MP3 Ofelia Zepeda - Jewed ´I-Hoi/Earth Movements

A bilingual collection of poems in O'odham and Engilsh.

12 MP3 Songs in this album (25:56) !
Related styles: SPOKEN WORD: Poetry, SPOKEN WORD: Storytelling



Details:
In *Jewed âI-Hoi/Earth Movements*, MacArthur award-winning poet, linguist and language preservationist Ofelia Zepeda narrates eleven poems and an introductory talk in English and her native Tohono Oâodham. Zepedaâs poems explore the poignant differences between her parentsâ lives and her own life as a contemporary Oâodham. Hearing her gentle voice embrace the old Oâodham words is a unique and profound pleasure.

Excerpt from *Earth Movements*: "Riding the Earth"

"She said she felt the earth move again.
I never knew whether she meant she felt a tremor
or whether it was the rotation of the earth.
I like to think she felt the rotation, because
anyone can feel a tremor."

"The poems in this collection include pieces about basic phenomena of the desert such as rains and rainclouds and how some O'odham respond to the infrequency of these events. Some pieces are about the poverty that some O'odham people think they have - those that wish to be like others who have satin blouses, or who mask themselves in pretty scents. Still other poems are about desert animals and how I have seen them behave... finally, I write about journeys, again relying on O'odham oral tradition, where the journey is an important event."

-Ofelia Zepeda