prison

In this performance, Jimmy Santiago Baca reads from Black Mesa Poems, a collection published the year after this reading took place. He also performs poems from Martín & Meditations on the South Valley, a book that was awarded the Before Columbus American Book Award and earned Jimmy Santiago Baca an NEA grant for the year of this reading.

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

Ken Lamberton reads from Wilderness and Razor Wire (2000) and Time of Grace (2007); both collections explore his views of nature from prison.

C.D. Wright reads the first poem from her collection Tremble (1997) and a selection from String Light (1991), and discusses questions of process and craft.

Jimmy Santiago Baca reads poems and prose from his body of work, including A Glass of Water (2009), A Place to Stand (2002), Healing Earthquakes (2001), Martín & Meditations on the South Valley (1987), and C-Train (Dream Boy's Story) and Thirteen Mexicans: Poems (2002).

Randall Horton gives the inaugural reading in the Poetry Center’s Art for Justice series. Horton reads new work commissioned by the Poetry Center from a manuscript in progress titled #219128, as well as excerpts from Hook: A Memoir (2015). Ojalá Systems gives an introductory performance.

Natalie Diaz reads new work commissioned as part of the Art for Justice series. Representatives of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project give an opening presentation. 

Evie Shockley reads new work commissioned as part of the Art for Justice series. This reading was originally given with Patrick Rosal for the Art for Justice series. Representatives of Tucson's Sex Workers Outreach Project give an opening presentation. 

Patricia Smith reads new work commissioned as part of the Art for Justice Series as well as poems from her collection Teahouse of the Almighty (2006). This reading was originally given alongside Angel Nafis. Leilani Clark represents BIPOC United Tucson in an opening presentation.

Ada Limón reads from her poetry manuscript What Is Caged Is Also Kept From Us, commissioned by the Poetry Center as part of the Art for Justice series. Lola Rainey gives an opening presentation focused on pretrial detention.