PORT ANGELES — It sounds like one heavy night. But with these voices and these survivors, Tuesday stands to be about rising, rising out of pain and into a new life.
The Indian Voices writing group, a circle of tribal women and men, will host an open-mic night at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Elwha Heritage Training Center, 401 E. First St. at Peabody Street.
This is a free, public event held in conjunction with Domestic Violence Awareness Month and the Silent Witness Display, a memorial to Washingtonians who have died at the hands of their abusers.
The display will be open at the Elwha center all day Tuesday, from 8 a.m. through the start of the open-mic night.
“We’re asking the readers to wear purple,” the color symbolizing hope for survivors of domestic abuse, said Tor Parker, a member of the Indian Voices group. She’ll be among the writers offering poems about her own path out of a violent household.
Stories and statistics
Along with a poem or short story, each reader will give a statistic related to domestic violence across Indian Country, Parker added.
In sharing their work, the writers will stir in two ingredients for survival: hope and humor.
There has been much suffering among tribal people, Parker said. And the suffering goes on. But for her and the others in Indian Voices, writing — and sharing their words together one night a month — has become a healing agent.
“There is always some kind of hope at the end of every one of my pieces that I write,” Parker said. “I’m still standing . . . I’m going forward.”
Indian Voices writer Brandan McCarty, who like Parker is a member of the Makah tribe, wrote a poem about the suffering in his family — and to Parker, it is also about his transcendence.
“That poem makes me cry. But his strength as a healthy Indian man,” she said, “makes me happy for him.”
Beyond poetry
The Indian Voices circle began at Peninsula College, with Parker and instructors Alice Derry and Kate Reavey encouraging the men and women to explore poetry. But one of them, Lower Elwha Klallam tribal member Suzie Bennett, knew poems were not her thing.
She is a short-story writer, and a highly irreverent one.
“I’m writing cynical short stories,” she said with a smile. And while several in the group write about their tribal culture and ancestors, “I branched away from that.”
One of her signature tales, for example, is about a woman trying to quit smoking.
“She writes the funniest short stories,” said Parker.
To which Bennett shot back: “Tor [Parker] is a fabulous writer,” and “extremely humorous.”
Others planning to read Tuesday night are Christopher Thomas, a member of the Coeur d’Alene tribe, and Makahs Zack Greene, John Pritchard III and Meri Parker.
Some of their pieces are about surviving domestic violence; some are about other scourges, such as alcoholism.
Not a pitch-dark night
But this will not be a pitch-dark night, Tor Parker promised. Far from it.
“One of our greatest survival skills,” as tribal people, “is keeping our sense of humor,” she said.
In the writing group, “we support each other,” Parker added. “We always end up laughing.”
The Indian Voices group has published a paperback book, Where Thunderbird Rests His Head and Waits for the Songs of Return, with cover art by Lower Elwha Klallam artist Roger Fernandes. The book is available for $10 at the Elwha center, and proceeds from its sales support the Indian Voices circle, which now holds its monthly meetings at the center.
For details, phone the center at 360-417-8545.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
