“Lo! what a vivid picture here,
Of sin and purity,
Here where the rivers join their
Floods and journey to the sea.”
—“Where the Rivers Meet”
Writer, philanthropist, and statesman Alexander Lawrence Posey (1873-1908) was one of the first indigenous Americans to gain national acclaim in letters. His series of editorials, later collected as the Fus Fixico Letters, commented satirically and pointedly on contemporary social issues of indigenous people in America at the turn of the century. Posey also founded the first indigenous daily newspaper, the Eufala Indian Journal, and published many poems under the pen name Chinnubie Harjo before his untimely death.
Today, the New Plains Publishing Centre celebrates his legacy and spirit with the Alexander Lawrence Posey Speaker Series. We follow in his footsteps by featuring prose, poetry, and music by underrepresented voices. We want to showcase identities too frequently “othered” in mainstream discourse, to bring their rivers to the flood. We’re here for convergence: the cross-stitch of heteroglossia, the fight of double consciousness, the love that bridges mountains.
The stage is waiting. Tell your story.
Come and join us for Danez Smith tonight at 6!
