Leah Myers — Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity
When:
Tuesday, Jul 18, 2023 6:00p -
7:00p
Tuesday, Jul 18, 2023 6:00p -
7:00p
Where:
Online event
Admission:
FREE
Hosted by:
Categories:
History, Lectures & Conferences, Social Good, Virtual
Event website:
https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/events/6453b39515e0d23700a0785f
Likely the last in her family line to qualify for tribal citizenship with the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, Leah Myers elegantly blends Native folklore, personal history, and the search for identity in this highly anticipated memoir, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity.
Join us online over Zoom webinar as Myers discusses her memoir with moderator Kaitlin B. Curtice, author of Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day. There will be time for audience Q&A following the talk.
Please register on this Zoom webinar registration page.
About the book
Because of her tribe’s strict blood quantum laws, Leah Myers may be the last of her family to be formally recognized as a member of her tribe. For her, this realization carries with it a responsibility to preserve her heritage and her ancestors’ memory. Thinning Blood is Myers’s attempt to capture a record of her family’s history, presenting the stories of four generations of women. Beginning with her great-grandmother, the last full-blooded Native member in their lineage, she connects each woman with her totem to construct her family’s totem pole: protective Bear, defiant Salmon, compassionate Hummingbird, and perched on top, Raven. Myers weaves together tribal folktales, the history of the Native genocide, and Native mythology. With fresh perspectives and profound insight, she offers crisp and powerful vignettes of her own life between White and Native worlds. Thinning Blood is at once a bold reclamation of her female identity and a searingly honest meditation on heritage, family, and what it means to belong.
About the author
Leah Myers received an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of New Orleans, where she won the Samuel Mockbee Award for Nonfiction two years in a row. She now lives in Alabama, with roots in Georgia, Arizona, and Washington.
About the moderator
Kaitlin B. Curtice is an award-winning author, poet-storyteller, and public speaker. As an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi nation, Kaitlin writes on the intersections of spirituality and identity and how that shifts throughout our lives. She also speaks on these topics to diverse audiences who are interested in truth-telling and healing.
This program is part of the American Inspiration Series from American Ancestors/NEHGS presented in partnership with the Boston Public Library and the GBH Forum Network. Copies of this book will be made available for ordering by Porter Square Books.
