WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.090 align:middle line:90% 00:00:06.090 --> 00:00:09.450 align:middle line:84% Thank you all so much for taking the time out of your busy lives 00:00:09.450 --> 00:00:11.818 align:middle line:90% to be here today. 00:00:11.818 --> 00:00:13.860 align:middle line:84% There are a few people in particular I would like 00:00:13.860 --> 00:00:17.280 align:middle line:84% to thank-- the marvelous staff at the University of Arizona 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:21.300 align:middle line:84% Press that helped make this book a reality, especially Acquiring 00:00:21.300 --> 00:00:25.520 align:middle line:84% Editor Kristen Buckles and wonderful Publicist Holly 00:00:25.520 --> 00:00:26.510 align:middle line:90% Schaffer. 00:00:26.510 --> 00:00:29.180 align:middle line:84% Thank you to Cybele for helping coordinate 00:00:29.180 --> 00:00:32.600 align:middle line:84% this very complicated and wonderful event. 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:37.670 align:middle line:84% And of course, thanks to my family, who dutifully drove 00:00:37.670 --> 00:00:41.250 align:middle line:84% with me through blizzards from Southern California yesterday, 00:00:41.250 --> 00:00:43.940 align:middle line:84% especially my young sons Connor and Quinn. 00:00:43.940 --> 00:00:44.780 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:44.780 --> 00:00:51.040 align:middle line:90% 00:00:51.040 --> 00:00:54.490 align:middle line:84% I'll be reading for you today two longish poems 00:00:54.490 --> 00:00:59.170 align:middle line:84% from the poetry collection Torch Song Tango Choir 00:00:59.170 --> 00:01:01.690 align:middle line:84% which is inspired by the music, song, 00:01:01.690 --> 00:01:04.599 align:middle line:84% and dance traditions so important to my mother's 00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:07.930 align:middle line:84% family, which is Argentinean, and to my father's 00:01:07.930 --> 00:01:10.300 align:middle line:90% family, which is Latvian. 00:01:10.300 --> 00:01:13.420 align:middle line:84% The first poem I will read, "La Primera Nieve," 00:01:13.420 --> 00:01:16.840 align:middle line:90% translates to "the first snow." 00:01:16.840 --> 00:01:20.170 align:middle line:84% This poem is dedicated to my mother 00:01:20.170 --> 00:01:24.070 align:middle line:84% and recalls her first experience of a blizzard in the West 00:01:24.070 --> 00:01:26.530 align:middle line:84% Desert of Salt Lake City, Utah where 00:01:26.530 --> 00:01:31.420 align:middle line:84% she landed after emigrating from Argentina at the age of 18 00:01:31.420 --> 00:01:33.010 align:middle line:90% years old. 00:01:33.010 --> 00:01:37.450 align:middle line:84% My mother's parents' generation was particularly persecuted 00:01:37.450 --> 00:01:41.290 align:middle line:84% under the military dictatorship of Juan and Eva Perón. 00:01:41.290 --> 00:01:43.840 align:middle line:84% And you'll hear some references in the poem 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:46.630 align:middle line:84% to the family's flight from Buenos Aires 00:01:46.630 --> 00:01:51.670 align:middle line:84% to the northwestern remote province, Catamarca, Argentina. 00:01:51.670 --> 00:01:53.410 align:middle line:84% You'll also be hearing references 00:01:53.410 --> 00:01:58.390 align:middle line:84% to two tangos, "La Cumparsita" and "A Media Luz." 00:01:58.390 --> 00:02:03.930 align:middle line:84% The Spanish phrases in the first poem are from "A Media Luz." 00:02:03.930 --> 00:02:07.200 align:middle line:84% This tango is particularly important to my family 00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:12.610 align:middle line:84% because when my great uncles were fleeing Buenos Aires 00:02:12.610 --> 00:02:16.180 align:middle line:84% and hiding in Catamarca, one of my great uncles, 00:02:16.180 --> 00:02:19.190 align:middle line:84% [? Chojito, ?] would warn them that the secret police 00:02:19.190 --> 00:02:22.170 align:middle line:84% were coming by playing "A Media Luz." 00:02:22.170 --> 00:02:25.460 align:middle line:84% So I grew up hearing this tango very often 00:02:25.460 --> 00:02:28.610 align:middle line:84% and never really understood why there was such tension 00:02:28.610 --> 00:02:31.880 align:middle line:84% and emotion around what's really a very sensual and loving, 00:02:31.880 --> 00:02:33.920 align:middle line:90% lovely tango. 00:02:33.920 --> 00:02:35.750 align:middle line:84% The second longish poem I will read from 00:02:35.750 --> 00:02:38.480 align:middle line:90% is a double sonnet crown. 00:02:38.480 --> 00:02:40.550 align:middle line:84% A sonnet, as many of you I'm sure know, 00:02:40.550 --> 00:02:43.310 align:middle line:84% is a poem of 14 lines and a rhyme scheme. 00:02:43.310 --> 00:02:47.360 align:middle line:84% In a sonnet crown, the first line of every sonnet 00:02:47.360 --> 00:02:50.660 align:middle line:84% is a close repetition or variation 00:02:50.660 --> 00:02:54.710 align:middle line:84% on a repetition from the last line of the prior sonnet. 00:02:54.710 --> 00:02:56.330 align:middle line:90% And then a double sonnet crown-- 00:02:56.330 --> 00:03:00.170 align:middle line:84% 14 of these sonnets culminate in a 15th master 00:03:00.170 --> 00:03:04.380 align:middle line:84% sonnet, which is made up entirely of the repeated lines. 00:03:04.380 --> 00:03:06.870 align:middle line:84% So I'll be reading nine sonnets from the crown, 00:03:06.870 --> 00:03:10.350 align:middle line:84% in which the poems cycle in their studies 00:03:10.350 --> 00:03:14.700 align:middle line:84% between Spain, Argentina and the United States 00:03:14.700 --> 00:03:18.440 align:middle line:84% and which move across, in some cases, decades, 00:03:18.440 --> 00:03:20.800 align:middle line:90% or in some cases, centuries. 00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:24.520 align:middle line:84% In the crown, you'll be meeting a number of prominent women, 00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:28.120 align:middle line:84% including, of course, Eva Perón who helped bring Juan 00:03:28.120 --> 00:03:31.510 align:middle line:84% to prominence in his presidency or dictatorship-- 00:03:31.510 --> 00:03:34.690 align:middle line:84% depending on your perspective, Catherine of Aragon 00:03:34.690 --> 00:03:36.550 align:middle line:84% was Spanish queen who was married 00:03:36.550 --> 00:03:39.760 align:middle line:84% to Henry VIII of England, blues legend Billie 00:03:39.760 --> 00:03:42.910 align:middle line:84% Holiday, and Barbara Washburn, the first woman 00:03:42.910 --> 00:03:45.550 align:middle line:84% to summit Denali or Mount McKinley. 00:03:45.550 --> 00:03:48.550 align:middle line:84% I wrote the crown in the aftermath of the Trade Towers 00:03:48.550 --> 00:03:49.300 align:middle line:90% falling. 00:03:49.300 --> 00:03:53.080 align:middle line:84% And so climbing and falling literally, politically, 00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:57.850 align:middle line:84% and in terms of power or craft were foremost in my mind. 00:03:57.850 --> 00:04:03.210 align:middle line:84% First, "La Primera Nieve" for my mother.