Book Talk with Richard Tripp: Lessons Learned in Zuni

On Thursday, March 28, at 4pm, join us at the West Tisbury Library for a book talk with author Richard Sisson Tripp. Richard will discuss his newly released memoir, Lessons Learned in Zuni: A Pueblo Memoir. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Free and open to the public.

Richard Tripp, teacher/farmer/weaver/writer, taught high school English on the Zuni reservation in New Mexico from 1969-1972 (and in Lakeville, MA from 1973-2001).

He has put together stories of his teaching experiences, tales of learning pueblo pottery and Navajo tapestry weaving, anecdotes of his time living in a remote sheep camp behind the sacred mesa, then living in the pueblo itself, and his observations of tribal ceremonies.

The book is a 231-page volume full of memories of personal transition and cultural change in the tribe where he lived.  The book contains photos taken by the author and others as well as some from the Smithsonian archives of scenes from the 19th century.  Additionally there is a gallery of pictures of Tripp’s weavings and of pottery made by him and his teacher Daisy Nampeyo and others.

Richard is known on MV from weaving in the fiber tent at the fair, selling yarns and weavings with his wife at the artisans shows, and selling antiques at the Grange through the summer months.