About this Event
For the first time, novelist Greg Sarris—whose books stand alongside those of Louise Erdrich and Stephen Graham Jones—has written a memoir. In Becoming Story: A Journey among Seasons, Places, Trees and Ancestors, he asks: What does it mean to be truly connected to the place you call home—to walk where innumerable generations of your ancestors have walked? And what does it mean when you dedicate your life to making that connection even deeper? Moving between his childhood and the present day, Sarris creates a kaleidoscopic narrative about the forces that shaped his early years and his eventual work as a tribal leader. He considers the deep past, historical traumas, and possible futures of his homeland. He charts his journey in prose that is humorous, searching, and profound. In conversation with Alison Owings.
FREE with admission to the gardens
Greg Sarris is an author, teacher, playwright, producer, with a PhD in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford. His books include Keeping Slug Woman Alive: A Holistic Approach to American Indian Texts; Grand Avenue, a collection of short stories that was adapted for an HBO Miniseries of the same name; Watermelon Nights; Mabel McKay: Weaving the Dream; and How A Mountain Was Made, a collection of stories that the Los Angeles Review of Books said "breathed new life into ancient Northern California tales and legends." Greg’s play “Mission Indians” opened at Intersection Theatre in San Francisco in February 2002. He also co-produced a 16-part TV series called American Passages, which won the Hugo Award for Best Documentary in 2003. Greg is currently serving his 14th term as Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, his tribe which was formerly known as the Federated Coast Miwok.
Alison Owings is the author of three oral-history based books, including Indian Voices: Listening to Native Americans (Rutgers), a survey of what a wide variety of Native people have to say about contemporary life, and say with passion and humor. People interviewed include members of the following tribal nations: Hopi, Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), Kiowa, Lakota, Lemhi-Shoshone, Lumbee, Navajo, Ojibwe, Osage, Passamaquoddy, Pawnee, Penobscot, Yakama, Yup’ik, Yurok, and a Hawai’ian. Her best-known book was a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year,” Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich. She has just completed her fourth book of oral history, Mayor of the Tenderloin. Alison worked for years in television news, beginning at ABC in Washington, DC. She lives with her husband in Northern California.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
San Francisco Botanical Garden, 1199 9th Avenue, San Francisco, United States
USD 0.00