Naomi Ortiz

Poet, Writer, & Visual Artist
Naomi Ortiz (they) is a Reclaiming the US/Mexico Border Narrative Awardee and a 2022 U.S. Artist Disability Futures Fellow. Ortiz's collection, Rituals for Climate Change: A Crip Struggle for Ecojustice, (2023) offers potent insights about the complexity of interdependence, calling readers to deepen their understanding of what it means to witness and love an endangered world. Their non-fiction book, Sustaining Spirit: Self-Care for Social Justice, (2018) provides informative tools and insightful strategies for diverse communities on addressing burnout. Ortiz is also a co-editor of the anthology, Every Place on the Map is Disabled: Poems and Essays (2026). A Disabled Mestize poet, writer, facilitator, and visual artist, their work focuses on self-care, disability justice, and climate action in the Arizona U.S./Mexico borderlands.

www.NaomiOrtiz.com

ALT TEXT: Figure 1 Naomi Ortiz, light-skinned Mestize using a mobility scooter smiles from behind ocotillo stalks, wearing silver hoop earrings, a bandanna, a V-neck shirt, and dark lipstick. Photo Credit: Jade Beall

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Naomi Ortiz's Presentations

Artist Talk

Poetry

Wellness

Listening to the Stories of Landscape

How do we know this land beneath our feet, wheels, or prosthesis? How can we locate and listen to nature in cityscape as well as in the wild? There is a dicho, “¿Y dónde está tu ombligo?” A saying literally translated as, “Where is your bellybutton?” But the dicho means, “Where are you centered or rooted?” No matter where we are, the land is alive. Through poetry readings, activities, and discussion, we will engage creatively with the ground beneath our bodies