Drawing on a rich family archive as well as the anthropological work of her late great-grandmother, Sasha Taqsblu LaPointe explores themes ranging from indigenous identity and stereotypes to cultural displacement and environmental degradation to understand what our experiences teach us about the power of community, commitment, and conscientious honesty. Unapologetically punk, the essays in “Thunder Song” segue from the miraculous to the mundane, from the spiritual to the physical, as they examine the role of art-in particular music-and community in helping a new generation of indigenous people claim the strength of their heritage while defining their own path in the contemporary world...
Sasha LaPointe, a poet and performer, delivers her edgy essays with a pleasing voice and a sure sense of the significance of her message. She reads in a word-loving style with the tempo of one who appreciates the meanings her words convey. A Coast Salish woman, she was raised on a reservation in the Pacific Northwest, knows the stresses of growing up a Native girl, and highlights the horrific numb
