In this episode of Abalone Mountain Press, I speak with Boderra Joe about their newly released book of poems titled, Desert Teeth. Desert Teeth is a collection of poetry that unfolds the wakening shift of scarred violence affecting native people and land for centuries, where alcohol and uranium, two of many elements, continue to take the lives of our relatives. Each poem lingers and holds the face of the reader through deep explorations of grief, family, identity, and love. These poems walk out on their own with the memories and images that flicker by, like a thought too frightened to talk. The vulnerability and rawness in each poem expands the perspective, longing for closure, acceptance, and understanding. Each poem lives in language and landscape, all while the haunting violence interferes. Beauty has its way of revealing itself.
Boderra Joe is a Diné poet, journalist, and photographer from Bááhazł'ah (Twin Lakes), New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation. She is Bit’ahnii (Folded Arms Clan), born for Tabááha (Water’s Edge Clan). She holds an MFA and BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is the recipient of the Willapa Bay AiR Fellowship, the Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po) Fellowship, and the Bosque Redondo Memorial Artists-In-Their Residence Fellowship.