S7 E4: Ari Tison on Lifting Up Underrepresented Voices

Chasing Creative

Ari Tison is an award-winning writer with poems and short works published in Yellow Medicine Review, The Under Review, and Rock & Sling. She is also the editor for Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop's Broadside Competition. Ari lives and works on Dakota and Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) lands in St. Paul, MN. Join us as she shares action steps for lifting up underrepresented voices in the literary community, especially Indigenous people and those who are incarcerated.

Action steps that life up underrepresented voices

• Reach out to nonprofits to see where they need help. Look for ways to serve that match your interests and talents.
• Investigate nearby prisons to see if they have creative arts programs you can support.
• Seek out and share work by marginalized populations.
• Read anthologies that include Native writers.
• Connect with tribes in your area to learn about creative events or festivals you can attend or local artisans you can support.
• Learn about the history of the land you live and work on. Which Indigenous tribe(s) was the land taken from?

Links mentioned in this episode

Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop

Birchbark Books

Books mentioned in this episode

The works of Poet Laureate Joy Harjo

New Poets of Native Nations edited by Heid E. Erdrich

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

There There by Tommy Orange

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makai

The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

Here's where to find Ari

Website: www.aritison.com

Twitter: @AriTison

Instagram: @aritisonwrites