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Minnesota Native News is a weekly radio segment covering ideas and events relevant to Minnesota’s Native American communities. Made possible by the Minnesota Art's and Cultural Heritage fund
[Music: Minnesota Native News Theme]
Marie Rock [ANCHOR]: Welcome to Minnesota Native New. I'm Marie Rock.
This week, Producer CJ Younger interviews writer Marcie R. Rendon about her 2024-released poetry book, Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium, a collection of poem songs, or dream songs.
Marcie Rendon: I'm White Earth Ojibwe enrolled member of the White Earth tribe.
CJ Younger: All right, so will you tell me a little bit about your new book?
Marcie Rendon: The Anishinaabe songs for the New Millennium, is my first official poetry book collection, and mostly what I've done in the past is this kind of spoken word in your face poetry. But this is a collection of poem songs, or dream songs. They're like the traditional songs that Ojibwe singers would sing--do sing, I should say. There's minimal words. The words create an image. They're probably closer to haiku, but there is no way that they're haiku. So the first part of the book is these poem songs, dream songs, and then the last part of the book are songs that I've written for theater or choral groups or operas that have been set to Western musical notation. The beginning of the book, if somebody wanted to--not me--but somebody who knew how to do it, they could sing them at a drum.
CJ Younger: And what made you choose to focus on music for your first poetry collection?
Marcie Rendon: It goes with our teachings as Anishinaabe people, that the way that I was told is that each of us is given a song. But we have to get quiet enough to listen to it. So these are song poems, dream songs that I got quiet enough to hear, and then I wrote them down. For me, the purpose of the book was to let people know we have teachings about songs. If we get quiet enough, everybody can hear their song. They each have a song.
CJ Younger: When you say, get quiet enough, is that more of like a spiritual quiet, like a peacefulness of the mind, going out into nature, finding a physically quiet place, or is it both?
Marcie Rendon: For me, it's just getting quiet enough. I don't have a radio, I don't have a television, I don't listen to outside stuff bombarding me all the time. I'm always listening to the stories that are being created in my mind, the ideas that I have. You know, if somebody goes out and fasts, that's typically when you hear old people were given a song, or people are given a song in a dream, but you have to actually pay attention to what's coming to you. And so it could be sitting in this chair and being quiet enough. It could be like you said, going out and fasting, or sitting by the lake or getting up at sunset. I think it varies from person to person.
CJ Younger: Can you tell me a little bit more about the reading itself? What was it like to be up sharing your stories? What was it like to meet people who had read your book or would read your book.
Marcie Rendon: So it was fun. Lyz Jakola, who's a--she has a PhD in Native music, and then Mark [Erickson], who is this recognized Ojibwe singer you know, to have them talk with me about music and about the book and about the poems, you know. So it--and really, it's not just about me, it's about this, this whole thing that, you know, the traditions. So it was really good to see people who I love and care about there, and then to have all of these other people too, who I've collaborated with. That was good.
CJ Younger: And then can you tell me how you've seen representation in literature evolve over the past couple of years?
Marcie Rendon: Currently, it's we need diverse books. There's been this push within the major publishing industry to be more inclusive of, in general, just writers of color, Native, African heritage, Asian, Chicana, Latina, you know, whatever. So the publishing industry has actually started publishing our work, and more than just one little thing. When my crime novels first came out, basically, the Native people who were getting published were Louis Erdrich and Sherman Alexie and now, I mean, the bookshelves are just filled with Native authors. And it's everything from children's picture books to middle grade, Angeline Boulley's young adult novels. Handful of us doing crime, just basic crime novels. Native people have always been writing. It's not like all of a sudden we decided to write, but it's that the publishing industry actually opened up to accepting our submissions and then publishing them.
Marie Rock: That's all we for this week's episode. Join us next time for more voices and stories that inform, uplift, and shape our communities, right here on Minnesota Native News.
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Marie Rock: Minnesota Native News is produced by AMPERS: Diverse Radio for Minnesota's Communities. Made possibly by funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.