Customer Reviews

Dirt Is Red Here, The: Art and Poetry from Native California

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Dirt Is Red Here is an astonishingly beautiful book of vibrant contemporary statements of enduring peoples. It is a treasure. The poems of Shaunna Oteka McCovey are inconcomparably poignant, often powerful in their wry, beautiful simplicity. This small book has a message that resonates hugely. One wants to hear and see more.

I started a new job at the Heard Museum book store (in Phoenix, AZ) in April, and I have been trying very hard not to spend my entire paycheck in there. But the other day, as I was tidying the shelves, my hand fell on the spine of this book. It is a narrow spine, but the white letters on the red background are easy to see. I'm not sure, why, but I picked up the book. I opened it at random and found Judith Lowry's painting, "The Rescue," on page 30. I was hopelessly snared.

The painting depicts magical creatures, and their magic must be pretty potent, because they haunted me for three days before I finally gave in and bought the book. The art and the poems are wonderful, and I love the biographies and the photos of the contributors. California seems to be a land dominated by Disneyland, Silicon Valley, and Anglo/Hispanic/Japanese culture, but it's a lot more complicated than that. This book illustrates that complexity. I'm glad I found it.