Roxy Lee Gordon (March 7, 1945 – February 7, 2000) was an American poet, novelist, musician, multimedia artist, and activist.[1] Described as a "progressive country witness and outlaw poet,"[2] Gordon often used spoken vocals accompanied by music that mixed Native American rhythms with country and western themes and musicians working in Texas.
Background and education
Gordon was raised and lived later in his life in Talpa, Texas.[3] He identified as being of white, Choctaw, and Assiniboine ancestry. A report from Texas Monthly alleged that he was a "pretendian", concluding that he had no Native American heritage. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma has stated that Gordon was not enrolled with the tribe. Gordon's son John Calvin has stated that he has found no evidence that his father had Choctaw heritage.[4]
Publishing
In the late 1960s, his wife Judy and he lived in Lodge Pole, Montana, where he published the Fort Belknap Notes, a newsletter of the Fort Belknap reservation.[2] In the 1970s, they moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and ran a country-music magazine, Picking up the Tempo. Gordon was also involved in the American Indian Movement and helped found a local chapter in Dallas.[2] His writing was featured in Rolling Stone and the Village Voice[5] and he ran a small publishing company called Wowapi.[6]
Writing
In addition to music and spoken word, Gordon published six books and more than 200 poems, articles, and short fiction; he also coauthored two plays with Choctaw poet and author LeAnne Howe.[7] From July 1992 to February 2000, Gordon published over 100 articles for the Coleman Chronicle & Democrat-Voice. Gordon had a following in England[8] as well as the U.S., and his circle included singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt and others who respected poetic narratives.[9]
^Greaves, Brendan (2018). "What I Learned from Gay Country, Communist Disco, and a Choctaw Poet's Sermon on Immigration". Southern Cultures. 24 (3): 6–29. doi:10.1353/scu.2018.0029. ISSN1534-1488. S2CID149594173.
