Music meets literature as American Indian music legend Robert Mirabal will read from his first novel, Running Alone in Photographs, today in the SUB Ballroom from noon to 1:30 p.m.
He will read three passages of different subjects, followed by a Q&A session and then a book signing at American Indian Student Services, 1119 Mesa Vista Hall.
Mirabal won a Grammy in 2006 and one in 2008 for best American Indian musician. He is also famous for his PBS special "Music from a Painted Cave," considered to be one of the most successful broadcast fundraisers. Mirabal has now made the transition from music to writing and has shown little trouble shifting between the two.
"As a musician, you have a certain formula that you work with," Mirabal said. "It's limited to formula from arrangement to melody to lyric format. You really have to structure the cohesion of how it develops. I felt like both of them helped me a lot. You really have to love the sentence. You have to learn and trust that the sentence is going to follow the next and the next. You beat it together. That's how my process is with writing music."
Mirabal's music is traditional yet contemporary, and his writing is no different.
"The novel plays upon a traditional style, but it's written in a contemporary form," he said. "I guess you could say that it really encompasses both. The voice is very new, and it's a voice I feel that needs to be expressed and heard in mainstream America."
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The novel is a historical fiction that focuses on Reyes Kristina Wind, a young woman returning from her travels as a musician to her pueblo to bury her grandmother. Mirabal said Wind is a reflection of himself.
"In this particular process, I can honestly say that 85 percent of the protagonist is me," he said.
Mirabal is quick to explain that he did not want to create a memoir; a female character was better suited to explain his themes.
"I really wanted to be particular to not create a memoir," Mirabal said. "At the time, I was in a state of disarray.. It seemed a lot better on a therapeutic level to just create a character that went through the stuff I actualized in my life. It became a really good process for me because they're places where I thought through the eyes of a woman - everything became a lot more powerful."
The novel also plays on the importance of living in a traditional world, especially in light of globalization.
"Everything is rehashed," he said. "It's very strange.. I think what's most important is to have a noble purpose based on truth, sustainability and reconnecting to the spirituality and to the land. No matter who you are, those are the things that the children will inherit. There are just very few things materially that you can inherit. However, you can inherit some amazing, amazing cultural and traditional values just by sticking to the land."
Robert Mirabal reads from Running Alone in Photographs
Today, 12-1:30 p.m.
SUB Ballrooms
