Tuesday, March 28, 2017

↞A Breeze Swept Through↠

Championing the Native Voice: Examining the writings of Luci Tapahonso

by Haley Rains 


© 2017 Haley Rains Photography 

Organization:

Date of Assignment: February 21st, 2017
Title: Championing the Native Voice: Examining the writings of Luci Tapahonso
Chapters: Hills Bros. Coffee;  Dear Alvin;  All I Want;  Raisin Eyes. 
Author’s Full Name: Luci Tapahonso

Background Research:


About this Author:

Luci Tapahonso is a Navajo poet and writer from Shiprock, NM. Tapahonso serves on numerous Editorial Boards and Advisory Boards, writes for Magazines like New Mexico Magazine and has even been featured as a guest speaker on major networks such as PBS, CBS, and ABC.

Her work has been published in countless books, anthologies, and articles. For her contributions to Native American literature, she has received several awards and recognitions. She received the Excellent Instructor Award at the University of New Mexico as well as being recognized by the City of Sacramento in 1993 as an Outstanding Native American Woman. 

About this book:

A Breeze Swept Through is a collection of poems by Tapahonso about her life as a Navajo woman living in New Mexico. Tapahonso shares intimate moments of her life that involve relationships, friendships, family, love, and loss. She dedicated A Breeze Swept Through to her brothers, Eugene Tapahonso, Jr., Alvin Tapahonso and Calvin Tapahonso.

Summary Paragraph:

Three significant ideas:

1.   Tapahonso encompasses the traditional Native American way of transmitting information through art and storytelling.

2.   Native American cultures use stories not only to teach moral lessons and convey practical information about the natural world but to confer identities onto tribal members, validating their existence.  Tapahonso allows us to see the way in which she, her family, and her tribe navigate the world through the lens of tribal (Najavo) citizens.  

3.   Tapahonso uses the land and her environment as a way to interpret her experiences and express her emotions -- something that is authenticly Native American.  

Three Key Moments in Plot:

1.   Tapahonso's poem "Dear Alvin" is a beautiful tribute to her lost loved one -- her brother Alvin. She shares the emotions she experiences as a result of losing someone close to her in a way that is artful and full of symbolism. She describes the sunshine after a rainstorm as, "a new strength. A new life" (11). It's a privilege for us as readers to be able to see inside the mind of a Navajo woman and observe the way in which she processes life and death; she appears to celebrate the life of the one that she lost as opposed to mourning his passing. 

2.   In her poem, "Hills Brothers Coffee," Tapahonso illustrates a moment between her and her uncle in which they bond over coffee. Tapahonso elegantly and subtlety articulates the way in which family traditions are transmitted intergenerationally. Tapahonso, referring to the coffee, repeatedly writes, "It does it for me" (8). Initially, it is her uncle that shares with Luci the pleasure he receives from enjoying his coffee by saying, "Ahh, that's the one that does it for me. Very good coffee" (8). At the end of the poem, Luci shares that she buys "Hills Brother Coffee" because that is the coffee her and her uncle enjoyed together.

3.   In her poem "All I want," Tapahonso begins by stating her desire to make bread as well as her grandmother does. As the poem continues, it becomes evident that Tapahonso admires more than just her grandmother's homemade bread; she enjoys spending time with her grandmother. Tapahonso articulates wonderfully the way in which moments spent bonding with loved ones can be as simple as baking bread together. She uses vivid details to describe her experience. For example, the way she describes the soft, warm bread, the sounds of children, and even the breeze that finds its way inside the kitchen. She places us, as readers, in her grandmother's kitchen and provides for us a window into an intimate moment shared between her and her grandmother. 

4.  "Raisin Eyes" is about Luci's friend, Ella, who is in a relationship with a man that is not good for her. Tapahonso illustrates Bella's inability to leave him despite wanting out of her relationship with the "Navajo [cowboy] with the raisin eyes" (39). But can't seem to help herself from engaging in "down-and-out love affairs" (39).  Ella, despite being taken advantage of, does not leave her dysfunctional relationship.


The Significant Ideas (Poetry):

1.   Tapahonso employs the use of Free Style poetry which, according to Familyfriend Poems, "does not follow any rules. Their creation is completely in the hands of the author. Rhyming, syllable count, punctuation, number of lines, number of stanzas, and line formation can be done however the author wants in order to convey the idea. There is no right or wrong way to create a Free Verse poem" (Familyfriend poems). 

2.  Tapahonso uses descriptive imagery to convey her emotions and engage us, as readers. She writes from a personal and introspective point of view which allows us as readers to sympathize and identify with her and her characters. 

3.   Tapahonso has a voice that is uniquely and authentically Indian. She incorporates traditional tribal values, experiences, and histories into her tales of love, loss, and daily life in Shiprock, New Mexico.

Oral Tradition:

Through her writing, Tapahonso has identified a way in which Native Americans can liberate ourselves from circumscribed identities conferred by colonial powers and redefine our own lives according to our traditional cultures. She has brilliantly employed the use of oral tradition in a new-age, hybrid form of poetry. 

   
Literary devices:

Theme:

A Breeze Swept Through contains several reoccurring themes including love, loss, tradition, culture, hope, and optimism. 

Voice:

Her unconventional writing structure and use of syntax and punctuation give life to her characters in a way that is endearing to her audience. 

Additional literary devices:

She frequently uses similes, metaphors, and symbols to describe the places and sensations that she is experiencing. For example, in her poem, “Dear Alvin,” she uses the metaphor, “the clouds were low and heavy veils of gray” (11). to express the way in which her environment and the weather depicted the way she felt by the passing of her brother, Alvin. 

She also uses another writing convention called Personification to convey her emotion. In “Dear Alvin,” she writes, “as we drove back to Albuquerque, it rained most of the way – a strong male rain"  (11). She refers to the rain as “strong” and “male” to project her brother, who she had just lost, on to something tangible. 


Digital Media:

https://youtu.be/CbzpugVpnd0

This video is a reading of  Tapahonso's "Raisin Eyes" by the author herself. 

Luci's Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/luci.tapahonso.5

Work cited:

Tapahonso, Luci. A breeze swept through. West End Press, 1987.

Family Friend Poems. "All Types Of Poems." Family Friend Poems. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2017.


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