Last night, Sarah and I went to see Joy Harjo speak at a PEN event, where she said a lot of interesting things, a lot of poetic things, and some things that were just plain … bananas. [My favorite –– which just may mean she’s not great at math –– was talking about how many families there are with seven generations living together under one roof. If each generation reproduces at 20 without fail, that means the 7th generation person is 120 … and while I guess a very frisky family tree full of 13 year-old parents could pull it off … I just don’t think it’s all that common a phenomenon.]
I did genuinely like her (from a distance) and I was doubly glad I went into the Funhouse style basement of The Standard to hear her rattle on, mostly because a) her confidence was so staggering in her relaying every dream and Vision Quest moment of her life and b) I am so glad I’m doing a digital release of DOWNWARD DOG from the comfort of my easy chair rather than speaking to hipster literati in odd spaces with Mescal sponsors.
(FYI, she felt totally comfortable saying how she’d visited the moon (she didn’t specify how) but frankly, right now I have no desire ever to leave my NYC digs for any adventures, interplanetary or otherwise.)
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