race

Claudia Rankine reads from Don't Let Me Be Lonely (2004).

Poet, playwright, and novelist Owen Dodson reads a range of poems from his distinguished career. As he introduces his poems, Dodson reflects on his consciousness as a writer, from his undergraduate days at Bates College to his engagement with spirituality, Civil Rights, and social justice.

As part of the Tucson Festival of Books, Jimmy Santiago Baca performs excerpts from his collection of poems Healing Earthquakes.

Demetria Martinez reads work from The Devil's Workshop (2002), Breathing Between the Lines (1997), and Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana (2005). She also reads a short story from the manuscript of The Block Captain's Daughter, which would go on to be published by University of Oklahoma Press in 2012.

Roger Bonair-Agard delivers a dynamic performance of poems from his second book, Gully (2010), as well as new work.

Sherman Alexie reads widely from his work and engages the audience with stories characterized by his signature humor.

Colloquium on identity and diversity in literature.

Lucille Clifton reads widely from her extensive body of work. This performance includes poems from her final collection, Voices (2008), as well as several uncollected and unpublished poems.

C. D. Wright reads from One With Others (2010).

Linda Hogan reads poems from her collections Calling Myself Home (1978), Seeing through the Sun (1985), Savings (1988), and The Book of Medicines (1993). The reading also includes an essay from Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World (1995).

Natalie Diaz reads poems from When My Brother Was an Aztec (2012) as well as new and uncollected work. This reading was originally given with Eduardo C. Corral to inaugurate the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series.

Toi Derricotte reads from her first three collections: The Empress of the Death House (1978), Natural Birth (1983), and Captivity (1989). She also reads poems and prose that would later be collected in Tender (1997) and The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey (1997), along with two unpublished poems, including one written in Tucson the night before this reading. She closes by singing an original song.

Rita Garitano reads poems on subjects such as teaching, feminism, marriage, and motherhood. Some of these poems appear in We Do What We Can (1975), while others are uncollected. 

Lawson Fusao Inada performs poems that speak to the Asian American experience, particularly around Japanese American internment during World War II and life in mid-century Fresno, California. He reads a selection of poems from Before the War: Poems as They Happened (1971), along with with other poems from the 1970s, including "I Told You So."

Richard Marius reads an excerpt from an early draft of his novel After the War (1992).

John A. Williams reads poems from an early manuscript that would eventually come to form his collection Safari West (1998). He then reads from his novel !Click Song (1982), investigating issues of race, colonialism, and diaspora. Both books are winners of the American Book Award.

Rachel Zucker reads from an unpublished manuscript tentatively titled "Sound Machine."

Terrance Hayes reads from each of his published books: Muscular Music (1999), Hip Logic (2002), Wind in a Box (2006), Lighthead (2010), and How to Be Drawn (2015). He also reads recent, unpublished poems on the spectacle of violence. This reading was given as part of the Spectacular Poetics series.

Khadijah Queen reads from her collections Conduit (2008), Black Peculiar (2011), and Fearful Beloved (2015); she also shares drawings, photos, and video and sound clips. This reading was given as part of the Spectacular Poetics series. 

Adrian Matejka intersperses thoughts on spectacular poetics with readings of poems from Mixology (2009) and The Big Smoke (2013); he also reads new and uncollected work. This reading was given as part of the Spectacular Poetics Series. 

James Hannaham reads the prologue and opening chapter of his novel Delicious Foods (2015).

Claudia Rankine reads from and discusses Citizen (2014). This reading incorporates artwork included in Citizen as well as other visual materials, including additional works by artists featured in Citizen and the video essay "Situation 8" by Claudia Rankine and John Lucas. 

Camille Dungy discusses climate change and reads from What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison (2006), Smith Blue (2011), and a forthcoming manuscript titled Trophic Cascade. This reading was given as part of the Climate Change & Poetry Series.

Roberto Tejada gives a talk titled "Diagonal and Self-Possessed Group Portrait with Liminal Figures" as part of the 2017 Thinking Its Presence conference.

Poet Douglas Kearney and percussionist/electronic musican Val Jeanty present a collaborative performance titled "Fodder," which combines poetry and music at the 2017 Thinking Its Presence Conference. The poems primarily come from Kearney's Buck Studies (2016).

At the 2017 Thinking Its Presence Conference, several members of the Thinking Its Presence Board—Vidhu Aggarwal, Ching-In Chen, Lisa Jarrett, and Lehua Taitano—read from or discuss their creative work. Board member Farid Matuk reads work from a selection of Tucson-based writers: Samuel Ace, Susan Briante, Wendy Burk, Hannah Ensor, Teré Fowler-Chapman, Sarah Gonzales, Logan Phillips, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Brandon Shimoda, TC Tolbert, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, and Ofelia Zepeda. 

Timothy Yu reads poems from 100 Chinese Silences (2016), along with new poems that rework John Berryman's The Dream Songs. This reading was originally given with Layli Long Soldier as part of the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series.

Tommy Pico reads from his book-length poems Junk (2018), published the year of this reading, and Feed (2019), published the year after this reading. He also reads one poem from Morgan Parker's There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé (2017). This reading was originally given with Morgan Parker as part of the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series.

Morgan Parker reads from her third poetry collection, Magical Negro (2019), which would be published the year after this reading. She also reads an excerpt from Tommy Pico's Nature Poem (2017). This reading was originally given with Tommy Pico as part of the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series. 

Farid Matuk reads poems from The Real Horse (2018), along with one poem, "Scale Up," that would later appear in the award-winning artist book, Redolent (2022), a collaboration between Matuk and visual artist Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez. This reading was originally given with Jane Miller.

Tongo Eisen-Martin reads new work commissioned as part of the Art for Justice series. Timoteio Padilla represents Sustainable Nations in an opening presentation.

Former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove reads poems from her book Playlist for the Apocalypse (2021). This reading was presented as part of the 2022 Tucson Humanities Festival. 

Aisha Sabatini Sloan, an alumna of the UA MFA Creative Writing program, reads from her book-length essay Borealis (2021). In this excerpt from the book, Sabatini Sloan details her travel to Homer, Alaska, and how the stark landscape interacts with her identity as a Black, queer woman. Sabatini Sloan's writing also incorporates references to pop culture and Black artists. This reading was originally given alongside Cara Blue Adams and Alberto Ríos to celebrate the MFA program's 50th anniversary.

Charif Shanahan reads from his second collection of poetry, Trace Evidence (2023), which considers mixed-race identity and the construction of race alongside the struggle to find and make meaning in one's life.