Navajo Prep students plan reading to mark release of poetry magazine

FARMINGTON — Material from what its organizers hope will become a regularly produced bilingual poetry magazine produced by Navajo Prep students will be presented during an event Monday, April 3 at a free event in downtown Farmington.

The debut edition of the magazine, which is called Ba' Hané — the act of telling or talking history, in Navajo — was put together from submissions by juniors and seniors in the class of Cheryl Wolfe, a language and literature teacher at the school. Navajo poets-in-residence Venaya Yazzie and Tina Deschenie worked with the students in the classroom in February and March, and the project was funded by grants from the Navajo Transitional Energy Company and the Connie Gotsch Arts Foundation through the Northwest New Mexico Arts Council.

During an event planned for 6 p.m. Monday, April 3 at the Totah Theater, 315 W. Main St., more than 20 Navajo Prep students will read their work from the magazine, which exists in both a digital and printed form. Flo Trujillo, president of the arts council, said 1,000 copies of the magazine have been printed, and everyone attending the reading will receive one.

“We wanted to make sure we had some extras,” Trujillo said. “Every student will get one, and we thought some of the moms and dads attending the reading might want an extra one for grandmas and grandpas.”

Seeing their words in print is an experience many of those students will value, she said.

“Having that published is just the ultimate for them,” she said.

Yazzie said her experience of working with the students in the classroom was a pleasure, explaining that they were respectful and receptive to the whole idea of the project.

“A lot of them, I didn’t even have to coerce them to write,” she said. “It flowed out of them.”

Yazzie said she was especially surprised at how enthusiastic the school’s male students were about the project. She noted that in mainstream American culture, many teen boys regard poetry as a pursuit for women, treating it with disdain. That wasn’t an issue for the boys at Navajo Prep, she said.

“They realize that poetry is stories about our life,” she said.

Nearly three dozen students submitted poems for the project, and many of those added artwork or photography to their efforts, all of which is included in the magazine.

One of the more interesting features of the magazine is that much of the poetry is in English and Navajo, as students were encouraged to work in both tongues. Yazzie said Deschenie’s contributions to the project in that regard were especially valuable, as she is a fluent Navajo speaker and was able to help the less-fluent students with translations.

In other situations, Yazzie said, using English and Navajo words next to each other was the only approach that made sense. She said some Navajo words simply have no equivalent in English.

“Switching between Navajo and English is what we call Navlish,” she said. “It’s like code. You’re switching because you’re using words that really can’t be translated to English, and they are words that are more powerful in their native language.”

Yazzie said the work is not limited to Navajo and English. One student of Navajo-Hawaiian heritage wrote a poem in the other language he grew up with, while a student from Montana mixed in some Cree.

Once the magazine had been completed, Yazzie spent last week working with the more than 20 students who will read aloud from their work at Monday’s event. She said public speaking is not something a lot of Navajo students have much experience with, given their cultural norms that call on them to defer to their elders and spend a lot more time listening than talking.

“I’ve also been working with them on looking people in the eye,” she said. “Making eye contact, that’s how you communicate with people. But it’s the opposite of Navajo culture, where you’re taught, ‘Don’t look them in the eye.’”

Yazzie said she was pleased with the quality of the work submitted by the students.

“It’s really cool because it’s a good mix,” she said. “We’ve got some about love and relationships, but some are about familial relationships, both positive and negative.”

Others cover lighter subjects, such as family pets, Yazzie said, noting that one student chose to write about her grandfather’s beloved dog, Zeus, an animal who could do no wrong. A photo of Zeus accompanies the piece, she said.

“It ran the whole gamut of what they could be writing about,” Yazzie said of the subject matter.

Trujillo said she was so pleased with the magazine that she already has begun searching for funding to produce another edition. She plans on reaching out to the Poetry Foundation, a Chicago-based literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism across the wider culture, for help.

Yazzie said she enjoyed the experience of working with the Navajo Prep students enough that she would definitely sign on for another edition.

“I told the students I was really proud of the time they spent on this and the effort they made,” she said, noting she believes the experience will encourage them to help keep their native language alive.

Call 505-320-0615 for more information about Monday’s event.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com.

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This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Reading at Totah Theater will feature material from bilingual magazine