On the National Language: The Poetry of America’s Endangered Tongues

Through art photography and prose, this book addresses the fragility, beauty, and cultural value of preserving endangered languages, particularly Indigenous languages, at a time when Indigenous and diversity issues are at the forefront of our national conversations. In a groundbreaking project turned into a national touring exhibition, endangered-language speaker, poet, and photojournalist B. A. Van Sise worked with endangered-language speakers, learners, and revitalizers across three years and an entire continent to showcase some of the natural beauties of their languages and lands, highlighting, in particular, American diversity and its many Indigenous communities. Augmented by nine contributors from diverse cultural groups, On the National Language is a journey into both the challenges and opportunities faced by revitalization efforts, as well as a testament to the beauty and poetry of these many languages themselves. - Winner of the Anthem Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Finalist for the Meitar Award for Excellence in Photography _ Our verdict? Get it. A rich survey— author and photographer Van Sise offers a rich profile of the many languages found in the United States [and] does a great job of contextualizing the common tragedy of language loss. -Kirkus Reviews Author and photographer Van Sise, known for creating "visual poems" by combining stunning portraiture with concise and striking captions, collaborates with actors and writers to document the dozens of languages disappearing across the U.S. and to "highlight just how many of these languages exist and just how much beauty we stand to lose in losing them." …An already ambitious project [of] generous scope and unparalleled execution, this is breathtaking testimony to the demographic richness of the U.S. and the beautiful diversity of its linguistic landscape. -Diego Báez, Booklist starred review In a dazzling interplay of words and images, B. A. Van Sise’s On the National Language conjures the richness of North America’s endangered languages- there are cultural summaries, representative words, and evocative photographs of the one hundred speakers, as well as poetry and bits of memoir. survived after being “tucked up in corners, hidden under blankets, rolled up in tongues.” Van Sise describes an exciting cultural programming renaissance that’s reaching new speakers and some tricky linguistics detective work that resurrects languages that went generations without being spoken. The book shimmies from Alaskan Russian to South Californian Tongva to Georgia’s Afro-Seminole Creole, showcasing the diversity of amazing words and concepts among different traditions. This creative and important collection of words you never knew you really needed is best summed up by the Bukhari word amonati—“something you hold and keep safe for someone else.” -Rachel Jagareski, Foreword Reviews As a photographer and a linguist, Van Sise has a few tricks up his sleeve when deciding how to convey the visual and literal aspects of projects. His photographer-side delights in performing sleight-of-hand visual techniques which lead the viewer into attractively complex narratives. The linguist-side places language in the spotlight too – so people will learn and understand that these languages aren’t extinct, these people aren’t extinct. And that the project is incredibly rich.... The ‘person’ of the language speaker and the deeper meanings of their linguistic anchors are revealed by B.A.’s innovative, creative, and humorous vision in ways that occasionally take you by surprise but always feel authentic. Witty, and subtle and smart. Interplay between signage, language, the literal and metaphoric meanings, all of it, comes across visually in a flash, like dry lightning at dusk. -Cary Benbow, f/stop Magazine