This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, October 4, 2022 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be
"Indigenous Cultures." I'll be soliciting ideas for tribal people, tribal warriors,
two-spirits,
medicine people, anthropologists, explorers, world figures, nomads, housemates,
communards, superheroes, supervillains, mentors, activists, counselors, other people involved in tribal cultures, drumming (
Native American,
African), dancing (
powwow,
aboriginal,
haka,
folk), praying, bartering, riding horses,
building trust,
establishing loyalty,
creating intimacy, making friends, getting to know each other, growing closer, relying on each other, asking for help and getting it, teaching people, making plans, cooking together, discovering things, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cooperating, taking over in an emergency, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks,
reservations,
rancherias,
reserves,
powwows,
sweat lodges,
tipis,
longhouses,
roundhouses, dance halls, sharehouses, museums, schools, clubs, other tribal places, the
gift economy,
giveaways,
ceremonies,
buffalo,
salmon, the
Three Sisters,
other Turtle Island foods, tribal breeds of horse or dog or other livestock, tribal cultivars of any crop, "weeds" that are actually the escaped agricultural crops of lost empires (e.g. sunchokes, lamb's quarters),
stickball, other
traditional games,
ceremonial paint (
Native American,
African,
Australian),
Hand Talk,
regalia,
African indigenous vegetables,
ancient foodways,
oldways heritage diets,
food forests,
tribal watercraft, family dynamics,
dominance theory, partnerships, emotional closeness, first contact, interspecies relationships, trial and error, innovation, loneliness, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.
Among my more relevant series for the main theme:
The Bear Tunnels is all about time travel to the East Coast just as the American Invasion began, so it focuses on Wampanoag and other tribes in that area.
Beneath the Family Tree is prehistoric fiction about several hominid species living together.
Daughters of the Apocalypse features various tribal peoples including Apache, Blackfeet, Cherokee, and Pueblo.
Kande's Quest draws on African tribal traditions.
Polychrome Heroics has the Iron Horses thread (Blackfeet, Chippewa Cree), Rutledge thread (Abenaki), Shiv thread (Omaha, Winnebago, and others), and sundry mentions including Cherokee, Lakota, and Ojibwe.
The comic strip City Indians runs in the
Blue Streak. It features a number of native characters living in River City rather than a reservation. It is drawn by an Osage and written by a Missourian, and they get their inspiration from contemporary issues facing tribal people. It focuses on changes over time and how people adapt to those -- or don't. Sometimes the comic strip is irreverent, but it is always relevant. It has been syndicated in Wasape, a small town near Bluehill.
Schrodinger's Heroes includes Ash with Wichita and Dinè (Navajo) heritage.
Strike of the Thunderbirds is alternate history where the people of the Americas invade Europe.
Or you can ask for something new.
I have a linkback poem, "The Glass Cat" (7 verses, Arts and Crafts America).
If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts.
I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.
( New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )