Littlecrow-Russell, Sara 1969-

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Littlecrow-Russell, Sara 1969-

PERSONAL:

Born 1969; children: two. Education: Hampshire College, B.A., 1996; graduated from Northeastern University School of Law.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Boston, MA. Office—Student Center for Educational Research and Advocacy, University of Massachusetts, 432 Student Union Bldg., 2nd Fl., Amherst, MA 01003. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Attorney, mediator, and poet. Community Partnerships for Social Change, Amherst, MA, advisor and senior alumni partnership fellow, 2003-04; Student Center for Educational Research and Advocacy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, director, 2006—. Western Massachusetts Legal Services, volunteer family law attorney.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Davis Putter Scholarship, 2002-03; People before Profits Poetry Prize finalist; bronze medal in poetry, Independent Publisher Book Awards, and PEN/Beyond Margins Award finalist, both 2007, both for The Secret Powers of Naming.

WRITINGS:

The Secret Powers of Naming (poetry), introduction by Joy Harjo, University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), 2006.

Contributor of poetry to books, including All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life by Winona LaDuke, Sister Nations: Native American Women Writing about Community, and The Indigenous Women's Health Book: Within the Sacred Circle. Contributor of poetry to periodicals, including Red Ink, U.S. Latino Review, Meridians, American Indian Quarterly, Femspec, Massachusetts Review, Flyaway, Hip Mama, and RaceTraitor Journal.

ADAPTATIONS:

Littlecrow-Russell's monologues were included in the performance piece We Got Issues, Apollo Theater, New York, NY, 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Public interest attorney and professional mediator Sara Littlecrow-Russell is the author of The Secret Powers of Naming, a collection of poems published in 2006. A member of the Anishinaabe-Naxi Metis, Littlecrow-Russell serves as the director of the Student Center for Educational Research and Advocacy, and her legal practice concerns domestic violence prevention, prison reform, restorative justice, and indigenous rights issues, including health care for women. Her poetry has appeared in such publications as Red Ink, American Indian Quarterly, and the Massachusetts Review, as well as the anthology Sister Nations: Native American Women Writing about Community.

In The Secret Powers of Naming, Littlecrow-Russell examines issues affecting contemporary Native Americans, including welfare, addiction, and tribal politics. Her poem "Russian Roulette, Indian Style" imagines that a gun is loaded with bullets named alcohol, disease, poverty, violence, and assimilation, and concludes, "Survival is finding the name / Of the empty chamber." In other poems, a storyteller is disappointed by his young granddaughter's insistence that he only speak English, and a visitor who wishes to view Indian ruins is startled when his guide offers a tour of reservation life: "So I drove him past HUD houses and boarded trailers, / Beer bottles and blood drops, / And a three year old girl huffing glue / From a brown paper bag." Reviewing The Secret Powers of Naming in Booklist, Deborah Donovan stated: "Intense and evocative, Littlecrow-Russell's poems offer much food for thought."