OK, it's really great to see everyone here to hear poetry.
My name is Diana Delgado, I'm the literary director here
at the Poetry Center.
And we are all excited for tonight's presentation
of Nikky Finney reading from poems that she
developed specifically for the Art for Justice Initiative.
I have had just the fantastic experience of hanging out
with Nikky, yesterday in Phoenix, and today,
and it just in Spanish, yo soy muy emocionada.
Like, I'm just super, super happy as Selena would say.
[LAUGHTER]
So let me get right into it.
I have a few, just sort of an overview
of what we have for tonight.
So just a little bit more information about Art
for Justice.
For some of you that don't know, Art for Justice
is a three-year grant that's a grant-funded project that
commissions new work from leading writers
to explore the relationship between poetry and crisis
of mass incarceration in this country.
And it's all done in the hope of creating
a new kind of imaginative landscape
with different possibilities.
Nikky will be reading tonight from new work
that she has written specifically for this evening.
And we were really excited and very grateful
to the Ford Foundation for their support.
I want to remind everyone about upcoming events
that we have at the Poetry Center,
the inaugural Tom Sanders Memorial Reading on February 21
is happening at 7:00, and we will
be featuring Peggy Shumaker and Maurya Simon.
And we will also have an upcoming event in partnership
with the Jewish History Museum, which
will feature poet Myriam Moscona, and translators Jen
Hofer and John Pluecker, and that's
going to be happening on Wednesday, February
27, at the Jewish History Museum, and then
here at the Poetry Center on Thursday,
February 28th, at 7:00 PM.
Before Nikky is introduced by a friend, a UA English faculty
colleague, Stephanie Troutman, one
of the things that is part of our Art for Justice Initiative
is for us to spotlight local and regional
not-for-profit organizations and artists,
who are working to advance issues
related to carceral justice before each
of our poets reading.
So tonight we're very excited to hear from the American Friends
Service Committee and the work that they do in the area.
I want to invite them up now to take 20 minutes
and tell us a little bit more about their activities
and their Reframing Justice project.
And then Stephanie will come up and introduce Nikky Finney.
And I just want to thank everyone
for being here tonight with us.
[APPLAUSE]