WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.110 align:middle line:90%
[MICROPHONE STAND CREAKS]

00:00:01.110 --> 00:00:02.040 align:middle line:90%
And she's tiny.

00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:04.500 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:06.210 align:middle line:90%
Thank you, Tyler.

00:00:06.210 --> 00:00:08.800 align:middle line:90%
Joshua Beckman is here.

00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:10.950 align:middle line:90%
And that's a good thing.

00:00:10.950 --> 00:00:13.380 align:middle line:84%
When I think about why it's
a good thing that Joshua

00:00:13.380 --> 00:00:16.980 align:middle line:84%
Beckman is here, I think first
of my dad's favorite protest

00:00:16.980 --> 00:00:17.580 align:middle line:90%
cry--

00:00:17.580 --> 00:00:20.250 align:middle line:90%
"Open It Up or Shut It Down."

00:00:20.250 --> 00:00:22.590 align:middle line:84%
I also think of The
O'Jays and their song,

00:00:22.590 --> 00:00:24.240 align:middle line:84%
"Give the People
What They Want."

00:00:24.240 --> 00:00:26.880 align:middle line:84%
You see, Joshua Beckman
is a tour de force

00:00:26.880 --> 00:00:29.550 align:middle line:84%
when it comes to bringing
poetry to the people--

00:00:29.550 --> 00:00:32.280 align:middle line:84%
opening it up, showing
us that, in fact,

00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:35.370 align:middle line:84%
poetry is what we,
the people, want.

00:00:35.370 --> 00:00:38.790 align:middle line:84%
He does this, of course,
as a poet, as a publisher,

00:00:38.790 --> 00:00:41.760 align:middle line:84%
as a translator,
as a collaborator.

00:00:41.760 --> 00:00:44.130 align:middle line:84%
He did this on a bus with
the hand-painted slogan,

00:00:44.130 --> 00:00:48.360 align:middle line:84%
Poetry Bus scrawled across
the side, driving up and down

00:00:48.360 --> 00:00:51.660 align:middle line:84%
and over the country, stopping
for gas and poetry readings

00:00:51.660 --> 00:00:55.860 align:middle line:84%
in 50 cities with
300 other poets.

00:00:55.860 --> 00:00:58.230 align:middle line:84%
He did this on a stage,
ad-libbing and playing,

00:00:58.230 --> 00:01:01.470 align:middle line:84%
and documenting, and cracking
people up, and devastating them

00:01:01.470 --> 00:01:03.660 align:middle line:84%
in collaboration
with Matthew Rohrer.

00:01:03.660 --> 00:01:05.850 align:middle line:84%
And, thanks to the
Bagley Wright Series,

00:01:05.850 --> 00:01:08.640 align:middle line:84%
he's doing it for
us here tonight.

00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:11.280 align:middle line:84%
Joshua Beckman is
here, opening poetry up

00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:13.560 align:middle line:84%
so we don't have
to shut it down.

00:01:13.560 --> 00:01:16.380 align:middle line:84%
He's here to help us give
the people, give the people

00:01:16.380 --> 00:01:17.610 align:middle line:90%
what they want.

00:01:17.610 --> 00:01:19.500 align:middle line:84%
Please help me welcome
Joshua Beckman.

00:01:19.500 --> 00:01:22.850 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]