Meet our Grantee-Partner: Puha Hubiya (PHO)
Mission: Amplifying Indigenous voices and practices
Puha Hubiya (PHO), which translates to “medicine song” from Numu tekwapu (the Comanche language), addresses the under-representation and isolation of Indigenous authors in the literary landscape. PHO increases access to creative arts programs in rural Indigenous areas; mentors fledgling writers, artists, and creatives; and cultivates the artistic, scholarly, and professional growth of Indigenous people.
PHO founder and executive director, poet Shauna Osborn, grew up loving poetry, specifically that of Emily Dickinson and e.e. cummings. However, they realized that the poetry they engaged with did not use language like they, their multilingual family, or their community in Oklahoma did. The poetry they had access to illustrated a cultural disconnect, and they wanted everyone to see their culture represented in contemporary poetry and art spaces. That inspired them to form a group to provide a community for Indigenous writers. Soon after the group’s first meeting, its focus expanded beyond writers to include other Indigenous artists, academics, creatives, and educators who needed mentorship, resources, and support.
From that group, PHO was established in 2018 with a grant from the Poetry Foundation. It currently operates out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Programs focus on advocacy, literacy, communities in crisis, tribal language usage, education, and mentorship. Events are scheduled in rural and urban Indigenous areas of New Mexico and Oklahoma. The organization offers youth-focused and intergenerational offerings for professional-level creatives and community members interested in gaining new skills.
The PHO Resiliency Residency is a recent year-long program focused entirely on local Albuquerque artists. It provided a self-paced residency for artistic practice of all types. In addition to funding residents’s work, it offered professional development opportunities, mentorship, and access to city-owned venues for hosting public art events. PHO was one of the first local nonprofit organizations that partnered with the City of Albuquerque to administer and mentor the artists chosen as inaugural residents. PHO worked with 18 of the 90 resident artists to support projects in mediums such as film, visual art, theater, music, weaving, storytelling, virtual mapping, photography, and writing.
“The program gave me a solid lighthouse throughout this process. It made my work feel purposeful and gave me a reason to keep at it despite life, grief, and all the other things that could have stalled the process. I am proud to share that I’ve even managed to submit work and have it looked at by one of the largest poetry publishing conglomerates in the world. I’m really focused on pushing this book as far as it can go, and I want to say thank you, again, for your belief in me and the incredible flock of artists who were chosen this time around. Thank you for making our work possible.” — Gabriella Guajardo, PHO Resiliency Residency artist
PHO artists presenting at their show “Inner Tribal”.
PHO celebrates tribal diversity and the transformative power of the Indigenous imagination by cultivating, teaching, and honoring creations that bear witness to injustice and provoke social change. From the start, prioritizing Indigenous authors and inclusive representation within leadership was paramount. PHO’s current leadership consists of 80% Indigenous, 60% queer, 40% disabled, and 100% female or nonbinary individuals.
PHO received an Equity in Verse grant from the Poetry Foundation in fall 2022, which allowed it to begin providing online writing workshops, fund programming led by poets, buy books and supplies for program participants, and supply personal protective equipment (PPE) and sanitation supplies for in-person events. Members of PHO’s leadership state that the grant has supported capacity building and the future sustainability of the organization.