The Simon Ortiz RED INK Indigenous Speaker Series

Sponsored by the Labriola Center

Upcoming  |  Past Speakers   |  About the Series

UPCOMING: Monday, October 12, 2020    

Eric Gansworth (Haudenosaunee) 

Apple (Skin to the Core)

Image of book cover for Apple (Skin to the Core) by Eric Gansworth. Photo of Gansworth by dellas.

Live on Zoom for Indigenous Peoples' Day, Oct. 12: 10:00 a.m. (1:00 p.m. ET / 12:00 p.m. CT / 11:00 a.m. MT)

About "Apple (Skin to the Core)"

The term "Apple" is a slur in Native communities across the country. It's for someone supposedly "red on the outside, white on the inside."

Eric Gansworth is telling his story in "Apple (Skin to the Core)." The story of his family, of Onondaga among Tuscaroras, of Native folks everywhere. From the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools, to a boy watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to a young man fighting to be an artist who balances multiple worlds.

Gansworth shatters that slur and reclaims it in verse and prose and imagery that truly lives up to the word heartbreaking.

About the speaker

Eric Gansworth (Sˑha-weñ na-saeˀ), author of Apple (Skin to the Core), longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award, is the 2020 presenter in The Simon Ortiz RED INK Indigenous Speaker Series, sponsored by the Labriola Center.

Gansworth is a member of Eel clan, enrolled Onondaga, born and raised at the Tuscarora Nation. A writer and visual artist, he has published a dozen books, including the novels, "Mending Skins" (Pen Oakland Award) and "Extra Indians" (American Book Award, NAISA Book of the Year), the young adult novels, "If I Ever Get Out of Here" (Honor Award, American Indian Youth Literary Award; One Book, One Philadelphia 2020) and "Give Me Some Truth" (Whippoorwill Award). He has recorded audiobooks for recent books. His collection of poems and paintings, "A Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function," was selected for the NBCC Good Reads List. His newest book, "Apple (Skin to the Core)," a memoir-in-verse and images, was longlisted for the National Book Award. His first play, "Re-Creation Story," was selected for the Public Theater’s Second Annual Native Theater Festival. He is a Professor of English and Lowery Writer-in-Residence at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York.

Free of charge and open to the public.

ASU sponsors

  • ASU Library
  • Department of English
  • Humanities division, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
  • Labriola National American Indian Data Center
  • RED INK Indigenous Initiative
  • Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing

External sponsors

  • Arizona Humanities
  • Indigenous Peoples' Day Arizona
  • Levine Querido

About the series

(Formerly the Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture on Indigenous Land, Culture, and Community)

To speak and act on behalf of ourselves as a human, social and cultural world, we are required to speak and act on behalf of land, culture, and community. No matter who we are, no matter what our livelihood is, and no matter what our inclinations are, we are bound by a relationship to the land upon which we live, the cultural knowledge by which we are guided, and the community we share with one another.

The Simon Ortiz RED INK Indigenous Speaker Series sponsored by the Labriola Center at Arizona State University addresses topics and issues across disciplines in the arts, humanities, sciences, and politics. Underscoring Indigenous American experiences and perspectives, this series seeks to create and celebrate knowledge that evolves from an inclusive Indigenous worldview and that is applicable to all walks of life.

The Simon Ortiz RED INK Indigenous Speaker Series seeks to speak, act, offer, and share in order to assume responsibility for land, culture, community that is our world.

Past Indigenous Speaker Series Events

Earl Arkinson (Chippewa Cree)

Mar. 12-13, 2019: The History of the Native American Church

Featuring Earl Arkinson, religious leader

Glen Juste (Gila River Tohono O'odham), Sarita and Mac Nosie (White Mountain Apache), and Ksaws Brooks (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation)

March 22-23, 2018: Tipi Stories

Featuring Glen Juste, Sarita and Mac Nosie, and Ksaws Brooks, storytellers  |  ASU News story

Myron Dewey (Newe-Numah/Paiute-Shoshone)

Nov. 13-14, 2017: Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock

Featuring Myron Dewey, filmmaker and journalist  |  ASU News story

Debbie Reese (Nambé Pueblo)

Oct. 20, 2016: Some Truths, but Lots of Lies: Indigenous Peoples in Children's Literature

Featuring Debbie Reese, children's literature activist  |  Video  |  ASU News story

Manuelito Wheeler (Navajo)

Mar. 24, 2016: Navajo Identity through Global Projects

Featuring Manuelito Wheeler, museum director  |  Video  |  ASU News story

​​​​​​​Lori Arviso Alvord (Navajo)

Oct. 22, 2015: The Healing Properties of Navajo Ceremonies

Featuring Lori Arviso Alvord, surgeon  |  Video  |   ASU News story

Victor Masayesva (Hopi)

Mar. 19, 2015: Indian Time

Featuring Victor Masayesva, experimental filmmaker  |  Video  |   ASU News story

​​​​​​​Sandy Osawa (Makah)

Oct. 16, 2014: 'Maria Tallchief' Lecture, Film and Q & A

Featuring Sandy Osawa, documentary filmmaker  |  Video  |  ASU News story

Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne and Arapaho)

Mar. 20, 2014: Heads Above Grass, Provocative Native American Public Art and Studio Practice

Featuring Edgar Heap of Birds, artist  |  Video  |   ASU News story

Buffy Sainte-Marie (Cree)

Oct. 10, 2013: Detoxifying Aboriginal Self-perception and Outward Identity

Featuring Buffy Sainte-Marie, musician  |  Video  |   ASU News story

James Luna (Puyukitchum/Luiseño)

Mar. 21, 2013: Phantasmagoria

Featuring James Luna, performance artist  |  ASU News story

​​​​​​​Ofelia Zepeda (Tohono O'odham)

Oct. 11, 2012: Legacies of the Tribal Languages of Arizona: Gifts or Responsibilities?

Featuring Ofelia Zepeda, linguist and poet  |  Video  |   ASU News story

Bob Haozous (Apache)

Mar. 15, 2012: Redefining Indigenous Perspectives through Art and Dialogue

Featuring Bob Haozous, artist  |  Video  |   ASU News story

​​​​​​​Arlinda Locklear (Lumbee)

Oct. 6, 2011: Tribal Land Claims: A Generation of Federal Indian Law on the Edge

Featuring Arlinda Locklear, attorney  |  Video  |  ASU News story

Leroy Little Bear (Blackfoot)

Mar. 24, 2011: ​​​​​​Native Science and Western Science: Possibilities for a Powerful Collaboration

Featuring Leroy Little Bear, researcher and education advocate  |  Video  |  ASU News story

​​​​​​​Kathryn Shanley (Assiniboine)

Oct. 7, 2010: 'Mapping' Indigenous Futures: Creating a Native Voice in Higher Education

Featuring Kathryn Shanley, academic  |  Video

Peterson Zah (Navajo)

Mar. 25, 2010: Finally, We Are Growing Our Own

Featuring Peterson Zah, former President of the Navajo Nation  |  Video

Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo)

Oct. 8, 2009: An Evening with Leslie Marmon Silko, Reading from Her Memoir, 'Turquoise Ledge'

Featuring Leslie Marmon Silko, writer  |   Video

Gerald Taiaiake Alfred (Kahnawake Mohawk)

Mar. 23, 2009: Resurgence of Traditional Ways of Being: Indigenous Paths of Action and Freedom

Featuring Gerald Taiaiake Alfred, educator and activist  |  Video  |  ASU News story

Wilma Mankiller (Cherokee)

Oct. 2, 2008: Challenges Facing 21st Century Indigenous People

Featuring Wilma Mankiller, former Principal Chief of Cherokee Nation  |  Video  |  ASU News story

Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone)

Jan. 28, 2008: Violence over the Land: Lessons from the Early American West

Featuring Ned Blackhawk, historian  |  Video