Meet Minnesota’s new poet laureate Gwen Westerman

Minnesota’s new poet laureate Gwen Westerman works with language and fabric.

She’s an award-winning quilter as well as a poet, essayist and historian. As the first Native poet to be selected for the position, Westerman plans to use her role to shine a light on underrepresented poets in the state.

Host Angela Davis speaks with Westerman about how her creative work honors the land and reflects her Dakota and Cherokee heritage.

Guests: 

• Gwen Westerman is the Minnesota state poet laureate and a professor of English and humanities at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She is an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota Oyate through her father and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation through her mother. 

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