BY BILL NEVINS
TAOS, New Mexico — John Trudell, founder/leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the 1970s, is now a movie star (Thunderheart and Smoke Signals), a recording artist (with albums Graffiti Man and his latest, Blue Indians), and a poet so respected that he was invited to read at the prestigious Taos Poetry Circus 2000 in June.
Trudell joined poets and poetry fans to discuss what really matters: the future of the planet and the potential of humans, poets included, to impact on that future. "The strength of the poetry as we enter into whatever it is we are entering into", said Trudell with a slight grin, "will be determined by the clarity of the thinking we put into it".
He outlined how the rapacious mining of Native lands in the Americas for uranium and other minerals has set the tone for corporate exploitation, the "mining" of the minds and imaginations — the very souls — of all humanity.
As defence against this fierce onslaught, Trudell counselled "clear thinking, not reactive thinking. The poison and pollution in our environment affect how clearly we see things. We need to use our intelligence and organise our consciousness and our perceptions of reality. This is hard work, but it must be done."
As the Taos literary discussion turned sharply political, Trudell boldly declared, "It is going to be a class war in America, no matter what they call it. The industrial ruling class is revealing itself through the World Trade Organisation and is preparing to mine this planet. The vampires are handing their children over to vampires even worse than they are!"
Trudell's prophetic and apocalyptic free verse and fiery talk, laced with political outrage and sly humour, had held the audience rapt during his guest poetry slot on the stage a night earlier. His calm manner gave credibility to his strong words. Trudell is a survivor. Like Dante, he has "been to hell and back again", and people listen to an articulate voice with such credentials.
As AIM leader, Trudell saw many comrades killed and jailed, including still imprisoned AIM martyr Leonard Peltier. The US government's COINTELPRO operation to discredit, disrupt and destroy the Native American resistance movement amounted to an "Indian war". Trudell's own FBI file is 17,000 pages long! Yet his byword has always been, "No Surrender!".
In 1979, Trudell's wife, children and mother-in-law died in an arson fire. Suspicion persists that the deaths were linked to Trudell's prominent militancy and the government's ruthless determination to crush AIM. Trudell is blunt when speaking about it: "They were murdered as an act of war".
This personal horror gave warrior Trudell a new life as a writer. He recalls, "After what I had seen and where I'd been, I couldn't keep quiet. The politics had served its purpose, and I had a political identity then, but I saw that our expression has to come from our culture and our art."
Trudell began to write, in a manner as fearless and uncompromising as his political stance. While Native American author/film-maker Sherman Alexie praised Trudell from the Taos stage for "putting down the gun and picking up the pen", Trudell accepted the compliment with this qualification: "When I went to the writing, it was the most vengeful thing I could do. I won't say I started writing out of love. When I started out to write, I did not want to explode. Writing lines, poems, songs — that became my explosion."
Besides Trudell, many other distinct poetic voices spoke at Taos Poetry Circus this year, all contributing to an unstated theme of how the beauty of poetry may survive in the face of exploitation, suffering and conflict.
Ishmael Reed, the great African-American novelist, poet, essayist and playwright, shared his explorations in language and cultural rebirth. Reed offered a direct challenge to corporate control of the publishing world by advocating internet publication and cross-national communication. Reed's satirical voice and sharp wit rang true in his reading and seminar contributions.
Poetry at its most determined can be heavy business, but the World Poetry Bout Association, which sponsors the week-long circus, has discovered ways to leaven the grimness so that the poets' varied messages get through. There were day-long open readings in the shade of Taos courtyards, intensive writing workshops, and an inspiring landscape in which to hike.
Each evening featured a poetry slam contest, a cross-cultural poetry encounter or a reading by some of the most renowned poets on the planet. Allen Ginsberg, Wanda Coleman, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Jim Carrol, Victor Hernadez Cruz and Anne Waldman are just a few of the past readers.
The week culminates in the World Heavyweight Championship Poetry Bout, a gala and raucous affair held in a Taos hotel ballroom fitted out with a real boxing ring, including a ref, announcer and bells. Ten rounds of poetry, with a vying pair of poets tossing out both composed and improvised verse in very dramatic and often hilarious style for judgment by the audience and a "citizen panel" of judges.
In this year's bout, challenger Bob Holman, Nuyorican Poets Cafe hero and producer of the astounding video, United States of Poetry, leapt out of the ring and trotted through the audience, and out of the ballroom altogether, while narrating his rambles in verse over a microphone headset. When he got back, Holman blithely announced that he had never left the room at all — that was just a poem happening!
Defending champ Sherman Alexie, author of "Reservation Blues", "Indian Killer" and "The Toughest Indian in the World", countered Holman's crowd-pleasing antics, and very effective, side-splittingly funny verse, with a Native American chant, comic jabs and his trademark biting personal-universal revelations. Alexie won the bout, but the crowd cheered wildly for both poets.
Novice poets and world-class "heavyweights" mixed and mingled and joked together all week. Not much sleep, many good words, finely felt emotions, and a collective strength and generosity that has been carefully nurtured by circus founders/leaders Peter Rabbit and Anne MacNaughton over the years. No-one felt left out at this gathering.
Perhaps the quietest, most economical, yet strongest voice at Taos was that of Nanao Sakaki, the haiku master, world-walker and cheerful Zen prophet of the anti-nuclear environmental struggle. Long white hair and beard, hiking boots and a felt presence that filled the auditorium all by himself.
The annual Taos Poetry Circus is a place to go to meet some of the bravest souls on the planet, speaking out and encouraging the rest of us. It is well worth the journey there from anywhere.
Information on the Taos Poetry Circus/World Poetry Bout 2001 may be found at http://www.poetrycircus.org, as are details and recordings of this year's events. John Trudell's web site is http://www.johntrudell.com.
[Bill Nevins writes and teaches from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he works for the University of New Mexico.]