[SPEAKING IN MOJAVE]
It's my luck tonight to be here with you all.
I would like to take a moment to acknowledge and honor
the people whose lands we're on this evening,
and I don't mean you people but the people who
are here before you.
But it's kind of an incredible thing
to be here in a space that has meant so much to my peoples
and to many peoples before.
It's also my luck to welcome you to my family.
These poets who are here with us tonight,
the things they've been building, Sandra Cisneros, Rita
Dove, and Joy Harjo, they're all part of a family
and community who have made me and many other writers
possible.
When I came to ASU, I thought what can I offer my students,
this new community of mine?
And I thought the thing that would be the most important
would be for me to offer you my family, the things that
have made me possible.
And so, it was the easiest thing to think,
who are the people I love?
Who are the people who love me back?
And they're largely poets and writers.
I met Sandra, and Rita, and Joy long
before they were my friends.
I met them on the page, and I knew immediately
that they loved me before I even knew them.
And I knew that because what I saw in their writing was me.
I saw the people I loved.
I saw myself.
I saw tenderness alongside violence.
I saw all of the things that I had hoped for.
I saw the languages that I speak.
I saw the lands.
I saw my beloveds there on their pages.
And to me, that was the biggest gift,
and so it's with, again, a lot of joy, a lot of luck,
a lot of gratitude that I offer these women and their stories
to you tonight.
I think that something that we want
to do with ArchiTEXTS, with what we're bringing, is conversation
is community, and that, I think, is why this event is happening.
That we are able to reach out, that I can reach out,
maybe to their chagrin or dismay,
to Tyler, or to Hannah, and sometimes in text.
And say, Hey, what if we do this thing?
And they'll say, Well, maybe send an email
and we'll talk about it.
And then, to Jake, and Angie, and Tito Alberto at The Piper
Center, and to Joyce at the Labriola Center, and even
the fact that the Poetry Coalition was
willing to come here to help us celebrate these women.
And so, I won't spend much more time
except to say mil gracias, con [INAUDIBLE]..
Thank you so much.