User:Corey.scarano/sandbox

Joy Harjo's poetry touches widely on imperialism and colonization and their effects on violence on women. Harjo often takes a day to day scene, like drinking in a bar in her poem "An American Sunrise" and connects it to deep problems within the Indigenous culture. Noted scholar Mishuana Goeman writes, "The rich intertextuality of Harjo's poems and her intense connections with other and awareness of Native issues- such as sovereignty, racial formation, and social conditions- provide the foundation for unpacking and linking the function of settler colonial structures within newly arranged global spaces". In her poems, Harjo often uses her cultural Muskogee/Creek background and spirituality and puts it in opposition to popular culture. In the United States, some of the most visible objects to remember of popular culture are the images one sees through television, film and media. A P.H. D. In a thesis done by an Iowa University Graduate student, Eloisa Valenzuela-Mendoza says, "Native American continuation in the face of colonization is the undercurrent of Harjo’s poetics through poetry, music, and performance." Harjo's work touches upon land rights for Native Americans and the seriousness of the disappearance of "her people". Harjo rejects many narratives that erase Native American histories. While Harjo’s work is often set in the Southwest, she writes about one's struggle and also reflects Creek values, myths, and beliefs.