Labriola Center Highlights September - December 2024
Some highlighted events the Labriola Center participated in were tabling at the Phoenix Zine Fest and conducting the Indigenous Open Mic Night and Short Story Workshop, hosted by Stacie Denetsosie (Diné), 2024 Office of Indian Education Symposium, Demon Mineral Film Screening with Leona Morgan, From the Skin Book Talk, and 2024 Fall American Indian Convocation!
Phoenix Zine Fest at The Nile
Sunday, September 15, 2024
On Sunday, September 15, the Labriola Center attended and tabled at the Phoenix Zine Fest at The Nile Theatre in Mesa, Arizona. Vendors from across the state attended, including audience members from Tucson and Flagstaff. Myself and one of my Library Aides, Elena Dominguez tabled at the event and showcased some of our Indigenous zines and comic books within our collection. Included in the event for tabling was "A Girl Called Echo," "Super Indian," and "Strangelands."
While at Phoenix Zine Fest, I got to see Kayla Shaggy, author and creator of the series "Death Becomes Her," and "Anathema" (both available in our circulating collections). Amber McCrary, Author and Director of Abalone Mountain Press, a Native printing press located within Phoenix valley was also there, promoting her zines. Amber's newly published book of poetry "Blue Corn Tongue" is coming soon to our open stacks! I ran into Jasmine Torrez from Community Driven Archives at ASU Libraries, who gifted me with a zine about community archiving. Along with the awesome artists and unique zines available, the fest included a live printing press of T-shirts, fabrics, and paper!
On Saturday, myself and Mafi Pamaka, another library aide, met with Navajo zine makers Damon Begay and Tatum Begay. Damon makes prints and zines inspired by traditional stories with a futurism twist. Tatum makes zines about having chronic pain, which is what the author and creator struggles with. I especially like Tatum's zine about chronic pain being equivalent to being an alien to your own body and reality. You can find both of their works in our open stacks collection, including "Spiral" by Tatum Begay and Damon Begay.
Find Featured Books from the Labriola Center Collection:
- A Girl Called Echo: "The A Girl Called Echo series represents a powerful re-storying of Métis history and offers an important resource for educators to bring learning to life in their classrooms. Katherena Vermette’s intentional writing and lovingly crafted world seamlessly blend timelines and remind readers that generational love and cultural strength echo through the past and present, and into the future. This collection is a gift." -Dr. Tasha Spillett, New York Times bestselling author
- Super Indian: Hubert Logan was an ordinary Reservation boy until he ate tainted commodity cheese infused with Rezium, a secret government food enrichment additive. Known as Super Indian, Hubert fights evil forces who would overtake the Reservation's resources and population. Assisted by his trusty sidekicks Mega Bear and Diogi, they fight crime the way they know how -- with strength, smarts and humor.
- Strangelands: Opposites attract? Elakshi and Adam Land aren’t married. In fact, a month ago, they were perfect strangers, dwelling in lands foreign to one another. But now, they’re forced to remain by one another’s side, for their separation could mean the planet’s demise. Their greatest challenge is to stay together — even if they have to tear the world apart to do so.
- Death Becomes Her: a young woman named Marianna is dissatisfied with her life until she suddenly discovers a possible path to immortality.
- Spiral: Tatum Begay is a Navajo disabled creator, illustrator, and digital comic artist who self-publishes zines and web comics that range from slice-of-life to deeper reflections of her life and mentality.
- Another 24 Hour Comic: Damon Begay is a Dine’ cartoonist. He grew up watching WB kids cartoons every Saturday morning in the Navajo reservation; or at least near it in Gallup, NM. He was then moved to Phoenix during middle school. Damon developed a comic book obsession since the city had comic book stores and manga in the libraries.
Indigenous Short Story Workshop with Stacie Denetsosie
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Stacie Denetsosie (Diné), author of "The Missing Morningstar" led a short story workshop around the theme of heart cartography, or heart mapping. This workshop's theme focused on creating spaces where writers could balance heavy life experiences with warm and meaningful moments from the heart. Stacie Denetsosie (Diné). Stacie Denetsosie is a fiction writer and poet from Kayenta, Arizona. She received her Master of Fine Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts and her Master of Arts from Utah State University. Her work has appeared in Yellow Medicine Review, Phoebe Magazine, and Cut Bank, among other publications. She is a recipient of the UCROSS Native American Fellowship and the Prague Summer Program Poetry Fellowship. Torrey House Press released her debut short story collection, “The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories,” on Sept. 12, 2023. Her book “The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories” was named a 2024 Southwest Book of the Year, was a 2024 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize finalist, and a Gold Forward INDIES award winner.
Find Related Resources on Indigenous Anthologies in the Labriola Center Collections and Hayden Library:
- I Am Where I Come From: Native American College Students and Graduates Tell Their Life Stories: The autobiographies contained inI Am Where I Come Fromexplore issues of native identity, adjustment to the college environment, cultural and familial influences, and academic and career aspirations. The memoirs are notable for their eloquence and bravery.
- Speaking for the Generations: Native Writers on Writing: Acoma Pueblo poet Simon Ortiz brings together contemporary Native American writers to take their turn. Each offers an evocation of herself or himself, describing the personal, social, and cultural influences on her or his development as a writer. Although each writer's viewpoint is personal and unique, together they reflect the rich tapestry of today's Native literature. Of varied backgrounds, the writers represent Indian heritages and cultures from the Pacific Northwest to the northern plains, from Canada to Guatemala. They are poets, novelists, and playwrights. And although their backgrounds are different and their statements intensely personal, they share common themes of their relationship to the land, to their ancestors, and to future generations of their people.
Indigenous Open Mic Poetry Night with Stacie Denetsosie
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Photo of crowd at 2024 Indigenous Open Mic Poetry Night. Eli Shepherd (Diné) is playing his white Fender electric guitar on stage.
Following the afternoon of the Heart Cartography short story workshop, the Indigenous Innovation Initiative, in partnership with the Labriola Center, hosted Stacie Denetsosie and four local featured poets for the Indigenous Open Mic Poetry Night. Chris Hoshnic (Diné) is a Navajo Poet and Filmmaker. A recipient of the 2023 Indigenous Prize Poet for Hayden’s Ferry Review and a James Welch Finalist, Hoshnic is also an advocate for Diné Bizaad, or the Navajo Language and has translated work for Thousand Languages Project, a Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing initiative. His fellowships include the Native American Media Alliance’s Writers Seminar, UC-Berkeley Arts Research Center Poetry & the Senses and Diné Artisan and Authors Capacity Building Institute. Hoshnic’s work has received support from Indigenous Nations Poets, CoLang, Tin House and more.
Tyler Mitchell (Diné) is from Tsaile, Arizona. He attained his MFA in Creative Writing at Northern Arizona University. His poems have been featured in POETRY Magazine and Green Linden Press. He currently writes out of Phoenix, Arizona.
Zêdan Xelef (Yazidi community of Shingal Mountains) is a poet, translator, organizer, and archivist. They grew up in the Yazidi community of Shingal Mountains where they herded four goats with three other cousins. They are the co-creator of Tew Tew, an oral history and oral traditions archive with a mission to conserve the endangered Yazidi oral traditions in response to the Yazidi genocide. They’re the writer of A Barcode Scanner (Kashkul Books 2021/Gato Negro Ediciones 2022) and co-editor and co-translator of the upcoming Something Missing from This World: Contemporary Yazidi Poetry (Deep Vellum, 2024).
Su:k Chu:vak (Akimel O'Odham, Piipaash, Tlingit, Aleut and Pomo) is a community member of Salt River. Writing poetry has been her way of survival and has helped her through many struggles in life. Su:k Chu:vak hopes to encourage others through her art, photography, and music who may be struggling as well.
Find Featured Book from Labriola Center Collections:
- The Missing Morningstar: "Stacie Shannon Denetsosie confronts long-reaching effects of settler-colonialism on Native lives in a series of gritty, wildly imaginative stories. A young Navajo man catches a ride home alongside a casket he's sure contains his dead grandfather. A gas station clerk witnesses the kidnapping of the newly crowned Miss Northwestern Arizona. A young couple's search for a sperm donor raises questions of blood quantum. This debut collection grapples with a complex and painful history alongside an inheritance of beauty, ceremony, and storytelling"
Office of Indian Education Symposium
Monday, October 14, 2024
The Labriola Center hosted the Office of Indian Education Symposium at Hayden Library. The Office of Indian Education administers federal and state programs to meet the educational and cultural needs of Native American students.
Director Alex Soto and Assistant Librarian and Archivist Vina Begay spoke to educators about analyzing their book collection and teaching culturally relevant material written for and by Native authors for their Indigenous students. The Office of Indian Education held a symposium at the Labriola Center in 2023. Resulting from this symposium, Begay and Soto developed an ASU Library Guide that includes Indigenous education resources for educators teaching Indigenous youth, K-12 literature written by Indigenous authors and illustrators featured in our OIE book display, as well as presentation slides from Begay and Soto's presentations. You can view the Changing the Narrative: Indigenous Education and Children's Literature, K-12 Library Guide here.
Director Alex Soto (Tohono O'odham) presenting in front of educators at the Office of Indian Education Symposium
Find the Featured Books in the Labriola Center Collections:
Remember: In simple and direct language, accompanied by beautiful images, Harjo, a member of the Mvskoke Nation, urges listeners to pay close attention to who they are, the world they were born into, and how all inhabitants on earth are connected.
Demon Mineral Film Screening and Discussion with Leona Morgan
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
The Labriola Center had the honor of hosting a film screening of Demon Mineral. Demon Mineral documents the Indigenous struggle for vital living space in the radioactive desert of the American Southwest. Spanning the breadth of the Navajo Nation, in a landscape perforated by abandoned uranium mines, the film unearths the thousand-years-long project of reclaiming sacred homeland.
Leona Morgan (Diné), a community organizer and leading advocate from communities in New Mexico impacted by uranium mining, held a discussion panel after the film and answered questions from the audience about nuclear energy and research conducted by Dr. Tommy Rock, a member of the Navajo Nation who focuses on Environmental Sustainability from Indigenous practice and perspectives.
Find Featured Books from Labriola Center Collections:
- A Nation Within: Navajo Land and Economic Development: Addressing issues of resource exploitation and tribal sovereignty, Ezra Rosser explores the connection between land-use and development in the Navajo Nation. The book is for students, scholars, professionals, and anyone interested in Indigenous studies, the Navajo Nation, tribal economic development, and environmental and property law.
- Wastelanding: Legacies of Uranium Mining in Navajo Country: Wastelanding tells the history of the uranium industry on Navajo land in the U.S. Southwest, asking why certain landscapes and the peoples who inhabit them come to be targeted for disproportionate exposure to environmental harm. Uranium mines and mills on the Navajo Nation land have long supplied U.S. nuclear weapons and energy programs. By 1942, mines on the reservation were the main source of uranium for the top-secret Manhattan Project. Today, the Navajo Nation is home to more than a thousand abandoned uranium sites. Radiation-related diseases are endemic, claiming the health and lives of former miners and nonminers alike. Traci Brynne Voyles argues that the presence of uranium mining on Diné (Navajo) land constitutes a clear case of environmental racism.
Sol Power: Breaking and DJ Event
Monday, October 28, 2024
Sol Power is a "vibrant fusion of ASU's School of Music, Dance, and Theatre" that highlights Arizona's thriving hip hop scene. [Sol Power] is a unique collaboration between ASU's Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and the Valley of the Sun's Hip Hop culture, encompassing DJs, emcees, graffiti artists, and dancers. Sol Power offers an empowering platform to celebrate the rich culture and creative brilliance found within communities of color." Dancers had the opportunity to break in front of the Hayden Library with guest Deejay Tomahawk Bang and a live spray painting art performance with Randie B (Diné).
Featured Book in the Labriola Center's Collection:
Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in Indigenous North America: Expressive culture has always been an important part of the social, political, and economic lives of Indigenous people. More recently, Indigenous people have blended expressive cultures with hip hop culture, creating new sounds, aesthetics, movements, and ways of being Indigenous. Kyle Mays argues that Indigenous people use hip hop culture to assert their sovereignty and challenge settler colonialism. From rapping about land and water rights from Flint to Standing Rock, to remixing "traditional" beading with hip hop aesthetics, Indigenous people are using hip hop to challenge their ongoing dispossession, disrupt racist stereotypes and images of Indigenous people, contest white supremacy and heteropatriarchy, and reconstruct ideas of a progressive masculinity.
Conference: 2024 Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums
November 11 - 15, 2024
Staff from the Labriola Center had the opportunity to present at ATALM, a large conference gathering for libraries, archives, and museums that specialize in Indigenous collections. Director Alex Soto, Assistant Librarian and Archivist Vina Begay, and Senior Program Coordinator Eric Hardy spoke in front of audience members about the programming and initiatives the Labriola Center is doing to support Indigenous Data Sovereignty. Sr. Program Coordinator Eric Hardy gave a short presentation on colonization and settler colonization and how the Labriola Center is using library programming to talk about these historical issues in Labriola Center's culturally safe space. Director Soto and Assistant Librarian and Archivist Begay spoke about the research side of the Labriola Center, and the cultural protocols they implement in libraries for Indigenous researchers, tribal community members, and Indigenous students at ASU.
Within a similar vein, Sr. Program Coordinator Eric Hardy, Program Coordinator Yitazba Largo-Anderson, and Graduate Assistant Nataani Hanley-Moraga had a thirty minute round table discussion about the library programming and social media approaches the Labriola Center conducts for Indigenous community members and ASU students.
From the Skin: Editors in Tempe Arizona
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Editors Jerome Jeffrey Clark and Elise Boxer had a panel discussion about their book, From the Skin: Defending Indigenous Nations Using Theory and Praxis, at the Labriola Center at ASU. They were joined by Dr. Brittani Orona, Eric Hardy, and Alex Soto who discussed what it means to theorize and practice American Indian Studies (AIS).
Find Featured Book from Labriola Center Collections:
From the Skin: Defending Indigenous Nations Using Theory and Praxis
In From the Skin, contributors reflect on and describe how they apply the theories and concepts of Indigenous studies to their communities, programs, and organizations, and the ways the discipline has informed and influenced the same. They show the ways these efforts advance disciplinary theories, methodologies, and praxes. Chapters cover topics including librarianship, health programs, community organizing, knowledge recovery, youth programming, and gendered violence. Through their examples, the contributors show how they negotiate their peoples’ knowledge systems with knowledge produced in Indigenous studies programs, demonstrating how they understand the relationship between their people, their nations, and academia.
2024 Student Appreciation Day!
For the finale of 2024, the Labriola Center hosted a student appreciation day to celebrate the Library Aides who make the Labriola Center what it is! It is because of the students that the Labriola Center was established and reestablished at Hayden Library after the COVID-19 pandemic. The photos featured are a sneak peak into the laughter shared after a grueling 2024 fall semester. Vina Begay brought in a charades game based on Blockbuster movies.
Director Alex Soto addressing the 2024 American Indian Convocation.
2024 American Indian Student Convocation
Director Alex Soto was nominated as speaker for the 2024 Fall semester American Indian Student Convocation. His speech focused on the importance of giving back to your community, that the degree is a powerful tool for Indigenous Sovereignty and can be used to teach, implement policy in tribal law and government, establish tribal libraries on reservations, and create economic revenue that stays within tribal nations and supports traditional and cultural knowledge. A huge thank you to the American Indian Student Support Services who hold and fund the convocation every semester for graduating American Indian students!
Tait Wilson (Tohono O'odham), a Library Aide at the Labriola Center, was among the many American Indian students who graduated in Fall 2024. Tait received his Bachelors of Arts in Creative Writing. Congratulations, Tait! You will be sorely missed, however we are excited for the opportunities ahead of you.
