On May 28, 2025, the Block Museum of Art hosted an evening devoted to the power of poetry, story, and language as part of the exhibition Woven Being: Art for Zhegagoynak / Chicagoland. In a program introduced by Erin Northington, Associate Director of Campus and Community Education and Engagement, and moderated by Northwestern English professor Kelly Wisecup, four poets with ties to the region shared original work and reflected on the vibrant Indigenous literary scene in Chicago.

The featured readers—River Ian Kerstetter (Oneida), Mark LaRoque (White Earth Ojibwe), Elise Paschen (Osage), and Mark Turcotte (Turtle Mountain Band Anishinaabe)—offered poems that wove together personal memory, cultural identity, and collective resistance.

Two of the evening’s poets, LaRoque and Turcotte, have work featured in the forthcoming Woven Being exhibition catalog. As Wisecup shared in her opening remarks, the event honored not just the accomplishments of the individual poets but also the networks of mentorship, publication, and community that sustain Indigenous poetry in the city. “One thing I’ve been lucky to learn… in reading and returning to the work of Indigenous poets is that they have created and are creating a literary scene in Chicago by continuing to mentor up-and-coming poets and find publication venues for new voices,” she remarked. “That scene is really well-known to the poets who are reading tonight.”

Watch the program

River Kerstetter read poems grounded in queer Indigenous futurity, diasporic identity, and the transformative potential of language. In “The Names of Flowers,” they asked what names plants carried before they were translated through empire and taxonomy, braiding botany, gender, and ancestral knowledge into a rich poetic thread.

Mark LaRoque shared his story-driven poems shaped by the landscape and relationships of his youth in Naytahwaush Village. His reflections spanned from childhood memories to honoring lost loved ones, closing with “Star Shine,” a moving tribute that invoked the jingle dress and messages of forgiveness.

Elise Paschen read from her recent book Blood Wolf Moon, including a poem about her great-grandmother’s blanket, which actor Lily Gladstone wore in scenes in the film Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). The poem illuminated the intersection of history, family legacy, and representation, echoing Paschen’s longtime commitment to expanding the reach of Native poetry.

Mark Turcotte, newly named Illinois Poet Laureate, shared work that reflected on memory and mourning. One poem described the act of scattering his father’s ashes from a plane, with an eagle feather accompanying the release. Drawing from his books The Feathered Heart and Exploding Chippewas, Turcotte’s readings were deeply personal, rooted in both family history and his years of creative practice.

Following the readings, Wisecup moderated a panel discussion between the poets, who reflected on the landscape of Indigenous poetry in Chicago, the mentors and publications that make their work possible, and how poets support each other’s work.