[APPLAUSE]
Yeah, so-- yeah, welcome.
And for a lot of you, welcome back to the Temple Lounge.
For this surely rare evening, I think,
of poetry and performance as we bring to the stage--
Tucson's own Teré Fowler-Chapman and out of your anthologies,
and up from the recordings, and out of his dozens of books,
Clark Coolidge.
It's wow, you know, it's just really great
to have both poets here.
There are two of us standing up here because,
and I'm sure most of you know Charles, poet, editor,
publisher, impresario--
The quiet one.
The quiet-- so far.
Because Cafe Bohemia and Intermezzo
are partnering tonight with POG.
And POG is our sister organization, our big sister,
who has done many more readings than we have and has
been central to literary Tucson, which is a credit to Tucson.
Because in a lot of other places,
you'd be significantly marginal, I think, but Central here.
Or not.
Yeah.
Central and Tucson.
We're insignificantly marginal.
So, yeah, I think it was late last spring,
we decided that this was a possibility.
And I'm really glad that we were able to team up on this.
I feel-- I think we both feel really lucky for how
this evening has come together and elated again
that Clark Coolidge could be with us from California.
I won't soon forget the lunch I had today
with Clark and his wife Susan because part of the meal
was literary history, Gregory Corso, and Louis Zukofsky,
and Bernadette Mayer, and Charles Olson
were all on the plate.
And I'm still hungry, really great stories.
So I'm really excited to bring him up.
So yeah, tonight, POG tries on a new venue.
And Intermezzo, if you've been here before,
tries out a new format.
There's a piano here, a real piano,
which makes this prop piano kind of bashful.
And that also means that we're excited to bring up
between the two feature performers, Teré and Clark,
Michael Dauphinais, who is a professor
in the School of Music at the U of A and a musician.
For my part, I need to also acknowledge a few people that
Stephen didn't.
Intermezzo is myself and Katherine Monberg,
who you met at the door, who organizes
many of the operational details that brought tonight
and all of the readings we do here together.
And Intermezzo is a feature as Stephen mentioned,
of Cafe Bohemia, which is literary and performance
series curated by Stephen Wrentmore, who
is the ATC associate director.
So thanks to both of them.
And to Chris Gerling, who's responsible for the sound
and tech and for finding the piano,
which was upstairs, behind the main stage,
in the dressing room, hiding behind a rack of clothes.
So thanks to him for that and a lot more.
Really quickly, this is the Temple Lounge.
And above you and around you are the props from about 30,
35 years of productions that ATC does on the main stage.
This space is managed by Emily Lucas.
And so thanks to her.
That's worth a round of applause for hosting us again
in this great space.
Your bartenders are Alison and Becca.
Meet them again at intermission and tip them,
and be friends with them.
Huge, huge, huge thanks to John Melillo for helping
bring tonight together.
Really.
Crucial in the planning and operations
of the whole evening.
And so really, thanks to you for bringing home the goods.
I also want to say thanks to our partner tonight, our co-sponsor
University of Arizona Poetry Center, and in particular,
to Tyler Meier for the support and some other structural
details, including the videography tonight.
So thanks too to Jonathan VanBallenberghe behind the lens.
Yeah.
[APPLAUSE]
Thanks to everybody.
And thanks to all of you for coming out.
Clark, I know you wanted to say--
Clark.
Charles, I know you wanted to say a few things about how
the evening came together.
But he did, no.
This and most of you here are part of this committee.
This is a partnering and collaborative community.
And this event is just really an example of that.
And so I have to thank some of the people, Brian, thank, too.
And thank Brian, particularly, and Stephen of Cafe Bohemia,
and Intermezzo, thank the Tucson Pima Arts Council,
which helps POG to exist.
Thank the Poetry Center for their part
in supporting Clark Coolidge and Tyler Meier.
Thank Antigone Books, which gives us
the ability to sell books by Clark Coolidge back there.
Thank John Melillo and the English department
at the University of the Poetry Center.
I had said in the--
who else, Cynthia?
Poets and Writers.
And Poets and Writers Inc that actually provide
part of the check that goes to the people
presenting tonight, which is a very important part of this.
Also, this is really great because-- so those of you
who have known POG for a long time
know that Tenney Nathanson and I, Tenney
is going to be a little late tonight.
We think of ourselves as the Mutt and Jeff,
and if you get that reference, you're not young anymore,
of POG introductions.
And we always compete to who can be Jeff.
So now, I have a new Mutt.
[LAUGHS]
That doesn't sound very nice.
It's actually a compliment.
So it's a privilege to stand with Brian.
I think I've made all the thank yous I want,
except there beyond the books, the recent books
by Clark from Antigone Books and from the press Fence Books,
there is a broadside that I printed, Chax Press, by Clark
Coolidge in 1987, we have some copies
back there and a chapbook from John Melillo's presses
back there as well, which we hope
you'll take a look at some time tonight.
And if you want those things signed,
understand that that's a possibility too.
And so without further ado, I want
to introduce Jody Thompson, writer and editor
of Cairn Press who will be introducing
our first reader tonight.
Jody.
[APPLAUSE]