Anne Elizabeth Moore

Revision Street: Vanessa Roanhorse (V)

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:10:00 -0600

Vanessa and I are wrapping up. I’ve noticed that in interviews, the best question usually comes last. Not because you’re finally ready to deliver the right query that’ll land you an amazing response, or because you’re just so relieved it’s over. No, usually the last question is pretty open-ended. But somehow, the person you’re talking to becomes exactly as articulate as you have tape left in your...

Revision Street: Vanessa Roanhorse (IV)

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 14:02:00 -0600

I have to curb my small talk when I go home, Vanessa explains. It’s not something people do. The Navajo people are straight-to-the-point kind of people. They don’t dillydally around conversation.

I’ve been talking to her for several hours about growing up on the rez and living now in the drastically different urban environment of Chicago. And what it might take to go back.

When I go home I just sound like an idiot. It just sounds like I’m...

Revision Street: Vanessa Roanhorse (III)

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 14:32:00 -0600

If you made any jokes yesterday about Native Americans sitting down to dinner with illegal immigrants over the first Thanksgiving dinner, I hope you’ll take the time to read this installment of Vanessa’s story. Because it’s all well and good to keep the...

Revision Street: Vanessa Roanhorse (II)

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 19:09:00 -0600

Vanessa’s been telling me about her plans to move back near the Navajo Indian Reservation where she grew up.

It’s the size of West Virginia, she says. But it’s the Southwest. It’s so big down there that nobody would blink at a five-hour drive.

It may sound preposterous to city folk, but it’s true. I have lived a bit on reservations in South Dakota, where a...

Revision Street: Vanessa Roanhorse, 31

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 12:25:00 -0600

In our hyper-branded, if-you-like-this-you’ll-also-like-this, 24-hour-news cycle culture, we forget how easy it is to specialize unthinkingly. Meaning: we narrow our own interests so severely that, for example, we no longer talk to our neighbors. We don’t treat the foreclosures down the street as news. We don’t think our individual circumstances can possibly reflect the same national or international concerns we glimpse on cable news or read on our RSS feeds.

...

Revision Street: Jose Guerrero (III)

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 01:30:00 -0600

When did you start giving mural tours?

Well, back in 1980, I guess.

How did they start? Were you just the closest art historian that happened to have all the information?

People ask me, Are you an expert in art? An art historian? I say, No, I’m just an art enthusiast. I like to look at art and talk about it. No, You’re an art historian. OK. [Laughs.] Now that you dubbed me an anthropologist,...

Revision Street: Jose Guerrero (II)

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:26:00 -0600

Jose Guerrero does make art in his Pilsen studio. In fact, he’s getting ready for a show as we speak. But mostly, Gerrero gives tours of all the murals around the Pilsen neighborhood. It’s because of this that he calls himself an amateur anthropologist.

Amateur anthropologist? I repeat. Seems to me like you’re a pretty well-established anthropologist.

Jose...

Revision Street: Jose Guerrero, 72

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 03:12:00 -0600

Jose Guerrero is from San Antonio. His nifty wife Margaret, who doesn’t want to talk, is from Tennessee. She sits in the corner, laughing at our jokes. I’m not sure they’re all that...

Revision Street: Liam Warfield (III)

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 15:21:00 -0600

What did I hear about you living under a bridge for a while?

Yeah, for a few months. It was great. The Ashland Avenue bridge over the river, by Ashland and Fullerton. It’s actually two bridges because there’s Ashland Avenue and then Webster Avenue, so it’s kind of an L bridge.

When I was in my late teens, probably, one of my friends took me down to this—it’s...

Revision Street: Liam Warfield (II)

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 23:49:00 -0600

I do have a very part-time job right now, Liam tells me. Which I’ll have to go to after this. It’s like rich people, so that can be a little bit annoying. We’ve been talking about socioeconomic class, so he’s following up on that thread.

The rich people Liam’s referring to pay between four to six...