[MICROPHONE STAND CREAKS]
And she's tiny.
[LAUGHTER]
Thank you, Tyler.
Joshua Beckman is here.
And that's a good thing.
When I think about why it's a good thing that Joshua
Beckman is here, I think first of my dad's favorite protest
cry--
"Open It Up or Shut It Down."
I also think of The O'Jays and their song,
"Give the People What They Want."
You see, Joshua Beckman is a tour de force
when it comes to bringing poetry to the people--
opening it up, showing us that, in fact,
poetry is what we, the people, want.
He does this, of course, as a poet, as a publisher,
as a translator, as a collaborator.
He did this on a bus with the hand-painted slogan,
Poetry Bus scrawled across the side, driving up and down
and over the country, stopping for gas and poetry readings
in 50 cities with 300 other poets.
He did this on a stage, ad-libbing and playing,
and documenting, and cracking people up, and devastating them
in collaboration with Matthew Rohrer.
And, thanks to the Bagley Wright Series,
he's doing it for us here tonight.
Joshua Beckman is here, opening poetry up
so we don't have to shut it down.
He's here to help us give the people, give the people
what they want.
Please help me welcome Joshua Beckman.
[APPLAUSE]