Finding Home With Joy Harjo in Madison & Milwaukee!
Image from the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters.
WISCONSIN, 2026 — The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters is excited to bring Joy Harjo to Wisconsin for two signature speaking events. Harjo is an internationally acclaimed performer and writer of the Muscogee Nation and the first Native American poet to serve as the United States Poet Laureate (2019 – 2022).
“Hearing a poet read their work out loud, being with other people who are laughing, feeling and sharing something beautiful together is profound and powerful,” stated Erika Monroe-Kane, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Academy. “It is an honor to create that experience for people and we are thrilled to bring the powerhouse Joy Harjo to Wisconsin. While hers is a singular voice, it connects with an essence we all share.”
As part of the Wisconsin Academy’s Finding Home series, Joy Harjo events will be held in Madison and Milwaukee. Through poetry and conversation, she will illuminate the layered meanings of home, drawing on themes of land, memory, ancestry, displacement, and healing.
Harjo will kick off her speaking tour with a free event in Milwaukee on Wednesday evening, May 20, 2026 at the Centennial Hall in the Milwaukee Public Library. On Thursday evening, May 21, 2026, Harjo will speak at a ticketed event at the Playhouse Theater in the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, where she will be joined by Karen Lincoln Michel, a cultural consultant and story producer for PBS Wisconsin, who will serve as a moderator.
Both events are open to the public and the Overture Center evening will also be available for streaming online in real time. Local groups and organizations throughout Wisconsin are encouraged to host a watch party for the benefit of their communities. After the presentation, in-person audience members will have the opportunity to have Harjo sign one of her books, which will be available for purchase through local booksellers onsite — Boswell Book Company (in Milwaukee) and A Room of One’s Own (in Madison).
BIOS
Joy Harjo is the author of eleven books of poetry, several plays, children’s books, and non-fiction works, and two memoirs, Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior. Her many honors include the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Cloud Runner, Harjo’s twelfth book of poetry, will be published by W.W. Norton in Fall of 2026, following a book of short essays, Girl Warrior: On Coming of Age (Fall of 2025) and her new album, Insomnia and Seven Steps to Grace, co-produced with esperanza spaulding (Spring 2026 from Folkways).
Harjo holds the Ruth Yellowhawk Fellowship from the Kettering Foundation, and is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence for the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She lives on the Muscogee Nation Reservation in Oklahoma.
Karen Lincoln Michel is a cultural consultant and story producer for PBS Wisconsin. Previously, she served as president, CEO and chief editorial officer of IndiJ Public Media, a nonprofit news organization that covers the Indigenous world through digital, broadcast, and social media platforms. She has written extensively about Native American issues as a freelancer and was a columnist for The New York Times Syndicate.
ABOUT FINDING HOME
Joy Harjo’s speaking engagements are part of Wisconsin Academy’s Finding Home series, which continues statewide through the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary in the summer of 2026. The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters invites people across Wisconsin to explore what it means to find home through the lenses of science, arts, history, literature, and civil discourse. In every region of the state, people shape their sense of home through cultural expression, ecological knowledge, and community care. Finding Home programs explore how people respond with creativity, stewardship, and resilience. Finding Home brings people with different perspectives together to deepen understanding and identify shared values to build common ground.
Through public programs, exhibitions, workshops, publications, and local partnerships, Finding Home invites reflection and participation. All events are open to the public, with hybrid and virtual options available.
Finding Home Sponsors and Partners
American Family Insurance
Wisconsin Book Festival
TrustPoint, Inc.
Center for Urban Research, Teaching and Outreach at Marquette University
MGE Foundation
The Boldt Family Fund, Inc.
Governor’s Mansion Inn
LOUD (Latinos Organizing for Understanding and Development)
Angela Trudell Vasquez
About the Academy
A champion of independent thought, creativity, and civil discourse, the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters connects people from across the state and builds common ground. Through exhibitions, publications, and initiatives, the Wisconsin Academy increases understanding for who we are and the world around us, The James Watrous Gallery celebrates contemporary Wisconsin artists, while Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine explores the intersections of science, culture, and the humanities. The Climate and Energy Initiative advances pathways to a sustainable future, and public talks foster meaningful connections among engaged and inquisitive people. The Academy also honors excellence through the Fiction & Poetry Awards and Fellows Awards, supports the Wisconsin Poet Laureate, and nurtures ideas and conversations that shape a better future for Wisconsin.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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