On Indigenous Joy: A Reading with Joshua Whitehead, Tenille Campbell and Kaitlyn Purcell (online)


DATE
Monday January 20, 2025
TIME
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
COST
Free

Joshua Whitehead (Oji-Cree), Tenille Campbell (Dene/Métis), and Kaitlyn Purcell (Dënésułıné) will read from their recent work and discuss the role of joy in Indigenous literatures.

Together they will explore the current wave of Indigenous literatures and how, as a collective, we intersect and rally against genre and form to craft alternative stories that center joy, hope, love, sex, gender, matriarchy, and queerness as vectors toward Indigenous futurisms that are steeped in Indigenous epistemologies.


Audience & Location

  • Everyone is welcome to attend this free event.
  • The event will be live-streamed on Zoom.

Speakers

Joshua Whitehead is an Oji-Cree, Two-Spirit member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is the author of full-metal indigiqueer, Jonny Appleseed, Making Love with the Land, and Indigiqueerness: a Conversation About Storytelling as well as the editor of Love after the End: an Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction. Whitehead is an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary (Treaty 7) where he is housed in the departments of English and International Indigenous Studies and is currently a Research Excellence Chair.

Tenille K Campbell is a Dene/Métis author from English River First Nation, SK. She is a PhD Candidate at University of Saskatchewan, specializing in Indigenous Literature. Her newest poetry collection, Nedí Nezu (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2021) is an exploration of the beautiful space that being a sensual Indigenous woman creates in life, in relationships, in the land. Her inaugural poetry book, #IndianLovePoems (Signature Editions, 2017) is an award-winning collection of poetry that focuses on Indigenous Erotica. She is also the artist behind sweetmoon photography, the co-creator of the blog, tea&bannock, and is an emerging beadwork artist.

Kaitlyn Purcell is a Dënésułıné artist, writer, and postdoctoral scholar (University of Calgary). She is a proud member of Smith’s Landing First Nation (Treaty 8 territory) and was born and raised in Amiskwaciy/Edmonton. Kaitlyn is a recipient of numerous awards, including a doctoral research SSHRC award and the Metatron Prize for her debut poetic novella ʔbédayine. Her writing can be found in YarrowGrain, and The Capilano Review. Her art writing can be found at Inuit Art Quarterly, The Esker Foundation, YYZ Artists’ Outlet, and Norberg Hall.