KoolDave at the Kaleidoscope Festival - Sherman Alexie

Kaleidoscope is an art festival that brought Sherman Alexie to SRU as their opening speaker. His reputation precedes him and we were overjoyed to have him as our opener for the Kaliedoscope Arts Festival, which is in its second year.

Sherman Alexie is a Native American writer and filmmaker. Alexie combines traditional storytelling techniques with images drawn from contemporary popular culture to chronicle modern Native American life. His writings explore the complex issues facing Native Americans, such as the accelerating destruction of traditional cultures and the deep-rooted problems associated with life on the reservation.

Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr., was born in Spokane, Washington, to parents who hailed from the Coeur d’Alene and Spokane Indian tribes. He grew up on the Spokane reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. Alexie suffered from seizures as a child, and he developed into a loner and an avid reader. He attended reservation schools but later transferred to a mostly white public high school. Alexie attended college at Gonzaga University in Spokane and fell in love with poetry. He also studied writing at nearby Washington State University.

The reason I chose to attend the Sherman Alexie event was because I wanted to get his point of view of issues that are controversial to talk about. I had a couple stereotypical thoughts about Mr. Alexie before I went to see him. I thought he would talk about his film and poetry, and answer questions from the audience. I also had heard about his delivery, which is a comedian style presentation. I knew he would make everything humorous and I really found this out during his talk. I wish more people
would have come to listen to him, even for the laughs, but they would have learned a little something about everything.

The issues that Mr. Alexie talked about were the aftermath of September 11th, ethnicity in America, racism, Native Americans in the military, Veterans, the War in Iraq, Capital Punishment, Republicans and Liberals, Homophobia, and many other American affairs. The way he talked about these topics and events really opened my mind to what Native Americans face everyday in the US. Mr. Alexie was similar to Dave Chapelle, who was the man of the hour the night before, in the way he talked about various issues. I had come to the conclusion that in comedy you can address any issues in a humorous way and also get your point across.

Nevertheless, Mr. Alexie started out talking about the day after September 11th, being racially profiled in the airport. He resides in Eastern Washington State and he was traveling to Los Angeles. He hates planes in the first place and was even more afraid because of the attacks. He listened to one of the “Rock Star Music CDs”, because he knew God wouldn’t strike down the plane he was on because that would be too ironic, but he forgot the CDs at home. Entering the airport was very hard for him. Everyone was staring at him because he is “Ambiguously Ethnic”. He received great joy in seeing a white male in a suit being searched by an African-American woman. The white male asked the lady, “Do I look like a terrorist?” She responded by saying, “I don’t know what a terrorist looks like.” He continued to talk about racism and its problems and what we have to do about it. He encountered a stereotypical racist white male coming out of the airport. The man hollered at him, telling him to go back to where you came from, your own country.” The man then drove off. Sherman started laughing and could not tell the man in time, “You First!!!” Racial profiling was at its heights after the events of September 11th and discrimination continues to affect everyone that is brown skinned.

Sherman Alexie is the product of a war family. He was raised by a war orphan and his grandfather and father served in many of the wars. Many of the people he knows are serving in the war of today. Some of the statistics that he threw out were 45,000 Native Americans served in World War II and mostly all of them were volunteers; 88,000 Native Americans served in Vietnam and 98% were volunteers. He was very stern about the support of our country and of the War Veterans. There are about 26,000 homeless Gulf War Veterans. The Bush administration cut 25 billion dollars from the Veterans War Fund. Alexie stated his position on the war by saying, “I’m Anti-War, but not Anti-Soldier.” He told everyone to support the troops and pray for their families. He also said we should not be over in Iraq, and questioned the audience for the premises of the war. Oil popped up, and he pointed out a very disturbing fact. Bush’s oil companies in Texas were supported by the bin Laden family. He said the Democrats would bring out these facts about the oil for the upcoming election in 2004.

I cannot say everything that Sherman Alexie spoke about in detail, but some of the things that he said are very true and funny. He loves to pay taxes and criticized us (Western Pennsylvania) for not paying all our taxes. He is an American and he is not strange. He watches Friends and CSI, but only the first CSI because the second one is terrible. America should get the “Award for Most Improved Country”, because they are #5 on the rankings of Capital Punishment Per Capita. Iraq is also in the top 5 and we are telling them that what they are doing is immoral when we do the same things. He called the War in Iraq, very, very ironic for many of reasons that I will not get into. The audience was primarily white males and females, and he told everyone that they were Black. In the original Constitution, no one in the audience was covered, whether it be because they did not own any land, did not have enough money, were women, or their education. This was a true fact and that was very funny to me, being that I am a Black male. Another thing about the war is that the US is trying to give them Democracy and they do not want it. If they want it, they should just come over to the US and we should not be changing their government. He asked the audience: “Is the US going to change everyone’s government that is not like ours?” America cannot win in the future, because no American will be willing to suicide bomb. “Try to get an American to suicide bomb, or even a Native American…”. He also did not know why so many people are surprised about the war by saying, “We are fighting A THIRD WORLD NATION. Did you expect us to lose?”

Some of the other topics that he touched upon were Affirmative Action, Patriot Act, and Homophobia. Affirmative Action should be “Class-Based” which I definitely agree with because one of his sons should not need Affirmative Action because they are Native American. Also, the sons of two African-American college professor parents should not need Affirmative Action. Class-Based instead of Racial-Based Affirmative Action would solve all the controversial problems that we are facing with race. He is upset with the Patriot Act because of the invasion of privacy. It is a discriminating tool which the government will be using from now on as an excuse. Homophobia was truly a graphic topic which included Anal Sex. This was truly one of the jaw-dropping topics that he discussed with us. The best joke he said was, “Everyone was made for anal sex…Why else would we have all these nerve endings in the butt?”. He said we should accept everyone because of their humanity and not because of their sexuality.

Attending Kaleidoscope on the first night to hear Sherman Alexie was truly an experience I will never forget. He is a wonderful influential speaker and coupled with his humor, he is truly someone who has gone through a lot to get to where he is. That is why he loves America because this is the only country where you can start out dirt poor and become as rich as anybody. This event was something I probably would have attended if I was not open minded to different cultures, but I love to hear what other types of people have to say about different things. Him being famous also prompted me to attend. He is one of the top ten writers in America and his ethnicity just gives a different perspective on everything. I will continue to look at his works and attend another one of his serious “comedy sessions”.

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Native-American author and speaker Sherman Alexie, heralded byThe New Yorker as one of the “top 20 writers for the 21st century,” comes to Slippery Rock UniversityApril 22 for a public discussion of his work and life on and off the reservation.

Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, will speak 8 p.m. in the Multi-Purpose Roomof the University Union. General admission is $5, students $3. He presentation is titled “The Business of Fancy Dancing: Poems, Stories, Punch Lines and Highly Biased Anecdotes.”

Alexie’s visit is the kickoff event for “Kaleidoscope,” Slippery Rock University’s April 22 to May 2 arts festival. Concerts, children’s activities, art exhibitions, Civil War encampments and more are on tap. Visit www.sru.edu/pages/916.asp, or call 724-738-4863 for a complete listing.

National reputation

Alexie’s ability to write about contemporary Native Americans by enfolding optimism with hard-hitting cynicism is one of the strengths that have made critics rave about his work. The New Yorker said his stories are woven into “the most lyrical acerbic fiction since Mark Twain.” The Boston Globe reported, “Sherman Alexie has become quite clearly an important voice in American literature.”

Alexie’s 14 books of fiction and poetry include “Reservation Blues,” “Indian Killer” and “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.” His two films are “Smoke Signals” and “The Business of Fancy Dancing.” His work has won scores of awards, including the American Book Award and the PEN/Hemingway and Sundance Film Festival awards.

Slippery Rock University’s English honorary students who saw Alexie speak at the National Council of Teachers of English Conference last year made a specific request for his performance this year, says SRU’s Dr. Rachela Permenter, professor of English.

Permenter said one student told her “he was absolutely hilarious in person, which you don’t expect from a writer. More than that, he lets us know what’s really going on with Native Americansand he seems to offer all of us the chance to find new meaning in the stories of our own lives.”

After his performance, Alexie will sign copies of his books for those who bring them. The SGA Bookstore will set up a booth to make books and videotapes available for purchase. A portion of the profits will be donated to the American Indian Scholarship Fund.