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I realized early on that I had no idea how I was going to review "Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas." I wanted to review it, thought it would be a good idea, but ultimately I decided to do something different than a standard critical and analytical review. The poetry is great, probably beyond my ability to properly critique anyway, so I'll let the quality of the work speak on its own accord.
However, the story that jumped out at me was the scope and historical nature of this project. "Sing" is a multilingual collection of over 80 indigenous poets ranging from the northernmost to southernmost tips of the Western hemisphere. Edited by award-winning writer and professor, Allison Hedge Coke, "Sing" presents a broad spectrum of talent, ranging from legendary Native literary figures such as Joy Harjo and Simon Ortiz, on through established younger talents like Sherwin Bitsui, Orlando White and Santee Frazier and ending with wonderful emerging poets like Layli Longsoldier and Natalie Diaz.
For her part, Hedge Coke is nearly peerless as an editor. She has both vision and an almost scary eye for talent that few people possess.* I am not sure what she set out to do with this project originally, but what she has done is put together a historical document, a permanent record. "Sing" isn't arbitrary. It isn't a vanity collection thrown together with some vague sense of representing some style of poetics. There is no haphazard poem placement, it has a sense of order and meaning from beginning to end. For example, the prelude starts with a poem by Sherwin Bitsui: "Kneeling before the altar of your hands"" From that first line it is established, "Sing" is sacred, it's important. Significant.
If you love poetry this is a must read collection, however, as I said earlier, for me something else jumped out. I look at "Sing" as not a collection of indigenous poetry, or even a poetry collection. What I see is the permanent record I referred to earlier. If you want to know about poetry or indigenous poetry, "Sing" will definitely work for that. But if you want to know about indigenous people, who they are, where they come from, their identity, traditions and lives from their initial existence right until this very moment, well then "Sing" is unquestionably for you. Read it. Celebrate it. Pass it down to your children and grandchildren. It is well worth it.
Reading for Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas
11/07/2011 - 7:00pm
Just released by the University of Arizona Press, Sing is a multilingual collection of Indigenous American poetry, joining voices old and new in songs of witness and reclamation. Unprecedented in scope, Sing gathers more than eighty poets from across the Americas, covering territory that stretches from Alaska to Chile. This not-to-be-missed celebration features editor Allison Hedge Coke, and contributors Sherwin Bitsui, Travis Hedge Coke, Natalie Diaz, Mariah Gover, Simon Ortiz, Layli Long Soldier, Laura Tohe, and Orlando White.
Order "Sing" here from the University of Arizona Press
http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/Books/bid2299.htm
*Also check out a wonderful collection edited by Hedge Coke entitled: "Effigies: An Anthology of New Indigenous Writing".
