Women Writers Series V: Lesli Marmon Silko and Kimberly Blaeser

Leslie Marmon Silko is an accomplished author of novels, short stories, essays, poetry, articles and film scripts. Her works have been recongnized with honors including a National Endowment for the Arts ?Discovery Grant? and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArther Prize Fellowship for her work in fiction, poetry and film. Some of her works include: Laguna Woman (poems); Ceremony and Almanac of the Dead (novels); leslie will be signing copies of her new book Gardens in the Dunes (Simon and Schuster) at tonight?s reading. Performances center around modern Pow Wow culture, an activity with roots going back hundreds of years. The performers demonstrate several different styles of dance found in the Pow Wow arena. All the dancers create and wear outfits specific to each of their individual Tribal groups. The group has formed it?s own drum group dedicated to the survival of native culture through native youth.

Kimberly Blaeser (Anishinaabe) currently an Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe and grew up on White Earth Reservation in northwestern Minnesota. Her publications include Trailing You, which won the Diane Decorah First Book Award for poetry from the Native Writer?s Circle of the Americas, and Gerald Vizenor: Writing in the Oral Tradition, a critical study. Blaeser?s fiction, poetry, personal essays, and scholarly articles have also been anthologized in numerous Canadian and American Collections. The Urban Natives of Chicago founded the New Beginnings Performance Troupe in order to utilize their cultural knowledge for the benefit of the community (Native American and non-native alike) and themselves. Over the past three years, the UNC troop has presented over 200 shows at various Chicago area grade schools, high schools, colleges, universities, museums and libraries.