WEBVTT

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Hi, everyone.

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Hey.

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We're back.

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Welcome, everyone.

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I'm Diana Delgado.

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I'm the literary director
of the Poetry Center.

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And I'm honored tonight
to host and present

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Ada Limon as part of
our Art for Justice

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Initiative in our reading
and lecture series.

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So let's give a warm
welcome for Ada.

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[APPLAUSE]

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As you can see, I came
up with two pages.

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So I'm just going to
try and get through this

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just as quickly as possible.

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But we do want to remind you
about an upcoming reading

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and talk a little bit about
the Art for Justice Initiative.

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So a little bit more
about Art for Justice.

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This night's presentation is
part of a three-year grant

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funded project that commissions
new work from leading writers

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to explore the
relationship between poetry

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and the crisis of mass
incarceration in our country.

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And this is all in the hopes of
creating a new kind of thinking

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with different possibilities.

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Ada Limon tonight
will be introduced

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by Sarah Jemski, who is a poet,
embroiderer and book designer.

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She's the managing editor of
Noemi Press and the publicity

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and publication specialist
at the University

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of Arizona Poetry Center.

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More.

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Ada, will be reading
her manuscripts,

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poems written specifically
and never heard before

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and never read prior.

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Poems written specifically
for this evening

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and we are grateful to the Ford
Foundation for their support.

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As part of our initiative, we're
also continuing our spotlight

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on local and regional
nonprofit organizations

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and artists working
to advance issues

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related to carceral justice.

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Tonight, we'll be hearing
from Lola Rainey, who

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is a retired lawyer,
poet and community

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activist in Tucson, Arizona.

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Lola is a regional organizer
with the National Bail Fund

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Network and the Community
Justice Exchange

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where she works
on issues related

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to public accountability
and participation.

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And she also works
with organizations

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across the country on building
abolitionist principles

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in their organizing practice.

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Lola Rainey is the founder and
director of the Tucson Second

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Chance Community Bail Fund
and it's a revolving bail fund

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that is working to end pretrial
detention and mass supervision

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in Pima County and beyond.

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A little more about Lola Rainey.

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She's also the author
of numerous articles

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on the issue of racial
and social justice,

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the author of a
children's picture book,

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and a book of literary fiction.

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Which, she has a
table set up outside,

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so you can stop by there a
little bit after the reading

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to take a look.

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And she also has T-shirts which
I saw, which look amazing.

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Her poems have appeared in
several literary journals

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and poetry anthologies.

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Darkness in the Margins, her
newest poetry collection,

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which I believe
is out front, was

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published in July of this year.

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And she is a founding member
of the Arizona Cotton Pickers

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Poetry Tour.

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Before I invite Sarah
Jemski up, I just

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want to remind everyone that
we have a little bit of a break

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because we're going to be
doing some traveling here

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at the Poetry Center.

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So our next reading
that we're hosting

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will be Hanif
Abdurraqib and that

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will be on Thursday, March 25
at 7:00 PM at the Poetry Center.

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OK.

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We will have books for
sale after, a signing

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and potentially a
Q&A time permitting.

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So I want to welcome
Sarah Jemski up.

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Oh, I'm sorry, Lola Rainey.

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Thank you, I'm so sorry.

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See, I knew I was
going to get confused.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Welcome, Lola.

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[APPLAUSE]