Ray Young Bear is a man with a vision - several visions, in fact, which he has transformed into two acclaimed volumes of poetry and two novels.
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Ray Young Bear Free Rackham Amphitheater Tonight at 8 |
Young Bear's latest novel, "Remnants of the First Earth," continues the ideas and characters of its autobiographical prequel, "Black Eagle Child: The Facepaint Narratives." It follows Young Bear's alter ego - Edgar Principal Bear - through struggles and celebrations on the fictional Black Eagle Child Settlement in Iowa.
The Meskwaki settlement in the book is based on the settlement where Young Bear himself grew up, settled in part by his great-great-grandfather in 1856. In the book, Young Bear combines myths of his people with actual reminiscences from his childhood to create a fictional account with many autobiographical elements.
"As the ripple effect of creative waters gets wider, people get more fictional," Young Bear said.
Young Bear believes his message is made even more important because he is telling his story "from the inside out." He said that much of the non-native world receives its information about Native American culture from academics who have never actually lived life on a settlement, who have not been instilled with these myths and values throughout their entire life. Young Bear said their viewpoint is interesting, but limited, because everyone is bound in some way by their cultural identity.
Young Bear wants to use his own cultural identity to communicate with the public and to voice his concern about the future of the Meskwaki. He has two main worries: incompetent leadership that makes decisions without informing the rest of the people, and what he refers to as "linguistic atrophy."
"A majority of our young people use and depend on English too much rather than Algonquin," Young Bear said. He said he hopes the literature he is producing will demonstrate that there are many different ways to express oneself. Young Bear has chosen to exile himself from contemporary literature, so that his writing retains purity and transcends the ideas of what is currently being written.
"I don't follow any particular literary tenets," Young Bear said.
Young Bear sees his craft as one without limits. "I think of myself as an artist," he says, explaining that, in addition to poetry and fiction, he writes essays, sings, drums, paints and performs his art.
Tonight at 8 p.m., Young Bear - called "a national treasure" by the "Bloomsbury Review" - will present this unique artistic vision at Rackham Amphitheatre.