WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.350 align:middle line:84% And was-- held that position with wonderful leadership 00:00:04.350 --> 00:00:06.990 align:middle line:90% and stewardship. 00:00:06.990 --> 00:00:10.530 align:middle line:84% I'm happy to report that I think we got lucky. 00:00:10.530 --> 00:00:13.830 align:middle line:84% Jim Paul comes to us from San Francisco 00:00:13.830 --> 00:00:16.830 align:middle line:84% where he's lived and worked for the past 18 years. 00:00:16.830 --> 00:00:19.680 align:middle line:84% He's a critically acclaimed writer, editor, 00:00:19.680 --> 00:00:22.950 align:middle line:84% and author of six books, two collections of poetry, 00:00:22.950 --> 00:00:27.060 align:middle line:84% two works of nonfiction, and two books of fiction. 00:00:27.060 --> 00:00:28.980 align:middle line:84% He has a PhD in medieval literature 00:00:28.980 --> 00:00:31.230 align:middle line:84% from the University of Michigan and a wonderful record 00:00:31.230 --> 00:00:32.790 align:middle line:84% as a teacher at several universities 00:00:32.790 --> 00:00:34.410 align:middle line:90% around the country. 00:00:34.410 --> 00:00:39.000 align:middle line:84% And he also is a marvelously experienced arts administrator 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:41.820 align:middle line:84% with experience at the San Francisco Art Museum, 00:00:41.820 --> 00:00:45.240 align:middle line:84% the Fleishhacker Foundation, the Headlands Center for the Arts, 00:00:45.240 --> 00:00:49.090 align:middle line:84% as well as his own private consulting business. 00:00:49.090 --> 00:00:51.690 align:middle line:84% So we're very pleased to have him here. 00:00:51.690 --> 00:00:54.930 align:middle line:84% We think we've got just the right person to lead the Poetry 00:00:54.930 --> 00:00:57.420 align:middle line:84% Center, to carry on the wonderful programs that 00:00:57.420 --> 00:01:00.450 align:middle line:84% have been established over the past 40 years, 00:01:00.450 --> 00:01:02.040 align:middle line:84% and I'd like you to please join me 00:01:02.040 --> 00:01:03.795 align:middle line:84% in welcoming to Tucson, Jim Paul. 00:01:03.795 --> 00:01:06.018 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:01:06.018 --> 00:01:12.910 align:middle line:90% 00:01:12.910 --> 00:01:15.480 align:middle line:84% It's astonishing and wonderful to see you all here. 00:01:15.480 --> 00:01:17.230 align:middle line:84% I've not seen a crowd for a poetry reading 00:01:17.230 --> 00:01:21.940 align:middle line:84% like this in years and years, in San Francisco especially. 00:01:21.940 --> 00:01:23.660 align:middle line:90% Anyway, hello and welcome. 00:01:23.660 --> 00:01:27.970 align:middle line:84% I am Jim Paul, the very new director of the Poetry Center, 00:01:27.970 --> 00:01:30.130 align:middle line:84% and I'm happy to present to you tonight, 00:01:30.130 --> 00:01:34.300 align:middle line:84% as my first public duty on this job, Leslie Marmon 00:01:34.300 --> 00:01:37.960 align:middle line:84% Silko and Daryl Ross Begay who will read from their work 00:01:37.960 --> 00:01:43.820 align:middle line:84% as part of this ongoing series called "Poetry Now and Next." 00:01:43.820 --> 00:01:47.800 align:middle line:84% But first, some thank you's and some notes. 00:01:47.800 --> 00:01:49.450 align:middle line:84% Leslie Silko and Daryl Begay will 00:01:49.450 --> 00:01:52.690 align:middle line:84% be participating in a more informal colloquium 00:01:52.690 --> 00:01:58.270 align:middle line:84% tomorrow for students and for the general public at 11:00 00:01:58.270 --> 00:02:02.080 align:middle line:84% AM in Room 100 of the Martin Luther King Jr. building. 00:02:02.080 --> 00:02:07.390 align:middle line:84% That's on campus here at 322 East first street. 00:02:07.390 --> 00:02:10.360 align:middle line:84% Our next Poetry Center reading will feature the novelist 00:02:10.360 --> 00:02:13.930 align:middle line:84% and writer Fenton Johnson, who is in the audience tonight, 00:02:13.930 --> 00:02:14.630 align:middle line:90% up here. 00:02:14.630 --> 00:02:18.220 align:middle line:84% Fenton is a colleague of mine from San Francisco and really 00:02:18.220 --> 00:02:20.170 align:middle line:84% the one person I knew in town when 00:02:20.170 --> 00:02:22.897 align:middle line:90% I arrived here three weeks ago. 00:02:22.897 --> 00:02:25.480 align:middle line:84% Fenton's just [? joined ?] the faculty in the creative writing 00:02:25.480 --> 00:02:28.930 align:middle line:84% department, and he'll read from his work two weeks 00:02:28.930 --> 00:02:29.920 align:middle line:90% from tonight. 00:02:29.920 --> 00:02:34.630 align:middle line:84% That's February 9th here in this auditorium, Modern Languages. 00:02:34.630 --> 00:02:39.370 align:middle line:84% By the way, the gorgeous posters for the series 00:02:39.370 --> 00:02:43.390 align:middle line:84% are on sale in the lobby for $1 each. 00:02:43.390 --> 00:02:48.100 align:middle line:84% Folks, they start off at $5, so you can still pick them up. 00:02:48.100 --> 00:02:51.040 align:middle line:84% One last note, Persona the U of A's 00:02:51.040 --> 00:02:53.980 align:middle line:84% award-winning undergraduate literary magazine 00:02:53.980 --> 00:02:58.240 align:middle line:84% is seeking submissions from undergraduate poets and prose 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:01.600 align:middle line:84% writers, also visual and media artists, 00:03:01.600 --> 00:03:03.250 align:middle line:84% and the deadline for those submissions 00:03:03.250 --> 00:03:05.230 align:middle line:90% is the 31st of January. 00:03:05.230 --> 00:03:08.140 align:middle line:84% You need to bring them to Modern Languages 445, 00:03:08.140 --> 00:03:11.020 align:middle line:84% and don't put your name on the work itself. 00:03:11.020 --> 00:03:14.290 align:middle line:84% You'll need a cover sheet for that information. 00:03:14.290 --> 00:03:16.540 align:middle line:90% Now briefly, some thank you's-- 00:03:16.540 --> 00:03:18.040 align:middle line:90% official ones. 00:03:18.040 --> 00:03:20.510 align:middle line:84% For their support of this series, 00:03:20.510 --> 00:03:23.440 align:middle line:84% thanks to the Arizona Humanities Council, 00:03:23.440 --> 00:03:27.520 align:middle line:84% also the University of Arizona Foundation, which by the way, 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:30.280 align:middle line:84% doubled its usual contribution in support of this reading 00:03:30.280 --> 00:03:32.230 align:middle line:90% series this year. 00:03:32.230 --> 00:03:35.440 align:middle line:84% Thanks also to the University of Arizona Diversity Action 00:03:35.440 --> 00:03:39.280 align:middle line:84% Council, the Arizona Commission on the Arts through 00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:41.980 align:middle line:84% appropriations from the Arizona State legislature-- 00:03:41.980 --> 00:03:43.330 align:middle line:90% can't forget them-- 00:03:43.330 --> 00:03:46.870 align:middle line:84% and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. 00:03:46.870 --> 00:03:49.990 align:middle line:84% And I'd personally like to thank Dean Charles 00:03:49.990 --> 00:03:53.920 align:middle line:84% Tatum, Associate Dean Dennis Evans, who just spoke, 00:03:53.920 --> 00:03:56.440 align:middle line:84% English department Chair Larry Evers, 00:03:56.440 --> 00:03:58.660 align:middle line:84% and Alison Hawthorne Deming who is 00:03:58.660 --> 00:04:01.990 align:middle line:84% the wonderful outgoing director of the Poetry Center, who 00:04:01.990 --> 00:04:04.900 align:middle line:84% have given me such help and support in the process 00:04:04.900 --> 00:04:08.190 align:middle line:84% of getting me started here in Tucson and in this job. 00:04:08.190 --> 00:04:09.880 align:middle line:90% And thank you all. 00:04:09.880 --> 00:04:12.880 align:middle line:90% I am very happy to be here. 00:04:12.880 --> 00:04:16.936 align:middle line:90% Now, for the business at hand. 00:04:16.936 --> 00:04:18.519 align:middle line:84% For each reading in this series, we've 00:04:18.519 --> 00:04:23.020 align:middle line:84% asked an established writer to choose an emerging writer-- 00:04:23.020 --> 00:04:24.760 align:middle line:84% bad categories but there they are-- 00:04:24.760 --> 00:04:26.560 align:middle line:90% to join them in a reading. 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:30.280 align:middle line:84% And for this evening's reading, Leslie Marmon Silko 00:04:30.280 --> 00:04:32.500 align:middle line:90% has chosen Daryl Ross Begay. 00:04:32.500 --> 00:04:35.380 align:middle line:84% And I'll begin by introducing Daryl. 00:04:35.380 --> 00:04:37.120 align:middle line:84% Daryl grew up in the Chuska Mountains 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:39.820 align:middle line:84% on the Navajo reservation, attended 00:04:39.820 --> 00:04:43.120 align:middle line:84% the Navajo Community College, also Dartmouth College, 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:44.920 align:middle line:90% and Harvard University. 00:04:44.920 --> 00:04:50.150 align:middle line:84% At Harvard, he won the Alexander Lang prize for his poetry. 00:04:50.150 --> 00:04:52.390 align:middle line:84% He's now living in Gallup, New Mexico-- 00:04:52.390 --> 00:04:54.610 align:middle line:90% briefly, I take it-- 00:04:54.610 --> 00:04:57.580 align:middle line:84% where he teaches the sophomore English class at Rough Rock 00:04:57.580 --> 00:05:01.150 align:middle line:84% High School, and is working on a collection of essays 00:05:01.150 --> 00:05:03.040 align:middle line:90% and a novel. 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:05.200 align:middle line:84% In his correspondence with the Poetry Center, 00:05:05.200 --> 00:05:08.710 align:middle line:84% Daryl sent us an odd evangelical cartoon 00:05:08.710 --> 00:05:11.425 align:middle line:84% and signed the note, long live punk rock. 00:05:11.425 --> 00:05:14.590 align:middle line:90% 00:05:14.590 --> 00:05:19.430 align:middle line:84% In his poems, he casts a similarly cool eye on things. 00:05:19.430 --> 00:05:22.090 align:middle line:84% And you'll find, I think as I did, 00:05:22.090 --> 00:05:24.730 align:middle line:84% that his images are crisp, and sharp, 00:05:24.730 --> 00:05:27.880 align:middle line:84% and literal in an odd way that leaves room 00:05:27.880 --> 00:05:32.230 align:middle line:84% for this mysterious and unnameable presence 00:05:32.230 --> 00:05:34.480 align:middle line:90% that occupies every moment. 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:37.420 align:middle line:84% One portrait describes the subject's legs 00:05:37.420 --> 00:05:39.235 align:middle line:90% as looking ready to roast. 00:05:39.235 --> 00:05:41.800 align:middle line:90% 00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:45.010 align:middle line:84% His is an unusual and sly new voice, 00:05:45.010 --> 00:05:47.710 align:middle line:84% so would you please welcome Daryl Ross Begay. 00:05:47.710 --> 00:05:51.206 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:05:51.206 --> 00:06:00.000 align:middle line:90%