SPLAB Board Member Jason Wirth and I had the good fortune to interview Wedlidi Speck about an indigenous perspective regarding the subject of Cascadian Zen. An anthology with the same name is being assembled for publication in Fall 2022. From the interview introduction:
What is the nature of the bioregion known as Cascadia? How is this insight expressed by the people who live, work, practice, and play here? Is there a connection between Zen practice, broadly construed, and the Cascadia bioregion? If so, what is an indigenous perspective to the effort to foster one’s own inner life?
If you ask Wedlidi Speck, he might talk about indigenous “relational practice” — a term used by some Indigenous people to describe a preferred way to live, work and play in the world. It’s rooted to place and pre-dates bioregionalism by about 4,000 years. Wedlidi is an aboriginal therapist, a member of the Namgis First Nation of Alert Bay. He is a hereditary Head Chief of the G’ixsam Clan of the Kwakiutl proper. Self-described as a bi-cultural First Nations man caught in the web of contemporary times, Wedlidi is committed to helping the aboriginal and non-aboriginal community build relationships, safe communities and cross cultural tolerance.
Poet & interviewer Paul E Nelson founded SPLAB (Seattle Poetics LAB) & the Cascadia Poetry Festival. Since 1993, SPLAB has produced hundreds of poetry events & 600 hours of interview programming with legendary poets & whole systems activists including Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Joanne Kyger, Robin Blaser, Diane di Prima, Daphne Marlatt, Nate Mackey, George Bowering, Barry McKinnon, José Kozer, Brenda Hillman & many others. Paul’s books include American Prophets (interviews 1994-2012) (2018) American Sentences (2015) A Time Before Slaughter (2009) and Organic in Cascadia: A Sequence of Energies (2013). Co-Editor of Make It True: Poetry From Cascadia (2015), 56 Days of August: Poetry Postcards (2017) and Samthology: A Tribute to Sam Hamill (2019) Make it True meets Medusario (2019), he’s presented poetry/poetics in London, Brussels, Nanaimo, Qinghai & Beijing, China, has had work translated into Spanish, Chinese & Portuguese & writes an American Sentence every day. Awarded a residency at The Lake, from the Morris Graves Foundation in Loleta, CA, he’s published work in Golden Handcuffs Review, Zen Monster, Hambone, and elsewhere. Winner of the 2014 Robin Blaser Award from The Capilano Review, he is engaged in a 20 year bioregional cultural investigation of Cascadia and lives in Rainier Beach, in the Cascadia bioregion’s Cedar River watershed.
Dear Paul, thank you so much for interviewing Wedlidi Speck. What a brilliant thinker and speaker. I will be listening to this fine interview many times. I did look to catch the spelling of the term that meant, paraphrased, to seek the wisdom of the elders.
Thanks, Paul for the work you do for Cascadia. I greatly appreciate, and am thankful that Adeilia brought you three together.
Cornelia. we are editing the transcript and should have that before long. Feel free to check in again. We will be publishing that in a volume called Cascadian Zen. I am grateful for your kind words and interest in this work. Blessings, Paul
SPLAB Board Member Jason Wirth and I had the good fortune to interview Wedlidi Speck about an indigenous perspective regarding the subject of Cascadian Zen. An anthology with the same name is being assembled for publication in Fall 2022. From the interview introduction:
Dear Paul, thank you so much for interviewing Wedlidi Speck. What a brilliant thinker and speaker. I will be listening to this fine interview many times. I did look to catch the spelling of the term that meant, paraphrased, to seek the wisdom of the elders.
Thanks, Paul for the work you do for Cascadia. I greatly appreciate, and am thankful that Adeilia brought you three together.
Cornelia. we are editing the transcript and should have that before long. Feel free to check in again. We will be publishing that in a volume called Cascadian Zen. I am grateful for your kind words and interest in this work. Blessings, Paul