WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.890 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.890 --> 00:00:05.310 align:middle line:84% I just have a really quick question for Natalie. 00:00:05.310 --> 00:00:07.080 align:middle line:84% Can you just tell us a bit about the work 00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:10.380 align:middle line:84% that you do with language revitalization? 00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:15.210 align:middle line:84% It's related to poetry in that poetry is language 00:00:15.210 --> 00:00:16.980 align:middle line:84% and we're here in the house of language. 00:00:16.980 --> 00:00:19.290 align:middle line:84% And you're a poet, and you also work in the language 00:00:19.290 --> 00:00:21.090 align:middle line:90% in this other important way. 00:00:21.090 --> 00:00:22.920 align:middle line:84% Well, I'm really lucky because we have 00:00:22.920 --> 00:00:26.280 align:middle line:84% what we call in my home [SPEAKING MOJAVE].. 00:00:26.280 --> 00:00:29.520 align:middle line:84% So there are people who lead the way for us. 00:00:29.520 --> 00:00:32.760 align:middle line:90% So we have Ofelia, who-- 00:00:32.760 --> 00:00:35.010 align:middle line:84% I'm really lucky to have known her first as a language 00:00:35.010 --> 00:00:39.630 align:middle line:84% activist, and then I was wowed and amazed by her poetry. 00:00:39.630 --> 00:00:42.510 align:middle line:84% But we-- at Fort Mojave, I have-- 00:00:42.510 --> 00:00:46.075 align:middle line:90% 00:00:46.075 --> 00:00:48.450 align:middle line:84% I feel like-- [BEAT BOXING] I feel like I should beat box 00:00:48.450 --> 00:00:49.620 align:middle line:90% every time I get one of these. 00:00:49.620 --> 00:00:51.245 align:middle line:84% We used to do this when we were little. 00:00:51.245 --> 00:00:53.520 align:middle line:90% Do not beat box. 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:57.840 align:middle line:84% But I work with the last of our speakers at Fort Mojave. 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:02.430 align:middle line:84% So my youngest fluent speaker just turned 85. 00:01:02.430 --> 00:01:04.349 align:middle line:90% And he's really ornery. 00:01:04.349 --> 00:01:06.780 align:middle line:84% And I had to call two of them at 6:00 AM 00:01:06.780 --> 00:01:11.168 align:middle line:84% before my day started because I'm away from home. 00:01:11.168 --> 00:01:12.960 align:middle line:84% They're really supportive of me to be here. 00:01:12.960 --> 00:01:16.680 align:middle line:84% But I'm really lucky because I think, 00:01:16.680 --> 00:01:18.760 align:middle line:84% working with our language, it's giving me 00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:21.840 align:middle line:84% an extra layer of attention to words 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:26.160 align:middle line:84% and understanding the meaning and the weight 00:01:26.160 --> 00:01:28.170 align:middle line:84% of words and all the things they carry. 00:01:28.170 --> 00:01:31.650 align:middle line:84% Because when you grow up and if English is your first language, 00:01:31.650 --> 00:01:33.270 align:middle line:84% or any one language is preference, 00:01:33.270 --> 00:01:35.940 align:middle line:84% you start to lose the value of it, 00:01:35.940 --> 00:01:37.950 align:middle line:84% or you just don't learn to appreciate it 00:01:37.950 --> 00:01:38.820 align:middle line:90% right off the bat. 00:01:38.820 --> 00:01:41.820 align:middle line:90% It becomes a utilitarian thing. 00:01:41.820 --> 00:01:44.880 align:middle line:84% But because our language has been, 00:01:44.880 --> 00:01:49.930 align:middle line:84% not quite sleeping, but a little bit sleepy for quite a while, 00:01:49.930 --> 00:01:53.470 align:middle line:84% we're getting to see things in a very pure way. 00:01:53.470 --> 00:01:56.670 align:middle line:84% So I'm really lucky to be able to do the work that I'm doing, 00:01:56.670 --> 00:01:59.910 align:middle line:84% and it's more important than any poem I will ever write, 00:01:59.910 --> 00:02:00.420 align:middle line:90% for sure. 00:02:00.420 --> 00:02:04.200 align:middle line:90% 00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:05.290 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Natalie. 00:02:05.290 --> 00:02:05.790 align:middle line:90% Here we go. 00:02:05.790 --> 00:02:11.871 align:middle line:90% 00:02:11.871 --> 00:02:16.070 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] what's one thing about your poetry 00:02:16.070 --> 00:02:19.130 align:middle line:84% that hasn't changed since you started writing? 00:02:19.130 --> 00:02:21.920 align:middle line:84% I'm sure you've grown and progressed a lot 00:02:21.920 --> 00:02:24.692 align:middle line:84% and changed your style or your approach or the way 00:02:24.692 --> 00:02:25.400 align:middle line:90% that you deliver. 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:28.430 align:middle line:84% But what is the one thing that hasn't, that's stuck with you? 00:02:28.430 --> 00:02:31.170 align:middle line:90% 00:02:31.170 --> 00:02:37.290 align:middle line:84% The one constant I think is how hard it still is to write. 00:02:37.290 --> 00:02:39.270 align:middle line:84% I sit down at a desk and see a blank page, 00:02:39.270 --> 00:02:42.765 align:middle line:84% and I want to run screaming out of the room. 00:02:42.765 --> 00:02:43.890 align:middle line:90% That's what sticks with me. 00:02:43.890 --> 00:02:46.830 align:middle line:84% And that's also what keeps me there, the challenge 00:02:46.830 --> 00:02:50.650 align:middle line:84% to actually write something that I think belongs on a page, 00:02:50.650 --> 00:02:51.397 align:middle line:90% I guess. 00:02:51.397 --> 00:02:54.260 align:middle line:90% 00:02:54.260 --> 00:02:56.030 align:middle line:90% I think for me it's just-- 00:02:56.030 --> 00:03:03.140 align:middle line:84% I think I made a choice during my MFA 00:03:03.140 --> 00:03:05.870 align:middle line:84% that I would just write whatever I had to write. 00:03:05.870 --> 00:03:08.280 align:middle line:84% And I think especially-- like I said, 00:03:08.280 --> 00:03:10.880 align:middle line:84% we've talked about this with the classrooms today. 00:03:10.880 --> 00:03:13.370 align:middle line:84% No matter who you are or what you are, where you come from, 00:03:13.370 --> 00:03:14.870 align:middle line:84% as soon as you start to do anything, 00:03:14.870 --> 00:03:16.250 align:middle line:90% people want you labeled. 00:03:16.250 --> 00:03:18.170 align:middle line:84% They want you to be that thing so that they 00:03:18.170 --> 00:03:19.488 align:middle line:90% can understand you better. 00:03:19.488 --> 00:03:21.530 align:middle line:84% But something that's been really important for me 00:03:21.530 --> 00:03:23.960 align:middle line:84% is that I can be all of the things that I am, 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:28.400 align:middle line:84% and I can be all of those things on the page in one poem 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:30.270 align:middle line:84% or across the span of three poems. 00:03:30.270 --> 00:03:34.500 align:middle line:84% So I'm not writing to meet anybody's expectations, 00:03:34.500 --> 00:03:36.410 align:middle line:90% and I think that's important. 00:03:36.410 --> 00:03:37.910 align:middle line:84% I know some friends who've struggled 00:03:37.910 --> 00:03:39.710 align:middle line:84% with it along the way, and I was just 00:03:39.710 --> 00:03:44.720 align:middle line:84% lucky to very early on say, we're poets for F sake. 00:03:44.720 --> 00:03:48.053 align:middle line:90% It's not brain surgery. 00:03:48.053 --> 00:03:49.220 align:middle line:90% You're not saving the world. 00:03:49.220 --> 00:03:50.000 align:middle line:90% You're a poet. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:53.120 align:middle line:84% And you have one job, and it's to chase down 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:54.110 align:middle line:90% words and language. 00:03:54.110 --> 00:03:57.738 align:middle line:84% And it's a pretty easy job when you think about some 00:03:57.738 --> 00:03:59.280 align:middle line:84% of the other jobs that are out there. 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:03.830 align:middle line:84% And so it's been something that I've been able to stick with me 00:04:03.830 --> 00:04:07.040 align:middle line:90% and carry with me. 00:04:07.040 --> 00:04:08.540 align:middle line:84% Natalie was a much braver student 00:04:08.540 --> 00:04:11.210 align:middle line:84% than I was because I was a terrible graduate 00:04:11.210 --> 00:04:13.970 align:middle line:84% student, because I was writing poems to please my teachers 00:04:13.970 --> 00:04:15.830 align:middle line:90% and colleagues. 00:04:15.830 --> 00:04:18.470 align:middle line:84% Don't do that if you're a student. 00:04:18.470 --> 00:04:23.318 align:middle line:84% I think my MFA years stunted my growth as a poet, 00:04:23.318 --> 00:04:25.860 align:middle line:84% because of the program itself but because of my own attitudes 00:04:25.860 --> 00:04:26.950 align:middle line:90% from the program. 00:04:26.950 --> 00:04:30.070 align:middle line:90% And so don't be like me. 00:04:30.070 --> 00:04:30.760 align:middle line:90% Take risks. 00:04:30.760 --> 00:04:31.353 align:middle line:90% Be bold. 00:04:31.353 --> 00:04:32.020 align:middle line:90% Be like him now. 00:04:32.020 --> 00:04:33.748 align:middle line:90% No, no, no, no. 00:04:33.748 --> 00:04:34.540 align:middle line:90% He's all right now. 00:04:34.540 --> 00:04:38.120 align:middle line:84% It's an honor and pleasure reading in front of Ofelia. 00:04:38.120 --> 00:04:40.640 align:middle line:84% I just haven't worked on any poem that begins with a line 00:04:40.640 --> 00:04:42.170 align:middle line:90% from one of those poems. 00:04:42.170 --> 00:04:44.720 align:middle line:84% We were just talking about you today, twice. 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:46.010 align:middle line:90% Twice today. 00:04:46.010 --> 00:04:47.980 align:middle line:90% So it's good to see you there. 00:04:47.980 --> 00:04:52.480 align:middle line:90% 00:04:52.480 --> 00:04:53.980 align:middle line:90% Hello. 00:04:53.980 --> 00:04:55.000 align:middle line:90% Hello. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:57.940 align:middle line:90% This question is for Eduardo. 00:04:57.940 --> 00:05:01.780 align:middle line:84% We were reading your poems in class today, 00:05:01.780 --> 00:05:02.980 align:middle line:90% and there's a specific poem. 00:05:02.980 --> 00:05:04.563 align:middle line:84% I'm not going to read the whole thing, 00:05:04.563 --> 00:05:05.630 align:middle line:90% just read the first line. 00:05:05.630 --> 00:05:07.963 align:middle line:84% This should be an incentive for people to buy your book, 00:05:07.963 --> 00:05:08.500 align:middle line:90% I guess. 00:05:08.500 --> 00:05:10.100 align:middle line:90% [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:05:10.100 --> 00:05:12.250 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:05:12.250 --> 00:05:12.940 align:middle line:90% You get a cut. 00:05:12.940 --> 00:05:14.410 align:middle line:90% It's all right. 00:05:14.410 --> 00:05:17.716 align:middle line:84% The "qué chido his chistes" poem if you-- 00:05:17.716 --> 00:05:19.270 align:middle line:90% I'm pretty sure you know. 00:05:19.270 --> 00:05:22.000 align:middle line:84% We were trying to put together the picture you 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:23.660 align:middle line:90% were painting of this person. 00:05:23.660 --> 00:05:25.008 align:middle line:90% I just wanted to know-- 00:05:25.008 --> 00:05:26.800 align:middle line:84% I don't know if this is a personal question 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:29.150 align:middle line:84% or not, but who were you talking to? 00:05:29.150 --> 00:05:29.710 align:middle line:90% Who was he? 00:05:29.710 --> 00:05:30.780 align:middle line:90% The José Montoya poem? 00:05:30.780 --> 00:05:31.730 align:middle line:90% The "qué chido"? 00:05:31.730 --> 00:05:32.890 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:05:32.890 --> 00:05:38.800 align:middle line:84% That's a composite sketch of all my undocumented relatives 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:42.016 align:middle line:84% across the border and who are working 00:05:42.016 --> 00:05:46.270 align:middle line:84% as dishwashers, janitors in Casa Grande, in Phoenix and Mesa. 00:05:46.270 --> 00:05:50.075 align:middle line:84% And I was just struck with the privilege and luxury 00:05:50.075 --> 00:05:51.700 align:middle line:84% I had because of my parents' hard work, 00:05:51.700 --> 00:05:54.580 align:middle line:84% that I could spend my days working on the page 00:05:54.580 --> 00:05:57.235 align:middle line:84% and writing and reading and traveling 00:05:57.235 --> 00:05:58.360 align:middle line:90% because of their hard work. 00:05:58.360 --> 00:06:02.080 align:middle line:84% And I wanted to think about their hard work, 00:06:02.080 --> 00:06:06.250 align:middle line:84% and I wanted put their language on the page. 00:06:06.250 --> 00:06:06.750 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:06:06.750 --> 00:06:07.250 align:middle line:90% Good. 00:06:07.250 --> 00:06:11.430 align:middle line:84% This qué chido section has so much Spanish slang, 00:06:11.430 --> 00:06:13.680 align:middle line:84% working class Spanish, that really belongs-- 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:16.140 align:middle line:84% that you only really hear in certain neighborhoods 00:06:16.140 --> 00:06:19.900 align:middle line:84% and in the kitchens, in the hallways of hotels, 00:06:19.900 --> 00:06:20.650 align:middle line:90% in the back rooms. 00:06:20.650 --> 00:06:22.510 align:middle line:84% And I wanted to honor that, and I 00:06:22.510 --> 00:06:25.480 align:middle line:84% wanted to enlarge the possibilities of diction 00:06:25.480 --> 00:06:28.057 align:middle line:90% in American poetry too. 00:06:28.057 --> 00:06:29.055 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:06:29.055 --> 00:06:32.548 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:06:32.548 --> 00:06:33.407 align:middle line:90% 00:06:33.407 --> 00:06:35.490 align:middle line:84% Yeah, I did learn a few things at the MFA program. 00:06:35.490 --> 00:06:38.550 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:06:38.550 --> 00:06:40.440 align:middle line:90% This is for Eduardo too. 00:06:40.440 --> 00:06:45.000 align:middle line:84% You invoked a poet I absolutely love, Ronald Johnson, as one 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:46.410 align:middle line:90% of your foundational poets. 00:06:46.410 --> 00:06:49.260 align:middle line:84% And to me, Johnson is this poet who 00:06:49.260 --> 00:06:55.710 align:middle line:84% creates these vast arcs of visionary experimentation held 00:06:55.710 --> 00:07:00.210 align:middle line:84% together by images of light, rhizomatic themes, 00:07:00.210 --> 00:07:03.150 align:middle line:84% and not at all really narrative poems. 00:07:03.150 --> 00:07:05.620 align:middle line:84% And it seem so different from what you do. 00:07:05.620 --> 00:07:07.710 align:middle line:84% So I wonder, what did you feel you 00:07:07.710 --> 00:07:10.650 align:middle line:90% got from Johnson specifically? 00:07:10.650 --> 00:07:14.670 align:middle line:84% Well, even from his big project like Ark [INAUDIBLE] 00:07:14.670 --> 00:07:18.660 align:middle line:84% The Shrubberies there's always an intense musical gaze. 00:07:18.660 --> 00:07:20.970 align:middle line:84% And he's really sonically interested in the world, 00:07:20.970 --> 00:07:23.160 align:middle line:84% the natural world, and he wants to render it 00:07:23.160 --> 00:07:24.868 align:middle line:90% in musical ways on the page. 00:07:24.868 --> 00:07:26.160 align:middle line:90% And that's what I got from him. 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:28.793 align:middle line:84% That's why I quote [INAUDIBLE] music. 00:07:28.793 --> 00:07:30.210 align:middle line:84% And to me, even when you're trying 00:07:30.210 --> 00:07:36.500 align:middle line:84% to write about people crossing the border and dying, as a poet 00:07:36.500 --> 00:07:39.230 align:middle line:84% it comes to you in beautiful ways. 00:07:39.230 --> 00:07:41.450 align:middle line:84% And I really had a hard time reconciling 00:07:41.450 --> 00:07:42.890 align:middle line:90% that for the longest time. 00:07:42.890 --> 00:07:45.680 align:middle line:84% I'm talking about the deaths of some of my relatives 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:49.760 align:middle line:84% crossing the border, yet it's beautiful language. 00:07:49.760 --> 00:07:51.230 align:middle line:90% How can I get away with that? 00:07:51.230 --> 00:07:53.980 align:middle line:84% How can I make myself OK with that? 00:07:53.980 --> 00:07:56.210 align:middle line:84% So he's one of the examples because he 00:07:56.210 --> 00:07:57.960 align:middle line:84% talks a lot about the AIDS epidemic 00:07:57.960 --> 00:08:00.320 align:middle line:90% and what eventually made him-- 00:08:00.320 --> 00:08:01.050 align:middle line:90% killed him. 00:08:01.050 --> 00:08:02.930 align:middle line:84% So the language is so beautifully, 00:08:02.930 --> 00:08:05.990 align:middle line:84% imagistically and sonically, that I took away 00:08:05.990 --> 00:08:07.528 align:middle line:90% from his example. 00:08:07.528 --> 00:08:08.570 align:middle line:90% It's possible to do that. 00:08:08.570 --> 00:08:11.790 align:middle line:90% 00:08:11.790 --> 00:08:16.360 align:middle line:84% And you have to if you call yourself a writer. 00:08:16.360 --> 00:08:18.400 align:middle line:84% I still can't call myself a poet. 00:08:18.400 --> 00:08:19.750 align:middle line:90% I get embarrassed. 00:08:19.750 --> 00:08:20.440 align:middle line:90% I'm shy. 00:08:20.440 --> 00:08:22.354 align:middle line:90% I'm a southern boy from Arizona. 00:08:22.354 --> 00:08:25.318 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:08:25.318 --> 00:08:26.800 align:middle line:90% 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:32.080 align:middle line:84% It seems like both poets use a lot of food imagery associated 00:08:32.080 --> 00:08:35.110 align:middle line:84% with somewhat biblical references. 00:08:35.110 --> 00:08:39.472 align:middle line:84% She asked [INAUDIBLE] as we have become poets. 00:08:39.472 --> 00:08:40.139 align:middle line:90% Poet [INAUDIBLE] 00:08:40.139 --> 00:08:42.975 align:middle line:84% There's a slight differentiation, one associated 00:08:42.975 --> 00:08:45.100 align:middle line:84% with the soul [INAUDIBLE] Other one is a little bit 00:08:45.100 --> 00:08:47.050 align:middle line:90% more carnal, body like. 00:08:47.050 --> 00:08:49.570 align:middle line:90% 00:08:49.570 --> 00:08:53.680 align:middle line:84% Corral's poetry starts with the [INAUDIBLE] 00:08:53.680 --> 00:08:57.490 align:middle line:84% and ends with New York's Hell's Kitchen. 00:08:57.490 --> 00:09:03.310 align:middle line:84% Whereas Diaz's poetry starts with all this biblical imagery, 00:09:03.310 --> 00:09:06.450 align:middle line:84% starts with the gospel like, turns into blues, jazz. 00:09:06.450 --> 00:09:09.310 align:middle line:84% At the end, it just turns into hip-hop. 00:09:09.310 --> 00:09:11.690 align:middle line:84% So is that a natural progression? 00:09:11.690 --> 00:09:16.100 align:middle line:90% 00:09:16.100 --> 00:09:17.580 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:09:17.580 --> 00:09:18.960 align:middle line:90% Natalie. 00:09:18.960 --> 00:09:20.960 align:middle line:84% I'm still thinking about what we ate for dinner. 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:22.590 align:middle line:90% No. 00:09:22.590 --> 00:09:26.730 align:middle line:84% I think, just for me, I like to push the boundaries of form, 00:09:26.730 --> 00:09:31.690 align:middle line:84% and I think I come from a musical place. 00:09:31.690 --> 00:09:34.200 align:middle line:90% And I also come from-- 00:09:34.200 --> 00:09:39.720 align:middle line:84% it's crazy for me when you look at the way 00:09:39.720 --> 00:09:42.280 align:middle line:84% our history in Mojave has been talked about. 00:09:42.280 --> 00:09:46.050 align:middle line:84% It's called, the Mojave creation myth. 00:09:46.050 --> 00:09:51.600 align:middle line:84% Yet you have Christianity, and that's considered OK. 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:53.370 align:middle line:84% You never attach the myth to that, 00:09:53.370 --> 00:09:55.330 align:middle line:90% unless you're in a university. 00:09:55.330 --> 00:09:58.432 align:middle line:90% But so for me-- 00:09:58.432 --> 00:09:59.890 align:middle line:84% and not that there's anything wrong 00:09:59.890 --> 00:10:02.670 align:middle line:90% with being in a university. 00:10:02.670 --> 00:10:10.380 align:middle line:84% But for me, I like to be able to exist within those boundaries, 00:10:10.380 --> 00:10:13.410 align:middle line:84% I guess, of Christianity storytelling 00:10:13.410 --> 00:10:16.500 align:middle line:90% because they're so accessible. 00:10:16.500 --> 00:10:19.050 align:middle line:84% But then I like to get them and turn them on their head, 00:10:19.050 --> 00:10:23.970 align:middle line:84% and and not to make them my own, but to say that I can-- 00:10:23.970 --> 00:10:28.170 align:middle line:84% my ways of storytelling can exist right next to those 00:10:28.170 --> 00:10:31.560 align:middle line:84% and be just as clear and accessible to people, I guess. 00:10:31.560 --> 00:10:32.458 align:middle line:90% So I do play a lot. 00:10:32.458 --> 00:10:33.750 align:middle line:90% And also, my father is Spanish. 00:10:33.750 --> 00:10:35.280 align:middle line:90% My grandparents are from Spain. 00:10:35.280 --> 00:10:36.510 align:middle line:90% And my mother is native. 00:10:36.510 --> 00:10:39.840 align:middle line:84% So I had both of those inside my house. 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:42.300 align:middle line:90% And not one of those was wrong. 00:10:42.300 --> 00:10:43.512 align:middle line:90% Not one of those was right. 00:10:43.512 --> 00:10:45.720 align:middle line:84% They were just there, and we moved in and out of them 00:10:45.720 --> 00:10:47.170 align:middle line:90% very easily. 00:10:47.170 --> 00:10:49.590 align:middle line:84% And so it's really easy for me to move in and out 00:10:49.590 --> 00:10:52.380 align:middle line:84% of those on the page because it's very normal. 00:10:52.380 --> 00:10:55.230 align:middle line:84% So it's just being able to hold a lot of different truths 00:10:55.230 --> 00:10:56.970 align:middle line:84% in my head at one time because that's 00:10:56.970 --> 00:11:00.180 align:middle line:90% what we know in my house. 00:11:00.180 --> 00:11:01.530 align:middle line:90% It gives me a lot of freedom. 00:11:01.530 --> 00:11:05.490 align:middle line:84% I feel like I can go any place and use anything to get there, 00:11:05.490 --> 00:11:10.560 align:middle line:84% regardless of whose god it is, because we have our own. 00:11:10.560 --> 00:11:12.600 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] Who were your early influences? 00:11:12.600 --> 00:11:16.440 align:middle line:84% Who were your early literally influencces? 00:11:16.440 --> 00:11:18.800 align:middle line:90% Can you repeat the question? 00:11:18.800 --> 00:11:21.850 align:middle line:90% Who were my early influences? 00:11:21.850 --> 00:11:23.800 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:11:23.800 --> 00:11:28.750 align:middle line:84% I was a basketball player, so to be very honest, Jordan. 00:11:28.750 --> 00:11:31.870 align:middle line:90% 00:11:31.870 --> 00:11:37.330 align:middle line:84% That's what helped me, and that's what got me a little bit 00:11:37.330 --> 00:11:39.880 align:middle line:90% able to go outside where I was. 00:11:39.880 --> 00:11:42.980 align:middle line:84% And I didn't-- when I was in third grade, 00:11:42.980 --> 00:11:45.520 align:middle line:84% I knew that's how I was going to leave. 00:11:45.520 --> 00:11:48.790 align:middle line:84% The odd thing was is I'm back and I'm home. 00:11:48.790 --> 00:11:49.690 align:middle line:90% And it's home. 00:11:49.690 --> 00:11:53.230 align:middle line:84% I never felt like home until I've come back home. 00:11:53.230 --> 00:11:56.461 align:middle line:90% But some of the-- 00:11:56.461 --> 00:11:58.270 align:middle line:84% the biggest influence for me, and we 00:11:58.270 --> 00:12:00.980 align:middle line:84% talked about this a little bit this afternoon, 00:12:00.980 --> 00:12:03.130 align:middle line:84% but Tim Seibles, who's a Black poet. 00:12:03.130 --> 00:12:04.510 align:middle line:90% He's at Old Dominion. 00:12:04.510 --> 00:12:06.010 align:middle line:84% And I knew him as an athlete first. 00:12:06.010 --> 00:12:07.225 align:middle line:90% He played on our-- 00:12:07.225 --> 00:12:09.640 align:middle line:84% my women's team had a men's scrimmage team 00:12:09.640 --> 00:12:11.840 align:middle line:84% because you had to be faster and stronger 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:12.840 align:middle line:90% and all of these things. 00:12:12.840 --> 00:12:14.355 align:middle line:84% So we scrimmaged against the men. 00:12:14.355 --> 00:12:15.730 align:middle line:84% And during the summer, we weren't 00:12:15.730 --> 00:12:17.810 align:middle line:84% allowed to come home-- some of us weren't allowed to go home. 00:12:17.810 --> 00:12:19.180 align:middle line:84% So the inner city kids and then I 00:12:19.180 --> 00:12:21.055 align:middle line:84% wasn't allowed to come home during the summer 00:12:21.055 --> 00:12:22.490 align:middle line:90% so we wouldn't get in trouble. 00:12:22.490 --> 00:12:23.500 align:middle line:90% And so we stayed there. 00:12:23.500 --> 00:12:26.720 align:middle line:84% And he was on the summer men's practice squad. 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:28.970 align:middle line:84% So I only knew him as an athlete. 00:12:28.970 --> 00:12:30.280 align:middle line:90% He's a big man. 00:12:30.280 --> 00:12:31.600 align:middle line:90% He's a good basketball player. 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:33.020 align:middle line:84% He played like Mark Jackson, though. 00:12:33.020 --> 00:12:34.062 align:middle line:90% He backed everybody down. 00:12:34.062 --> 00:12:35.320 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] shot. 00:12:35.320 --> 00:12:37.001 align:middle line:90% But he-- 00:12:37.001 --> 00:12:37.963 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:12:37.963 --> 00:12:40.530 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:12:40.530 --> 00:12:41.030 align:middle line:90% 00:12:41.030 --> 00:12:45.320 align:middle line:84% So that one semester, probably my sophomore or junior year, 00:12:45.320 --> 00:12:48.140 align:middle line:84% I got put into an introductory writing class 00:12:48.140 --> 00:12:50.600 align:middle line:84% because they thought it would be a an easy course for me. 00:12:50.600 --> 00:12:52.160 align:middle line:84% And I walked in, and Tim was there. 00:12:52.160 --> 00:12:53.690 align:middle line:90% He was my teacher. 00:12:53.690 --> 00:12:58.050 align:middle line:84% And so I saw him, and we talked all about basketball. 00:12:58.050 --> 00:13:00.305 align:middle line:84% And I sat down and class started. 00:13:00.305 --> 00:13:02.430 align:middle line:84% And he started-- he didn't say a word to the class. 00:13:02.430 --> 00:13:03.710 align:middle line:90% He just read a poem. 00:13:03.710 --> 00:13:06.590 align:middle line:84% And I heard him read that poem, and I just-- 00:13:06.590 --> 00:13:10.130 align:middle line:84% I never knew poetry could be what it was then. 00:13:10.130 --> 00:13:12.530 align:middle line:84% And it stayed that same thing for me. 00:13:12.530 --> 00:13:15.050 align:middle line:84% Poetry's still to me what it was when I first heard 00:13:15.050 --> 00:13:17.675 align:middle line:90% him read that poem in class. 00:13:17.675 --> 00:13:20.750 align:middle line:84% And so that is really my first influence. 00:13:20.750 --> 00:13:24.620 align:middle line:84% And it was him as an athlete first, and as a poet second. 00:13:24.620 --> 00:13:28.190 align:middle line:84% And I wish I had a canon of Native writers to list, 00:13:28.190 --> 00:13:29.360 align:middle line:90% but that's-- 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:31.460 align:middle line:84% Had it not been for Tim and athletics, 00:13:31.460 --> 00:13:35.990 align:middle line:84% I don't know that I would have found the door to poetry, 00:13:35.990 --> 00:13:38.870 align:middle line:90% at least not soon enough. 00:13:38.870 --> 00:13:41.280 align:middle line:90% But that's my-- 00:13:41.280 --> 00:13:43.130 align:middle line:84% I think it's OK for us as writers or poets 00:13:43.130 --> 00:13:46.970 align:middle line:84% to say that our lyric influences or ancestors are not always 00:13:46.970 --> 00:13:50.050 align:middle line:84% the people in the textbooks or people you expect. 00:13:50.050 --> 00:13:51.800 align:middle line:84% I think in my high school years, and I was 00:13:51.800 --> 00:13:53.215 align:middle line:90% a terrible high school student. 00:13:53.215 --> 00:13:54.590 align:middle line:84% I was a terrible graduate student 00:13:54.590 --> 00:13:56.048 align:middle line:84% and a terrible high school student. 00:13:56.048 --> 00:13:58.250 align:middle line:90% What am I doing up here? 00:13:58.250 --> 00:13:59.390 align:middle line:90% What have you read? 00:13:59.390 --> 00:14:02.350 align:middle line:90% was crappy Star Trek novels. 00:14:02.350 --> 00:14:04.025 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] language-- 00:14:04.025 --> 00:14:05.150 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:14:05.150 --> 00:14:08.100 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] I draw the line there. 00:14:08.100 --> 00:14:10.670 align:middle line:90% 00:14:10.670 --> 00:14:13.830 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] but I really wanted to drop out. 00:14:13.830 --> 00:14:16.940 align:middle line:84% What made me stay was thinking of my [INAUDIBLE] my aunts, 00:14:16.940 --> 00:14:20.760 align:middle line:84% my mother in the kitchen when I was alone with them 00:14:20.760 --> 00:14:23.360 align:middle line:90% and no other men were there. 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:24.920 align:middle line:84% I think they felt safe with around me 00:14:24.920 --> 00:14:26.030 align:middle line:90% to let down their guards. 00:14:26.030 --> 00:14:28.798 align:middle line:84% And I noticed the way they were speak was different. 00:14:28.798 --> 00:14:29.340 align:middle line:90% The language. 00:14:29.340 --> 00:14:30.240 align:middle line:90% The vocabulary. 00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:31.490 align:middle line:90% The music. 00:14:31.490 --> 00:14:32.150 align:middle line:90% The shrieks. 00:14:32.150 --> 00:14:32.750 align:middle line:90% The screams. 00:14:32.750 --> 00:14:33.250 align:middle line:90% The crying. 00:14:33.250 --> 00:14:35.540 align:middle line:84% It was different from the voices they 00:14:35.540 --> 00:14:37.370 align:middle line:84% had outside that kitchen, outside the home. 00:14:37.370 --> 00:14:41.330 align:middle line:84% I'm like, oh, I want do that with my own work, 00:14:41.330 --> 00:14:47.690 align:middle line:84% find a new way of saying something [INAUDIBLE] So 00:14:47.690 --> 00:14:49.512 align:middle line:90% they're not always-- 00:14:49.512 --> 00:14:50.220 align:middle line:90% Shakespeare's OK. 00:14:50.220 --> 00:14:52.250 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] Sometimes [INAUDIBLE] 00:14:52.250 --> 00:14:55.300 align:middle line:84% non-literally sources are influences.