On October 6 PEN hosted the first of our 3-part DIY: How To Series at the Ace Hotel with the acclaimed poet and language activist Natalie Diaz in conversation with host Mike Albo.

She grapples with betraying her family in her book of poetry “When My Brother Was an Aztec” which was shortlisted for the 2013 PEN Open Book Award, and shares stories of her ongoing program to revitalize the Mojave language in a storytelling/poetry/multi-media jambalaya. She brilliantly invokes Quantum Theory and Native American philosophy in a conversation about her heart-breakingly personal poetry without skipping a meter.