In beginning our work conceptualizing the 2021 IAIA Student Anthology: Out of Storms Into Stars, it struck this year’s editors that we’d begun hearing about last year’s anthology, Remembering What We Carry, when students still walked the halls of IAIA. We still held weekly meetings with one another, held sacred spaces to sit and create, and spent nights listening to the storytellers of our generation create medicine through microphones. Unbeknownst to us, Covid was a nameless shadow lurking through whispers of headlines that only forewarned the possibility of Lunar New Year travel giving rise to infections. For the IAIA community, our lives were still untouched by social distancing and mask regulations. We were still sharing, existing, laughing, talking, and simply enjoying each other’s presence in a way we never thought we would lose.
It has weighed on each of us that our 2021 Anthology is entering our consciousness amid a fully-fledged pandemic. Where last year’s Remembering What We Carry marked the sudden, abrupt shift of transformation caught in motion, we are now catching glimmers of returning to whatever new normal awaits us: whether through Zoom, from Covid vaccinations being a future-hope to a present reality, and everything in between. With Out of Storms Into Stars, it is our goal to capture a moment in time that feels bizarre, stormy, and uncharted while still finding ways to survive, endure, and thrive in the new stars we ponder and create.
Calista Middaugh is from the Gila River Community located in Phoenix Arizona. Currently in her second year at IAIA, she is pursuing a B.A. in Museum Studies. Inspiration for her degree is derived from early morning museum trips with her great grandmother Phyllis Cerna. Calista enjoys reading, writing, taking long drives, and is thankful to be a part of this year’s Anthology team.
Nelson Alburquenque is a musician and multi-media artist, attending the Institute of American Indian Arts as a Creative Writing major. He is currently working on his mythic hero series, Legends of the nyí, and his futuristic play, Red Skies in the Imperial City.
Brianna G Reed is the Diné author of the short essays “Would You?” “Summer in March,” “Questions,” and “Long Road Home.” They have previously appeared in Leonardo and Tribal College Journal. Raised in a military family in Hope Mills, North Carolina, she now studies at the Institute of American Indian Arts and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she spends her time running among the reeds of the bosque river, searching for poetry in the water.
Desta Shaw lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is currently in her third year of attending IAIA. Whenever she isn’t supplying to her caffeine addiction or taking pictures of her cat she is working and tutoring elementary kids. She hopes to one day be a Montessori teacher while writing in her free time and of course taking pictures of her cat.
Duncan Donut is a five year old American short hair tabby. He enjoys eating sweets, tearing boxes, scaring people, playing with ice, and biting elbows. He is a small cat filled with personality who refuses to be ignored. He enjoys taking the spotlight- whether it is in a window or staring in photos.
Kim Parko is a professor of creative writing at IAIA and is grateful to be a part of the 2021 IAIA Anthology team. She joins in celebrating the online publication of Out of Storms into Stars, and the anthology’s ongoing commitment to the amplification of the powerful, innovative, and necessary student voices of IAIA.
Chelsea Napper holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts, where they studied creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and playwriting. Having written since they could hold a pen, their poetry and fiction have been published in multiple anthologies, including a best-prize poem published in Tribal College Student Journal (Fall 2019). They have served in multiple editorial teams, including as a student poetry editor for the 2019 IAIA Student Anthology, Celestial Refractions. Currently living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, they are working as an IAIA staff member and adjunct faculty. They enjoy working with IAIA’s students to empower them in creating the IAIA Spring 2020 Anthology volume.
Nami Okuzono was born and raised in a small district of Osaka city, Japan. Currently, Nami is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is alumni of Institute of American Indian Arts (class of 2016/Studio Arts) and works as Learning Systems Manager at IAIA.
When she was in high school, her artistic inspiration bloomed as she started being aware of art galleries and museums in and around the area of Osaka. Soon after graduating from high school, she decided to pursue an education in the states. It has been a journey for her.
Over the years, Nami has been a part of the educational journal AePR as the Art Director (AEEBLE ePortfolio Review); mainly to work with the layout design and overall visual design for the digital publication. She also has her own business for designing websites for artists (artistweb.online)