Public Talk by Playwright and Poet Dr. Carolyn Dunn

Centered in the Mvskoke Creek spirit world that inhabits Joy Harjo’s play “Wings of the Night Sky, Wings of the Morning Light,” scholar, poet and playwright Dr. Carolyn Dunn will lecture on the aesthetics of Native and Indigenous Theater.  

This talk will examine how Indigenous artists must be able to define for themselves how tribal, communal and Indigenous worldviews inform the political, cultural and spiritual context of Native American and Indigenous performance.

Carolyn M. Dunn, PhD., is an indigenous artist whose identity includes Cherokee, Muskogee Creek, Seminole and Choctaw Freedman descent on her father's side, and Tunica-Choctaw-Biloxi and French Creole on her mother's. Her work has been recognized by the Wordcraft Circle of Storytellers and Writers as Book of the Year for poetry (Outfoxing Coyote, 2002) as well as the Year's Best in 1999 for her short story "Salmon Creek Road Kill", and the Native American Music Awards (for the Mankillers cd Comin to Getcha). In addition to Outfoxing Coyote, her books include Through the Eye of the Deer (with Carol Zitzer-Comfort) Aunt Lute Books, 1999), Hozho: Walking in Beauty (with {Paula Gunn Allen, McGraw Hill, 2002), Coyote Speaks (with Ari Berk, H.N. Abrams, 2008), Echolocation: Poems, Stories and Songs from Indian Country: L.A. (Fezziweg Press, 2013), and The Stains of Burden and Dumb Luck (Mongrel Empire Press, 2017). Her plays The Frybread Queen, Ghost Dance, and Soledad have been developed and staged at Native Voices at the Autry in Los Angeles. Directing credits include the Red Road and Round Dance, both by Arigon Starr, 49 by Hanay Geoigamah, Sliver of a Full Moon by Mary Kathryn Nagle, as well as Nagle’s new play Sovereignty for Heller Theater Company at Tulsa Performing Arts Center in October, 2018. She has two new plays, Soledad and The Bone Picker, both currently in development. In February, 2019, Dr. Dunn will complete a residency at the University of Michigan’s Global Theater and Ethnic Studies Program, which is commissioning her newest play, tentatively titled Three Sisters.

Dr. Dunn is currently Artist in Residence for creative writing (play writing and poetry) at the University of Central Oklahoma, and serves on the Board of the newly formed Oklahoma Indigenous Theater Company (formerly Oklahoma City Theater Company’s New Native American Play Festival), The American Indian Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and Safe Harbors Indigenous Collective at LaMama in New York. She lives on a farm in rural Oklahoma with her family.

RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1091258521045794/

This event is presented by the Center for World Performance Studies with support from: Residential College Department of Theatre & Drama, CEW+, Institute for Humanities, SMTD DEI Office, Department of American Culture, and Institute for Research on Women and Gender.