Harper College

1200 West Algonquin Road, Palatine, IL 60067

https://www.msredcherries.com/home
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Native American families are up to four times more likely to have their children taken and placed into foster care than their non-Native counterparts. But despite the haunting frequency of these separations—and their role in America’s legacy of Indigenous relocation and cultural erasure—we rarely hear the stories of children raised outside their tribal nations. In her stunning debut book mother, m.s. RedCherries explores one such familial fracture: the story of a Cheyenne child adopted and raised by non-Indian parents. This multimorphic work of poetry and prose raises profound questions about adoption, inheritance, and Indigenous identity in America.

National Book Awards’ Finalist m.s. RedCherries will read from her book mother at the event.

Sponsored by the Cultural Arts Committee of Harper College

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“A groundbreaking collection in the ever-evolving and increasingly visible realm of Indigenous literature… mother is an exploration of the many paths one can take to not only discover and find themselves, but also to find their way home.” — SOUTHERN REVIEW OF BOOKS

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RedCherries, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, introduces her debut by noting that it is wholly fiction — a touch that accents how novelistic the book is in quilting verse and prose to tell the story of an adoptee reuniting with her birth family.”  —The New York Times Book Review

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“In a lyrical and haunting story, writer m.s. RedCherries takes an uneven journey through time and memory to find the mother and home she never knew.” —ICT News

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“mother is a moving exploration of self-identity and family. In poetry and prose, m.s. RedCherries weaves together oral histories and family lore to construct a portal for a separated family reconstructing a shared history of love, rich cultural heritage, systemic injustice, and loss . . . mother is unique, deviating from rules of form, time, and space to best serve the narrative and the larger considerations it addresses . . . Despite the deep loss threaded throughout, this debut collection beats with resilience and vitality.”  —Booklist

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“Potent and immersive. . . a confident and arresting account of loss and the search to rebuild community and identity.”  —Publishers Weekly

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For additional information contact Pearl Ratunil, Professor, Liberal Arts

pratunil@harpercollege.edu1

 

Mother, by m.s. RedCherries, will be available for purchase at the Harper College Bookstore in Building L.

 

 

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