Poetry Reading: Emily Clarke and Camaray Davalos

Emily Clarke’s poem Womanfire undulates across a wall at the heart of the Fire Kinship exhibition. On this special evening, after a brief walk-through of the show, she and Camaray Davalos will read selections from their poetry. A conversation with Terria Smith will follow. 

The galleries are open late on Wednesdays. —We invite you to explore the exhibition before joining us for the reading in the museum courtyard.

Light refreshments will be provided. 

Emily Clarke is an enrolled member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians and a poet, bead artist, and traditional Bird Dancer. She is currently serving as the Academy of American Poets Poetry Coalition Fellow for Indigenous Nations Poets. A 2022 Pushcart Prize nominee and a recipient of Hayden’s Ferry Review’s National Indigenous Poets prize, Clarke manages her small business, Cahuilla Woman Creations, and collaborates on communal arts and culture programming with various Native-led organizations.

Camaray Davalos (Payómkawichum/Xicana) graduated from Humboldt State University in 2018, majoring in Native American studies and minoring in environmental management. Using prose and poetry, she has engaged readers in Indigenous social and environmental issues, and reflected on the complexities of gender roles and identity. In 2020, she won the Native Voices at the Autry Short Play Festival Audience Prize. She was honored to receive the Achievement in Screenwriting Award at the 12th Annual Native American Media Awards at LA SKINS FEST for her short film Woman Who Blooms at Night. Camaray is a lead editor for Yáamay: An Anthology of Feminine Perspectives Across Indigenous California. 

Terria Smith is a tribal member of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians. For almost 10 years, she has been working as the editor of News From Native California, a quarterly magazine devoted to the vibrant cultures, arts, languages, histories, social justice movements, and stories of California’s diverse Indian peoples. Smith is also the director of California Indian Publishing at Heyday. She is a member of the Native American Journalists Association and an alumna of the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

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