Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity
With Award-Winning Journalist Joseph Lee
East Baton Rouge Parish Public Library Online/all over
Nov. 5
When was the last time you were at a virtual event? Not a work meeting, not catching up with a friend who doesn’t have an iPhone, but genuinely an event for fun over the Zoom-like platform of your choice?
During the Covid lockdowns, museums, libraries, and live music venues moved their programming online, and while we can all agree it wasn’t the same, it also provided unprecedented access for disabled folks and for those who live in rural areas without the same resources. Now in 2025, so much of the accessibility gained during the era of Zoom classes and Among Us marathons has been intentionally curtailed or forgotten in favor of pushing people toward in-person events.
Despite this, the East Baton Rouge Public Library has faithfully advertised its digital author visits, which happen about once a month. On Wednesday, the featured author was Joseph Lee, author of the memoir, “Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity.”
Pre-registration was required. The event itself looked to be Zoom livestreamed over Youtube. I was surprised to find out that the event wasn’t an EBRPL exclusive but rather part of a series through the Library Speakers Consortium, which hosts monthly or bimonthly digital author events for their member libraries. The talks are hosted by Brandon Adler, a lawyer and librarian by training and an adjunct professor at the University of New Orleans. Registrants can submit questions when they register or during the live session. Over 870 people joined the live virtual event on Wednesday.
Lee shared about his memoir, in which he explores his own Indigenous identity and the history of the Wampanoag people on the land which is now known as the ‘island paradise’ of Martha’s Vineyard. He fielded questions like. How can tribal leaders and the U.S. repair the damage that’s been done to Indigenous communities? How has modern day capitalism impacted your tribe and others? Are you still taking Wampanoag language classes via Zoom?
He hasn’t taken a class in a minute, he said, but wants to return to it. This started a conversation about how the pandemic changed tribal activities for him and his community. Before, every single thing he did in relation to his tribe was in-person. Covid pushed his activity online, and some changes have lingered. Tribal council meetings are still available online; they now have mail-in voting for tribal elections.
For him, Lee said, the online language classes were not purely about the language itself.
“The language is important, but it’s about so much more than the language,” he said.
It was a way to connect and think about the culture and the way that their thinking had been baked into language. Doing activities online also allowed him to interact with parts of his Indigenous identity in the “spaces” he spent most of his time in — his email inbox, through text, and on Zoom.
“Online can never replace in-person,” he said. “But it can add. It can supplement.”
Through EBRPL and the Library Speakers Consortium, online is adding, and it’s making a difference. Lee might never have come to do an event in Baton Rouge or many of the other places represented by the member libraries, but his ideas and buzz about his book have come anyway. For me, it’s even influenced my algorithm. Since the event, I’ve been fed so many tribal dancing videos and other Indigenous creators sharing about their culture. Maybe my phone is listening, but maybe it’s just that I’m paying more attention now. Hopefully 870 other people are doing the same.
