The University of Arizona Press
October 17, 2019—
Join Laura Harjo at the University of New Mexico to launch her new book, Spiral to the Stars!
Laura Harjo is a Mvskoke scholar, Indigenous methodologist, and associate professor in the Department of Community and Regional Planning at the University of New Mexico. Her research and teaching centers on Indigenous spatialities, community caretaking, Indigenous feminist community planning praxis, and community engaged knowledge production. Her recent project focuses on employing Mvskoke and Indigenous feminist epistemologies, and theories of Indigenous space, place, and mapping in a community praxis of futurity.
Spiral to the Stars: Mvskoke Tools of Futurity poses questions about what community is, how to reclaim community, and how to embark on the process of envisioning what and where the community can be. Harjo demonstrates that Mvskoke communities have what they need to dream, imagine, speculate, and activate the wishes of ancestors, contemporary kin, and future relatives— all in a present temporality— which is Indigenous futurity. This book offers a critical and concrete map for community making that leverages Indigenous way-finding tools. Mvskoke narratives thread throughout the text, vividly demonstrating that theories come from lived and felt experiences. This is a must-have book for community organizers, radical pedagogists, and anyone wishing to empower and advocate for their community.
The book launch is located at the George Pearl Hall Auditorium in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The book talk begins at 2:00 p.m. followed by a reception and zine/ map making at 3:00 p.m.
