Poets Heid E. Erdrich and Louise K. Waakaa’igan in Conversation

In this conversation, Heid E. Erdrich reads “Weweni” by Louise K. Waakaa’igan and responds with her poem “Territory was Not Virgin and Neither was I (Virgin).” If you visit the website heiderdrich.com you will find a modest biography saying that she is is the author of seven collections of poetry, a non-fiction Indigenous foods memoir, and she’s editor of two anthologies. Heid grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota and is Ojibwe enrolled at Turtle Mountain. What her website will not tell you, is that if you have the delve into her substantial oeuvre, you will discover that Heid E. Erdrich is a poet working in the vast realm of prophetic imagination.

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This August, Lyricality Founder/Director Tracy Rittmueller is pleased to present Lyricality’s “Read Poetry 2021” chosen author, Louise K. Waakaa’igan along with the guest poets who graced us with their presence at “an Evening with Louise K. Waakaa’igan” on April 8, 2021. Please enjoy this video series offering a deep-dive into Louise’s poetry, in conversation with 6 of Minnesota’s wonderful poets–3 nationally known poets from the Twin Cities metroplex and 3 accomplished Somali-American poets from Saint Cloud.

About Heid E. Erdrich

In this conversation, Heid E. Erdrich reads “Weweni” by Louise K. Waakaa’igan and responds with her poem “Territory was Not Virgin and Neither was I (Virgin).”

If you visit the website heiderdrich.com you will find a modest biography saying that she is is the author of seven collections of poetry, a non-fiction Indigenous foods memoir, and she’s editor of two anthologies. Heid grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota and is Ojibwe enrolled at Turtle Mountain. 

What her website will not tell you, is that if you have the delve into her substantial oeuvre, you will discover that Heid E. Erdrich is a poet working in the vast realm of prophetic imagination. A few months ago, I followed a series of blog posts from the Center for Action and Contemplation, reflections on the life-sustaining, necessary work of the poet-prophets among us. I believe that all of our poets tonight work in that realm. Heid has been doing it magnificently and humbly for decades. Poet-prophets have the prescience and courage to work “outside and at a distance from the court of common religious and civic opinion.” They are willing to risk unpopularity and even derision in order to challenge humanity to let go of illusion, and they are imbued with . . . profound love for creation and a consequent passion for justice. 

That, beautiful people, is Heid E. Erdrich. We are all a little bit in awe of her. We are grateful for her. And we are honored that she was able to join us for “an Evening with Louise K. Waakaa’igan.”

About THIS IS WHERE and Louise K. Waakaa’igan

This August (2021), ​​This Is Where, guides a series of video conversations on Sunday Morning Lyricality as we celebrate Louise K. Waakaa’igan, an Anishanabekwe poet enrolled at La Courte Ordielles Reservation in northern Wisconsin. Her poems courageously face hard truths, revealing the sorrows of complicated families and historical trauma. Her poems bring beauty to the world through their painstaking attention to the craft of writing, with empathy and kindness. 
This Is Where brings to us a gift in this naming and acceptance of contradiction. Aren’t we all searching for wholeness in a fragmented, polarized world? By holding the broken and the healing, the miraculous and the pitiful tenderly together, by facing ambiguities and contradictions, This Is Where shows us that while there are no shortcuts to healing and reconciliation, and although the work is hard, Love is possible.

***

Credits: “Weweni” appears in This is Where by Louise K. Waakaa’igan (Willow Books, 2020). Willow Books is the award-winning division of AQUARIUS PRESS, www.WillowLit.net 

“Territory was Not Virgin and Neither was I (Virgin)” appears in Little Big Bully by Heid E. Erdrich (Penguin Books, 2020).

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“Read Poetry Central Minnesota 2021” and “An Evening with Louise K. Waakaa’igan” were made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Central MN Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

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