Talking Gourds: Tina Deschenie reads for July Bardic Trails, 7/2!

26 Jun Talking Gourds: Tina Deschenie reads for July Bardic Trails, 7/2!

Talking Gourds announces the Bardic Trails virtual poetry series July 2 at 7 pm will feature Tina Deschenie, a Diné poet, writer, administrator, and educator.

Instead of having to register with the library, participants are encouraged to email Goodtimes at art@tellurideinstitute.org to get the Zoom link each month, if they are not already on the Gourds’ mailing list.

Bardic Trails is a project of the Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry Program in collaboration with Telluride’s Wilkinson Public Library.

For more information, visit the website: https://www.tellurideinstitute.org/western-slope-calendar.

Go here for mor eabout Talking Gourds.

Tina Deschenie , courtesy Talking Gourds.

Tina, along with her husband Michael Thompson, appeared in a visual art/poetry Ah Haa show in Telluride earlier this year and in several recent collections out of Cortez edited by the late Sonja Horoshko – “Wet: An Anthology of Water Poems and Prose From the High Desert and Mountains of the Four Corners Region” and “Fertile: An Anthology of Earth Poems and Prose From the High Desert and Mountains of the Four Corners Region.”

Tina earned a B.A. at Ft. Lewis College, an M.A. at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and a Doctorate in Education at New Mexico State University focusing on Educational Leadership. She has served as Head Administrator at the Diné Charter School, Provost and Associate Dean at the Navajo Technical University, Editor of the Tribal College Journal, and freelance writer.

Tina’s work has appeared in Poetry magazine and The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature edited by Esther Belin, et. al. (Univ. of Arizona Press, 2021) – winner of the 2022 Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award. Her important essay, “Why We Are Sticking to Our Stories” appears in the online Tribal College Journal https://tribalcollegejournal.org/sticking-stories/?

Her Diné clans are Ta’neeszahnii, Tó’aheedlíini, and Bit’ahnii. She grew up in the Navajo Nation, and still resides there.

Bardic Trails has undergone some recent changes. Talking Gourds will be hosting the virtual zoom series on the first Tuesday of each month instead of Telluride Arts, although the Wilkinson Public Library will continue as collaboration partner.

San Miguel County Poet Laureate Joanna Yonder will remain as co-host with Art Goodtimes. Joanna suggests “Wanting” as a prompt this one for anyone who desires one.