Sasha LaPointe with Dawn Barron

Described as “unapologetically punk,” the essays in Thunder Song segue from the miraculous to the mundane, from the spiritual to the physical, as they examine the role of art — in particular, music — and community in helping a new generation of indigenous people claim the strength of their heritage while defining their own path in the contemporary world.

Celebrate cultural diversity as LaPointe explores how we shape our understanding of the world, hoping to inspire a new era of conscientious living.

Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe is a Coast Salish author from the Nooksack and Upper Skagit Indian tribes. She is the author of Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk, winner of a Pacific Northwest Book Award, the Washington State Book Award for Creative Nonfiction/Memoir, and an NPR Best Book of the Year, and the poetry collection Rose Quartz. She received a double MFA in creative nonfiction and poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts. She lives in Tacoma, Washington.

Dawn Pichón Barron of Chowanoke/Choctaw/Mexican-Chihuahua/European heritage, is the Academic Director of the Native Pathways Program and Creative Writing Faculty at the Evergreen State College. She founded and curated the Gray Skies Reading Series 2009-2019. Her chapbook, ESCAPE GIRL BLUES, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2018.  

Presented by Town Hall Seattle.