A Message from Rena Priest

---

 

 

Dear Friends,    

  In the last year and a half, I have really put in the hustle to establish myself as a reliable freelance writer, a warm and insightful guest speaker, an arts lecturer, and a friendly roving poet. I like to think that I have taken care of my community and myself by creating new poems that are infused with light, hope, beauty, and love, and by doing work that has given my tribal community something to celebrate.  

 I took the leap and left my secure, tribal government position, knowing that Artist Trust’s Vadon Foundation Fellowship for Native Artists allowed me to take a calculated risk as I accepted an appointment as Washington State Poet Laureate. In this way, Artist Trust’s funding has been hugely beneficial to me, to the Indigenous community, and to the Washington poetry community by making it possible for a candidate that would otherwise be excluded due to economic limitations, to be eligible to take on this very demanding and highly visible role.    

I am ever motivated to share my love of poetry and art; to give to others what so many poets and artists have so generously given to me—a way of seeing the world that helped me see beyond my own experiences—a springboard for my own imagination. 

I believe now, more than ever, artists need financial support. We are in a time where it’s going to be crucial to imagine a new world and a new way forward. Your gift to Artist Trust will directly support the artists who are catalysts for this imagining. Creation is our business. We are cultural change agents. Storytellers and artists help us to see the world as it is and as it could be. They offer us new perspectives and entice human culture toward evolution.  

The world is made brick by brick of stories, images, and models that take shape in the world first by inspiring a new way of seeing, which evolves into a set of beliefs, then actions, then reality. Who will envision this new reality if our visionaries cannot do their work because they’re forced to choose between making rich men richer with their labor or making the world beautiful through their art?    

 Hoykweche,    

Rena Priest    

   

Rena Priest is a poet and an enrolled member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She is the Washington State Poet Laureate for the April 2021-2023 term. 

To make your tax-deductible donation, visit artisttrust.org/donate.

---