Kaku-Ixt Mana Ina Haws and Indigenous Studies at Oregon State University will hold two days of events from Monday to Tuesday for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women/ People Awareness Day. 

Students and OSU faculty are invited to attend the awareness opening event at 3 p.m. on Monday for creative projects at Kaku-Ixt Mana Ina Haws. This event is followed by an open mic at 4 p.m. and a poetry reading with Deborah A. Miranda and Ire’ne Lara silva. 

Miranda is an author who has written “Bad Indians”, which earned the Gold Medal for the Independent Publisher’s, the PEN Oakland and theJosephine Miles Literary Award; and has published four poetry collections. Miranda is also the coeditor of “Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature”. 

Much of her work is informed by her mixed identity – her father is Esselan/Chumash and her mother is French – and is focused on the natural world. 

Lara silva is the 2023 Texas State Poet Laureate, and has written three books: “ani’mal”, “INDíGENA” and “Enduring Azucares”. Also a poet, two of her poetry collections, “furia” and “Blood Sugar Canto”, were finalists for the International Latino Book Award in Poetry, and her third poetry collection, “CUICACALLI/House of Song”, was a finalist for the Texas Institute of Letters Poetry Prize. Lara silva additionally just published another poetry collection, t”he eaters of flowers”, in January.

On Tuesday at 12:30 p.m., Miranda and Lara silva will be hosting a poetry workshop in Kaku-Ixt Mana Ina Haws. The creative projects and open mic have open entry. The poetry workshop has a sign up here.

These two days of events are for spreading awareness for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women/People across America through various events. The awareness events are open to all OSU students, staff, and faculty that are interested.