{"id":43992,"date":"2019-03-01T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/alaska-poet-calls-attention-to-environmental-concerns\/"},"modified":"2019-03-01T13:21:19","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T22:21:19","slug":"alaska-poet-calls-attention-to-environmental-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/alaska-poet-calls-attention-to-environmental-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska poet calls attention to environmental concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lately there’s been a sense of urgency to Mar Ka<\/a>’s ecologically minded poetry.<\/p>\n

Ka, who traveled to more than 90 Alaska Native villages as an indigenous rights attorney and now writes poetry, said after a poetry reading at Hearthside Books in Juneau that bleak news about climate change definitely colors her work.<\/p>\n

“I keep thinking about it,” she said while taking audience questions after her reading. “It’s not original, but I keep thinking about the saying, science changes minds, but art changes hearts, and we all need to do our part that way.”<\/p>\n

Ka, who lives in the Eagle River area, was in town Thursday to read from her new poetry collection “Be-Hooved.”<\/a> She was introduced by Juneau poet and University of Alaska Southeast professor Emily Wall, who also gave a short reading.<\/p>\n

“Be-Hooved” was published by the University of Alaska press, and Wall said she read the work as a manuscript since Wall is on the press’ advisory board.<\/p>\n

[Contest-winner gets another shot at state<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n

Wall read a trio of short poems from the perspective of the Virgin Mary, which are part of a recent push by Wall to write more persona poems. Persona poems are written in an voice assumed from another person’s perspective.<\/p>\n

“It allows me to say or do something I wouldn’t normally do,” Wall said.<\/p>\n