Welcome to tonight.
Welcome to this amazing room.
I love it.
It's like a little shrine to art,
and I just always really love being here.
My name is Cybele Knowles.
I'm from the University of Arizona Poetry Center,
and I'm deeply honored to welcome you
to tonight's very special event.
We have a performance by poet Nathaniel Mackey
and musician Marilyn Crispell.
This performance is the fruit of a collaboration between three
literary organizations.
Am I yelling at you?
No.
OK, OK, so three organizations have put this together
for you--
Chax Press, the UA Poetry Center and POG.
Funding has been provided by many generous people
and organizations--
The Poetry Center's Friends and Walt Whitman
Circle Donors, Chax Press and POG's donors,
poets and writers, Tucson Pima Arts Council,
and the Arizona Commission on the Arts
with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
We thank all these supporters for making tonight possible,
and we thank you, the audience, for being here.
Although it's true that from a funding and logistical point
of view, this has been a group effort,
the credit for curating tonight belongs entirely
to Charles Alexander of Chax Press.
It was his dream--
[APPLAUSE]
It was his dream to bring Nathaniel and Marilyn to Tucson
to perform together.
Once he shared that vision with us,
we were very quick to come together to help realize it.
Many of you in this room know that Charles Alexander
is a poet, the founder and publisher of Chax Press,
a book artist, cultural organizer, literary archivist,
teacher, friend.
And so important via all these roles
in the world of contemporary poetry and writing,
please help me welcome Charles Alexander.