Poet Joy Harjo is playing unreleased tracks from her upcoming album, which is being produced by Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding , over the phone.

Harjo, an enrolled member of the Mvskoke Nation and three-term United States Poet Laureate, has a thriving side career as a saxophonist, singer, and songwriter – her most recent album, 2021’s “I Pray for My Enemies,” featured members of R.E.M., Nirvana and Pearl Jam – along with her day job as one of the nation’s best-known poets and writers.

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“I always wanted to play. I came to poetry through music. My mother was a songwriter,” says Harjo, who recalls facing resistance from others when she was learning the clarinet as a child. “I loved singin

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