THIS CLASS investigates recent Indigenous creative practices—including poetry, film, dance, photography, and textiles—from across the Americas to think about how these forms of making and expression are not discrete but rather intimately woven together. Looking at work from North and South America such as the novels of Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo), the auto-ethnography of Davi Kopenawa (Yanomami), the paintings of Carmézia Emiliano (Macuxi), and the experimental video of Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk/Pechanga), we will explore how conventional notions of “old” versus “new” media are irrelevant as these makers, artists, artisans, and writers urgently draw upon historical traditions in order to reimagine alternative futures. Each professor will illuminate a series of keywords—including life, time, story, and nature—from the perspective of their own disciplines (literature, film/media, visual arts) with an emphasis on social justice.

This lower division course meets L&S Arts and Literature breadth requirements.

This course fulfills the following Major lower-division requirement: Western.