PORT ANGELES — Speaking in a soft voice that made his listeners lean in, poet John Pritchard III explored difficult topics — and by the end of his recitation, brought his audience out into the daylight.
Pritchard, a member of the Makah tribe and a Peninsula College student, held attendees rapt in his solo reading from his new book WOLF: We Only Love Freedom, at the Elwha Klallam Heritage Center on Monday night.
“Take your dreams and make that your heartbeat,” Pritchard writes in WOLF’s introductory poem. He repeated this like a chant.
Then, in another piece titled “Hundred Years,” he spoke of his people:
“We survived being on the brink of extinction . . .
“On the brink of extinction, drums and hearts still beating!
. . . telling me not to speak my language/well we’re still speaking
don’t sing my songs/well we’re still singing
telling me it’s illegal to dance/well we’re still keeping it moving . . .
Pritchard is a slam poet, a performer who scarcely looks at his text. Instead, he gazed out at the crowd, reciting his verse from memory.
“I’m going to switch it up,” he said after a few poems about defying oppression.
His next piece, “Dream Girl 2,” was a love poem.
“Simply a miracle, attracted physically but most definitely spiritually . . .
I don’t need you and you don’t need me
but we’re each other’s other wing n we both have dreams
believing we could fly. . .”
Besides launching WOLF, Pritchard hopes to generate funding for a flight of his own to Europe.
He’s been accepted to the study-abroad program in Florence, Italy, this spring and must raise the $10,000 to cover its costs by early February.
The student, 23, is the only tribal member Peninsula College study-abroad coordinator Val Conroy has seen apply for the three-month program.
Support from the Bill Hennessey Native Bridges Fund and the Peninsula College Foundation helped Pritchard publish WOLF.
Now, it’s up to him to sell copies and generate other contributions.
People lined up Monday night to have Pritchard sign their freshly purchased books.
And Kate Reavey, a Peninsula College professor and fan of Pritchard’s poetry, invited would-be supporters to contact the Peninsula College Foundation at 360-417-6400 and www.pencol.edu/foundation.
WOLF, meanwhile, is available via Amazon.com for $12.99 while Pritchard seeks a local outlet for it. The poet himself can be reached via johndefuca@gmail.com.
“Stay courageous/It’s contagious!” Pritchard declares in his poem “Honor Us.”
“Step up. Help out,” he added Monday night.
“We’re going to change the world.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
