Salem poets to hold Indigenous storytelling workshop, reading this weekend

Listen to the audio version of this article (generated by AI).

A group of Salem-area poets will hold a storytelling workshop on Saturday and poetry reading on Sunday centered around Native American stories in celebration of National Poetry Month.

Renee Roman Noose, an archaeologist, motivational speaker and poet originally from the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes in Oklahoma, will hold the workshop on Saturday at the Salem Art Association’s Bush Barn Art Center. 

“Poetry really reaches the community when you read it aloud, when you share the power of the poem with an audience,” Roman Nose said. She has held similar workshops around the United States and Canada. 

There will be prompts for participants to get started on their poetry writing and she will share tips to improve their performance skills. 

The workshop is put on by the Mid-Valley Poetry Society and will be held from 10 a.m. to noon in the center’s annex, located in Bush’s Pasture Park. No previous experience is required. The workshop fee is “$25 or what you can afford” according to the event poster and people interested in attending the workshop should email organizer Eleanor Berry at [email protected].

At the Sunday reading, Roman Nose and Trevino Brings Plenty, another Native American poet, will perform for approximately half an hour each before an “open mic” session for people in the audience to also share their stories, said Berry. There will also be refreshments and a book signing. 

The reading on Sunday will be held at the Dye House at the Willamette Heritage Center, located at 1313 Mill St. S.E. from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free.

Berry said the reading is part of a series started in 2013 to give poets and writers the opportunity to showcase their work and practice spoken performance. Most events have been centered around a theme.

This month they decided to center it around Native American storytelling because of how “performance is deeply a part of poetic expression in Native American cultures,” she said.

The event on Sunday is funded in part by a grant from the Marion Cultural Development Corporation.

Roman Nose has stories of people who gained confidence and speaking skills when encouraged to share their work out loud in supportive environments.

“Not everyone gets to take a class on how to do public speaking, but it’s a skill we all need, or almost all of us,” Roman Nose said.

Another reason the event is focused on Native American storytelling is that organizers want to raise visibility of Indigenous communities in Oregon.

“We’re your neighbors, we’re your friends … we’re doctors and lawyers and teachers and mothers and fathers, and we have more in common than we have not,” Roman Nose said. Storytelling is very important to Native American culture, Roman Nose said.

“The history of Native people and of how we’ve been treated on our own land is fraught with trauma, but it’s also rooted in resilience,” she said.

Contact reporter Alan Cohen: [email protected].

A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE – If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE.