Diane Burns Interview with Justina Mejias (2003)

Diane Burns

In 2003, Justina MejIas interviewed poet Diane Burns about her life, her families’ history and her artistic practice.  

“Most people think American Indians are just skulking in the desert or wondering around the woods or something like that. But my family are judges and lawyers, marine biologists, freshwater biologists, social workers and you know, most people seem to think Native Americans never have jobs. They think we’re wandering around with bows and arrows in the woods. Anyway, could I read a little bit of fiction that’s kinda making fun of the whole concept? It’s from a novel I’ve been working on called Tequila Mockingbird…

-Diane Burns

Poet Diane Burns was born in Lawrence, Kansas, to a Chemehuevi father and an Anishinabe mother. She grew up in Riverside, California, where her parents taught at a Native American boarding school. When she was ten, her family moved to the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation in Wisconsin and later to Wahpeton, North Dakota, where her parents taught at another boarding school.

Burns was educated at Barnard University. In the 1980s, she became a member of the Lower East Side poetry community, reading her work at the Bowery Poetry Club, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church. Along with Allen Ginsberg, Joy Harjo, and Pedro Pietri, she was invited by the Sandinista government to visit Nicaragua for the Ruben Dario Poetry Festival.

In her direct, wry poems, Burns engages themes of Native American identity and stereotypes. She published a single volume of poems during her life, Riding the One-Eyed Ford (1981). She lived in New York City until her death at the age of 49 from liver and kidney failure.

Justina Mejias is a vocalist, poet, and educator native to New York City. She has been performing professionally since she was a teenager, appearing at Lincoln Center, the Knitting factory with Savion Glover and Reg E. Gaines, and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe with her twenty piece big band. She was also part of the creation of the StoryCorps Project, and has had many pieces aired on National Public Radio. A certified Kripalu yoga teacher, amateur mycologist, and chipmunk enthusiast, Justina has no concept of boredom.