US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo Announces 2026 Album with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Poet, artist, activist, and musician Joy Harjo will release her next album on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in 2026. Harjo, a member of the Muscogee Nation, is one of the foremost contemporary Indigenous poets, and served as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2019-2022. From poetry and music to memoir and other prose, Harjo's work draws significantly from her matrilineal heritage, the beauty and complexity of Native cultures and histories, and her work as an activist advocating for anti-colonialist and feminist causes. Jazz and its improvisatory spirit have also been a guide for Harjo as both a writer and saxophone player. The upcoming album will be her eighth since her debut recording in 1985, and follows 2021's I Pray for My Enemies.

On being included in the Folkways catalog, Harjo says, "What I have always appreciated about Smithsonian Folkways is the breadth and depth of selections in the canon of American music. Each recording becomes part of an essential recorded library of American culture. I am honored to contribute an album that will be present in this musical, literary library long after I am gone."

The album is the first new album by a poet to be released by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, building off the rich legacy of poetry released by Moses Asch's Folkways Records from 1958-1987. Harjo is a recipient of the National Portrait Gallery's 2025 Portrait of a Nation Award alongside filmmaker Steven Spielberg, scientist Temple Grandin, and business leader Jamie Dimon, and a of the poet will be added to the museum's prestigious collection. Her portrait will be on view at their museum later this fall.

Full details of Harjo's upcoming Smithsonian Folkways debut will be shared early next year.