrow Dynamics
August 19, 2010
9-10 pm
ROOTS AND RHYTHMS FESTIVAL
in The Blue Tower Lounge
Part of The Native American & Indigenous Performing Arts Festival at the beautiful Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino!
877.848.6337
http://www.buffalothunderresort.com
FREE/4 Days/20 + Performing Artists
More Information:
http://www.emergenceproductions.com/
Location:
Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino
30 Buffalo Thunder Trail
Santa Fe, NM 87506
Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino is conveniently located just 15 minutes north of the Santa Fe Plaza, 60 minutes south of Taos, and 75 minutes north of Albuquerque. Just take exit #177, Buffalo Thunder Road off highway 84/285.
The spirit of a play is bothering me. This spirit has been sending me songs, scenes, and characters and I can hardly wait to see where it will take me.
I THINK I LOVE YOU, An All Night Round Dance
http://projectsite.unitedstatesartists.org/project/i_think_i_love_you_an_all_night_round_dance
I am looking for funds to complete a first draft of an original musical play, including three original tunes, and sessions with premier dramaturge Shirley Fishman. She’s been called the “heart and soul” of La Jolla Playhouse. She was the heart and soul assisting me with my first production, Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light. These funds will also go toward a reading/performance at the Public Theater in New York.
Al Green sings, “Love will make you do right, love will make you do wrong. Love will make you stay out all night long.” It is love that motivates us, makes this circle called Earth go round and round. This holds true with a circle of friends who came together during Indian school, at the height of indigenous freedom movements and now come together for an all night wake for their friend who has died at the hand of her lover, in a double suicide. Many stories emerge, collide, provoke, and reveal the intimate interconnections and secretsthat haunt the wake party. The music interweaving the tale is original funky, tribal, rock, stomp dance mix. A chorus of ex-lovers who are part of the band will also tell what can’t be told, in the manner of a Greek chorus.
8/8/10
Your Chance....
I am in the middle of my "memoir", which is basically moments of transformation--
is there anything you want to know or may want me to address?
8/7/10
MNN Column for June 2010
Living in hotels and the city is getting to me. Last night I stayed at the home of my music producer, Larry Mitchell, because we went late in the music studio. He and his wife rent a home out in the hills west of Santa Fe. I went out into the morning on the back patio, to the realm of the sun, earth, birds, lizards, and pinon and cedar trees. I heard: quiet. And in the quiet you can hear your heart, the earth’s heart, the sun’s heart, and the sound of the direction of your life as it merges with the whole of life. I learned as much out there this morning as I can in a book, or a whole library of books. I saw and heard what I needed to know as I headed back into the other part of the story.
These days it’s a tough story. The results of our desecration are all around us. The waters of the Gulf of Mexico are being choked by oil greed. We are literally the Earth’s body, so we humans are intimately feeling and knowing the effects of these Earth changes. Storms are many times stronger, as are the winds. A few weeks ago in New York City, as I came out of the National Museum of the American Indian, after being part of a native playwrights panel, the winds were so strong they lifted me up and pushed me against the Battery Park fence. They were relentless and powerful. I dreamed about them several years ago: how the winds would move like a tsunami over Earth, to remake the Earth. So it’s no wonder that many among us are developing cancers, strokes, heart, various body failures and emotional challenge and breakdown. We are the Earth.
This country is in a downturn of the cycle. It’s an important part of the story, but difficult to weather if we don’t keep the perspective of eternity. That’s how the wisest always position their perspective. It’s like looking from the Moon, or from past the point of your departure from this place, or with seven generations in mind. We have to keep moving with grace, strength and humor and know that our native ways are what are going to help us make it through the destruction. You watch, the same people who are championing English only, immigration fences, and the dissolution of our tribal nations will be coming to us to know how to live. We have to be ready.
So, this morning, I call my mother, who lives in Tulsa, to see how she’s doing. It turns out that my brother, who loves to gamble at casinos with his Choctaw wife, has given my mother a new reason to continue her forays to the Cherokee and Creek casinos. He reminded her that she gets lots of exercise walking around the casino. Now she has a new reason to go, much to the dismay of my sister who is on a constant campaign to keep my mother from spending down her money on the machines.
Last month I gave a performance of a new show at the New Mexico Jazz Workshop: “We Were There When Jazz Was Invented”. The highlight for me was stomp dancing with Gary White Deer, Valerie Harjo and Willie George as part of the show, to prove that our tribal people were part of the origins of the American musical forms of blues, jazz and rock. When you hear all the music together, there is no doubt our Mvskoke culture was left out of the equation. Everyone loved Gary’s troupe’s performance, and my spirit was happy hanging out and getting to know Gary, Valerie and Willie better. Being with them reminded me: I need to go home.
Yes, I need to go home.
Catch up, RED DREAMS Offer, and Here we go--
I haven't written on the blog for awhile. I've gone over to Facebook. FB feels responsive, live and quick--a wiley creature.
This morning, though I've decided I will keep this up--make some links.
I'm in the middle of writing a "memoir" with a deadline of the end of this month. So that's where I'm focused. And if you stay tuned I might post some excerpts.
I just released a new CD of music: RED DREAMS, A TRAIL BEYOND TEARS. It the album I produced to acknowledge traditional music.
AND I will make the same offer here that I made on Facebook:
Until August 17th, if you buy my new CD of instrumental flute music RED DREAMS, A TRAIL BEYOND TEARS from my website, using Paypal, directly from me, I will give you a copy of either the classic Letter from the End of the Twentieth Century or Native Joy for Real.
Only ten days left on the offer. I also made the offer that if you get me an interview, a review or distribution I will send you a free CD. And, if you turn me onto a gig that works out, I will give you a complete set of my music CD's. I have gotten some great responses.
See you.
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