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:
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.
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).
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.
