“Re-Collecting Black Hawk puts forth a provocative and thorough examination of how a historical Sac and Fox leader has been reduced to a footnote. Native American historical figures have been subsumed into the US landscape via the naming customs of our European ancestors. Nicholas A. Brown and Sarah E. Kanouse use images and text in a juxtaposition that forces the viewer to think about what this means for Native Americans. Many streets and parks have been named for notable historical figures, but very few have been co-opted for business names. Makataimeshekiakiak’s English name, Black Hawk, has been used for everything from a…

Re-Collecting Black Hawk Landscape, Memory, and Power in the American Midwest Nicholas A. Brown and Sarah E. Kanouse Culture, Politics, and the Built Environment NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES “The decade’s smartest and most destabilizing book on Indians, Americans, amnesia, and memory. This book unsettles conventional wisdom of all kinds. Straightforward images document the massive and mysterious project by citizens of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois to inscribe the name of a nineteenth-century Indian leader on a staggering variety of stores, parks, bars, nursing homes, teams, and schools. An instant classic, in the tradition of Michael Lesy’s Wisconsin Death Trip.” —Paul Chaat Smith,…

Three Pitt poets have received 2015 honors from The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College. The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog by Alicia Suskin Ostriker has been selected for the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement (for previous winners of the Paterson Poetry Prize). City of Eternal Spring by Afaa Michael Weaver has been selected for the Paterson Award for Literary Excellence (for previous finalists of the Paterson Poetry Prize). Bloom in Reverse by Teresa Leo was a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize. Congratulations all around!  

Poetry Daily features the 1992 Foreword from The State of the Art by David Lehman. I remember when the Carter administration invited several hundred poets to the White House for a celebration of American poetry. There was a reception, handshakes with the president, the pop of flashbulbs. Concurrent poetry readings in various White House rooms capped off the festivities. In each room a few poets had been asked to read. The rest of the poets, the ones who hadn’t been asked to read, could attend the reading of their choice. A year later, Jimmy Carter lost the presidency. I used…