Layli Long Soldier is an
Oglala Lakota
The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota people, Dakota, make up the Sioux, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority ...
poet, writer, feminist, artist, and activist.
Early life and education
Long Soldier grew up in the four corners region of the Southwest, where she continues to live and work to advocate against the continued, systematic oppression of indigenous populations. She graduated from the
Institute of American Indian Arts
The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic S ...
with a Bachelor's in Fine Arts, and went on to earn a Master's at
Bard College
Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...
.
Career
In 2010, she published the
chapbook
A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch.
In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered bookle ...
''Chromosomory'',
and in 2013 participated in the art exhibit ''Pte Oyate'' at the
Red Cloud Indian School
Red Cloud Indian School ( lkt, Maȟpíya Lúta Owáyawa) is a private, Catholic, K–12 school run by the Jesuits in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota. It is located in the Diocese of Rapid City and serves Oglala Lakota Native American children ...
, along with
Roger Broer,
Micheal Two Bulls
Micheal is a masculine given name. It is sometimes an anglicized form of the Irish names Micheál, Mícheál and Michéal; or the Scottish Gaelic name Mìcheal. It is also a spelling variant of the common masculine given name '' Michael'', and is ...
and
Keith Brave Heart.
Long Soldier is an editor of the journal ''
Drunken Boat
"Le Bateau ivre" ("The Drunken Boat") is a 100-line verse-poem written in 1871 by Arthur Rimbaud. The poem describes the drifting and sinking of a boat lost at sea in a fragmented first-person narrative saturated with vivid imagery and symbolism. ...
'', and the poetry editor for
Kore Press.
Her first volume of poetry, ''