GVSU Women's History Month celebrates Native American writer

The woman credited with advancing the field of American Indian literary studies will discuss her work and other Native American writers during two Grand Rapids appearances that celebrate March as Women's History Month.

Award-winning poet and author Paula Gunn Allen will give public addresses at Grand Valley State University and at the Public Museum of Grand Rapids, 272 Pearl St. NW, on March 30-31. Gunn Allen's visits are sponsored by Grand Valley's Women and Gender Studies Program and supported by several other campus departments and community organizations.

Her most recent work, "Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat" (2003), tells the story of Pocahontas from the Native American perspective. Gunn Allen, a descendent of Laguna Pueblo/M¿tis and Sioux tribes, is professor emerita of English at UCLA. She won an American Book Award in 1990 for "Spider Woman's Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writings by Native American Women." Her 1986 book, "The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions," contains an essay about the ritual function of Native American literatures as opposed to Euro-American literatures.

Recognized as a scholar, literary critic and teacher of Native American literature, Gunn Allen has taught at several colleges and universities. She has said that her lifelong focus on women is to promote awareness of Native American women and "let others know that women were not held down in all cultures." In her family, the woman-centered tradition was so strong that her grandfather wanted to name her mother Susan B. Anthony.

She will discuss her works at "America the Beautiful: New Poems and Conversation," at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 31, in GVSU's Kirkhof Center's Grand River Room at the Allendale Campus. The event is free and open to the public; a book signing will follow. Gunn Allen will lead a faculty workshop, "Teaching Native American Writings," from 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. in rooms 215/216 of the Kirkhof Center.

She will give a free lecture at the Public Museum of Grand Rapids at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 30. "It Looks the Same to Me: Post Seattle," will cover the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle and put them into a larger context of invasion and colonization that has characterized the history of the Western Hemisphere.

Helping the WGS Program to sponsor Gunn Allen's appearances are the GVSU Women's Center, College of Interdisciplinary Initiatives, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Continuing Education, Pew Faculty Teaching and Learning Center, the Nokomis Foundation and Public Museum of Grand Rapids.

For more information, call the WGS Program at 616-331-3730.

Media note: to arrange an interview or receive a photo of Gunn Allen, call the News and Information Services at 616-331-2221.