MPR’s Euen Kerr talks with Native American poet Jamison Mahto about poetry and cultural misconceptions. Mahto reads "The Blue Apache" from his book “Blues For Franklin Avenue: A Collection of Poetry.”

Transcript:

(00:00:01) We used to have a lot of fun case of beer couple of joints in a drum singing those high and lovely songs on the top of black bear Butte around the fire. There was fancy dance and our faces smiled in which the Stars would last forever. You could share the blanket of some raven-haired Choctaw Fox and

(00:00:20) sleep the sleep when you dream your power

(00:00:23) and you could dream those

(00:00:25) dreams that keep all men young I was young and tight

(00:00:30) and I You're nothing I understood freedom and dignity and honor the bunch of us would sweat and pray together. We would hunt and fish everyone would feast in the elders 8

(00:00:41) first. Sometimes

(00:00:44) we would hotwire a white man's car and joy ride until it wouldn't go any further. Sometimes we would raid the ranch is at the edge of the reservation ghetto and butcher the beef behind animes Barn well volca and a 16 year old ghost dancer Buckskin strength and 60 million Buffalo memories celebrate an ancient. Eco amid the architecture of desperation set loose in the urban reservation down the path of righteousness profanity and glorious suicide. I was too young the damage was done for a few moments of intricate chance with a tube of glue a jug of brown whiskey pills in a jar junk in a rig the angry needle in your veins your spiritual radar rendered useless. Why no Park your camp on the Avenue felt hats and feathers in a funky rock and roll jungle the world unbalanced in the past. My narcotic my identity a main nerve. In delight and Evangelical fanaticism of beadwork and jewelry

(00:01:36) and lost languages Jameson motto reading from Blue Apache, which is from his book blues for Franklin Avenue. It's very powerful piece. We've only heard half of it there but dealing with a lot of issues. Where does this where does this all come from?

(00:01:56) Yes. There are a lot of issues the loss of

(00:01:59) identity the conscious Jenna attempt at genocide by the United States government do the personal Journey involved in discovering your identity and learning what that's about done in kind of a jazz improvisational format. My influence is distinctly From the Beat Generation Kerouac Ginsberg Burroughs cats like that you draw on so many different cultures in your work. I mean not only the Native American culture but as you mentioned the beets and The Rock and Roll culture to it, but ultimately it's poetry at a form of art that many people feel is anachronistic now, You don't hear many poets. Really. Why did you choose to do it this way? This is the form that I choose because I think it has a unique uniqueness a unique quality about it in terms of expressing deep feelings profound Concepts and issues in a very concrete form a concrete manner that still somehow manages to

(00:03:07) stay abstract

(00:03:08) enough so that the listener Or the reader can kind of use their own imagination to come to grips with some of the things that did I talk about I talk about disenfranchisement and alienation out here on the Avenue. We're sitting here in front of the Native American Center

(00:03:27) and I think it's very

(00:03:27) important for those people out there the in the listening public to hear the Native American voice. Yeah. It's kind of anachronistic who reads poetry anymore. Anyway, I'm not sure who they are who those People are but those are the people that I would say to that they have the position and the power to change some of the things that we're talking about. Do you write your pieces to be performed? I have heard you not just now but also in other places actually read your pieces and they have a real power to them. And as I look at the same pieces on the page, they don't hit quite as hard as my background is heavy in the performance field. I've been a musician for 25 years. I've put on shows of all this sorts of descriptions and character when I sit down at the typewriter, I visualized myself standing in front of an audience reading. This I feel that the best poetry is right in line with the oral tradition that is prominent in all Native American cultures. The Storyteller was a man that was very respected because it was his duty and responsibility to continue the culture by sharing the knowledge through stories. And so I feel that the Native American poet is at the Forefront as that the rest of the way of the Native American artistic Renaissance that occurs as we speak here. There are native artists all over the nation who is voices demand and deserve to be heard. How do you actually work? Do you find it easy to write? I always like this question. It's gotten easier. It's gotten easier through through discipline being able to sit down at the typewriter and managed to confront the blank piece of paper and create something out of nothing. I've been doing it now for 25 years the publishing of the book blues for Franklin Avenue was probably one of the best things I've ever done in my life. It has opened doors. there's starting to be a certain amount of financial compensation associated with me doing what I like to do and I was saying earlier this morning that you know, when I the time that I spend at the typewriters probably some of the happiest time that I spend in my in my day and I don't get enough of it and

(00:05:59) if I was able to do

(00:06:01) 4 to 6 hours sitting at the typewriter every day, I would say that that was something close to Nirvana. Your book is looser Franklin Avenue A lot of people when they hear the name Franklin Avenue kind of wince a little they've heard some of the stories they've been down here. They feel kind of uncomfortable. What's your feeling about about this place? Well,

(00:06:25) there's there's a lot of

(00:06:26) stereotypical images in the world, you know native people happen to to be the object of a lot of those stereotypes and I think the responsibility for the correcting of Is in the media's hands one of the things that's happened with respect to Franklin Avenue in the things that go on here as the media has placed a lot of emphasis on the negative things that occur that don't only just occurred in this community but in every Community, but because the native people and African-American people in Asian people live in this community, we get a lot of negative, press Ok, well the fact of the matter is that there's a lot of joy to know that happens on this Avenue. There's a lot of laughter and joking and come rodri friendship the re generation of cultural identity with Native American people is very very strong on the south side of Minneapolis and a very very important facet of this community that the media has a tendency to just look the other way when things like that happen, there's a

(00:07:29) lot of very beautiful strong

(00:07:31) people that have been here in this community fighting and struggling for the survival of this community and the viability City of this community and it's in its own diversity. It's beautiful diversity that have been here for the last 20 years fighting and struggling against downtown and the powers that be that have kept things from happening that are of a positive nature in this community. And now finally we're

(00:07:58) beginning to see some real positive

(00:08:01) results to those efforts. It's been a long long haul a long struggle, but all of the The Gin joints that used to exist up and down the Avenue, you'll take a look down that Avenue now, they're not there anymore and they're being replaced by you know, locally owned Community operated businesses, which is absolutely essential to the existence of this community. I'm talking about the Jameson motto the author of Blues for Franklin Avenue. Could we hear the second half of blue Apache?

(00:08:38) The white man had a gun. He was crazy out of it. I did. The only thing I could I hit him across the back of the head with the war club chair.

(00:08:45) How was I to know that he was going to Hemorrhage lying there on the floor at my feet laying there on that barroom floor.

(00:08:51) He had a gun and it was pointed at my

(00:08:54) best friend. I was young and bad and jail was my teacher I exchanged myself for lying face down in a rice paddy hot lead whistling overhead smelling death mud and Napalm.

(00:09:07) It was an easy choice.

(00:09:08) Is

(00:09:09) I came home to Alcatraz and Wounded Knee? They circled the church with apcs helicopters night fighting technology Hotchkiss guns on the hill against one AK-47 our 22s hunting rifles shotgun bows and arrows crawling on their bellies warriors on the rise. I know how to spell victory left are cut my legs off at the joint to get me to kneel I am the four directions. Pocahontas Powhatan, oh became canoe leading a rebellion almost a hundred years old almost blind almost kicked some English, but back into the ocean. He wouldn't have had to bother if we hadn't fed them. If we hadn't helped them survive through the hard years those first hard cold ears. I am the truth Sand Creek Washita longest. Walk Black Hills Survival Gathering white Earth treaty conference Redbone Buffy sainte-marie. Black Elk Rolling Thunder Sitting Bull Crazy Horse Laramie treaty Treaty of Medicine Lodge nuclear disarmament treaties with the Soviets I am Joe Bone Club pissed his pants standing at the street corner bus stop digging around

(00:10:21) for spare change in cigarette butts.

(00:10:24) We are the landlords and the rent is way past due. I am the center of the universe. Call me the blue Apache.