Exciting new Native-American author, Gyasi Ross, will be visiting Oʻahu and reading from his new book of short stories and poems about contemporary Native-Americans titled Don’t Know Much About Indians (but i wrote a book about us anyways). Gyasi will be reading at the following events:
Friday, February 24 at 5:30pm
“two eyes” Gallery/Indigenous International
687 Auahi Street (next to R&D)
Official Facebook Event Page
Sunday, February 26 at 3:00pm
Revolution Books
2626 S. King Street #201 (between Puck’s Alley and 7-11)
Don’t Know Much About Indians (but i wrote a book about us anyways), or DKMAI, is an uncompromising look at contemporary Native-Americans and has been well-reviewed (see this review from Indian Country Today Media Network).
DKMAI was initially Gyasi’s attempt to create some modern mythology and/or archetypes for Native people. He was heavily inspired by the “Napi” stories that his maternal grandpa Percy Bullchild both told and wrote about. He was also inspired by the big book of Greek mythology that the family always had on their old, warped coffee table. Finally, when he was in 5th grade, in Mr. Higgins’ class at Napi Elementary, Mr. Higgins assigned the class to read The Brothers Grimm. All of those sources—Napi stories, Greek Mythology, and the Brothers Grimm stories—utilized morality tales and oftentimes simplified characters in order to teach valuable lessons. DKMAI is Gyasi’s attempt to replicate that structure and those lessons without the very clear lesson at the end.
For more information about Gyasi Ross and his book, please visit dkmai.com.
