Joy Harjo
Born
May 9, 1951 (74 years old)
Known For
Writing
Place of Birth
Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
Joy Harjo, the 23rd Poet Laureate of the U.S., is a member of the Mvskoke Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv (Hickory Ground). She is only the second poet to be appointed a third term as U.S. Poet Laureate. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she left home to attend high school at the innovative Institute of American Indian Arts, which was then a Bureau of Indian Affairs school. Harjo began writing poetry as a member of the University of New Mexico’s Native student organization, the Kiva Club, in response to Native empowerment movements. She went on to earn her MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and teach English, Creative Writing, and American Indian Studies at University of California-Los Angeles, University of New Mexico, University of Arizona, Arizona State, University of Illinois, University of Colorado, University of Hawai’i, Institute of American Indian Arts, and University of Tennessee, while performing music and poetry nationally and internationally.
Known For

Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae
Self - 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate · (4 episodes)
2024

Cara Romero: Following the Light
Herself
2022

Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting
Self - Interviewee
2021

Jaune Quick-To-See Smith
Narrative Poetry
1982
Pepper's Pow Wow
Self

Love and Fury
Herself
2020

Words from a Bear
Self
2019

Medicine Woman
Self - Narrator (voice)
2016

Games of the North
Narrator
2011

Khonsay: Poem of Many Tongues
Self
The Native Americans: The Tribal People of the Northwest
Self - Narrator (voice)
1994