Joy Harjo, 23^rd U.S. Poet Laureate and member of the Muscogee Nation, will visit SUNY Fredonia as its Williams Distinguished Visiting Professor and as part of the Mary Louise White Visiting Writers Series. This free event is open to the public and will take place on Thursday, April 2^nd in the Juliet J. Rosch Recital Hall (Mason Hall) at 5 p.m. with a reception to follow in the Cathy and Jesse Marion Art Gallery in Rockefeller Arts Center, where  Harjo’s poem and portrait will be part of the exhibit of BA Van Sise’s Children of Grass: https://events.fredonia.edu/event/children-of-grass-a-portrait-of-american-poetry

Joy Harjo is first Native American U.S. Poet laureate and is the recipient of numerous awards, including; Yale’s 2023 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry, National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ruth Lily Prize from the Poetry Foundation, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Tulsa Artist Fellowship. She has authored eleven poetry books, several plays, children’s books, two memoirs, and seven music albums.

Free tickets for the event are available. Reserve yours by stopping at SUNY Fredonia Box Office M, W, F from 9:00 am-3:00 pm, by calling the box office at 716 673-3501, or using online ticketing at https://www.fredonia.edu/about/ticket-office.

Sponsors of Harjo’s campus visit are the Williams Visiting Professorship Fund and Mary Louise White Visiting Writers Series, both established through the Fredonia College Foundation. The event is part of the university’s Bicentennial series of events.

For further information, visit https://events.fredonia.edu/event/williams-distinguished-visiting-writer-us-poet-laureate-joy-harjo. Questions? Email english@fredonia.edu.