How will you listen in 2022? What poetry will you find, what poetry will find you, when you listen?
Some of you old timers on Daily Kos might remember that the Overpass Light Brigade was forged in the smithy of the Wisconsin Uprising ten years ago and went on to become a network of light brigades around the country, even the world. Our work continues, though often in collaboration with groups and with a more poetic, perhaps less propagandistic, intention. This beautiful video brings together the five main tribes located and still living in and around Milwaukee.
We discussed the power of really listening: to each other, ourselves, animals, cities, wind and rain, the earth. Deep listening grounds us, situates us, calms us, opens us and helps us become more human.
Watch the video. We hope you enjoy it. Below is a description of the words used, thanks to Ojibwe.net where a version of this is cross-posted.
Listen from StumptownMedia.com Dusan Harminc on Vimeo.
Words contained in the video:
Nakasohtah and Nakasotawen are the words to ask one person or many people to listen in Menominee. Known as the Mamaceqtaw in their language, speakers of Menominee remind us their creation story begins at the mouth of the Menominee River which flows over 100 miles from northern Wisconsin to the city of Milwaukee. There is only one Menominee nation on earth.
Bizindaagen and Bizindaageg in Ojibwe or Bzedagen and Bzedagek in Potawatomi are also words to ask one person or many people to listen. These languages are part of the Anishinaabe diaspora which includes 142 nations surrounding the Great Lakes. The words for listen in these languages echo the sound of the words bizaanide’e (to have a peaceful heart) and bizaanate (to be still).
Hanąxgų (seen here with an extra “h”) is the Hoocak (Ho-Chunk) word for the act of listening. Known as the “people of the sacred voice,” the Ho-Chungra have traditional lands in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.
Satahuhsatat is the Oneida word “listen.” The Oneida of Wisconsin are part of the Hudenosaunee Confederacy east of the Great Lakes. After the Revolutionary War, the Oneida lost 5 million acres as the United States was created and in 1838, through treaty negotiations, they were relocated to Wisconsin. They bring to this region the history of one of the world’s oldest peacekeeping democracies, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.