WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.757 align:middle line:90% Hey, everybody. 00:00:00.757 --> 00:00:03.090 align:middle line:84% I'm going to keep this a little shorter than last night, 00:00:03.090 --> 00:00:05.220 align:middle line:84% because I see a lot of familiar faces, 00:00:05.220 --> 00:00:07.290 align:middle line:84% and most people at this point probably 00:00:07.290 --> 00:00:09.900 align:middle line:84% know what the Bagley Wright Lecture Series is. 00:00:09.900 --> 00:00:12.540 align:middle line:84% But for those of you who don't, it's 00:00:12.540 --> 00:00:18.300 align:middle line:84% an endeavor that Charlie Wright, who's right over there, 00:00:18.300 --> 00:00:19.380 align:middle line:90% and I started-- 00:00:19.380 --> 00:00:24.360 align:middle line:84% well, started with his support, to basically support 00:00:24.360 --> 00:00:27.000 align:middle line:84% mid-career poets whose work we admire, 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:31.890 align:middle line:84% revere even, to investigate poetic concerns that 00:00:31.890 --> 00:00:33.310 align:middle line:90% are meaningful to them. 00:00:33.310 --> 00:00:35.580 align:middle line:84% And so we did that by sending them around 00:00:35.580 --> 00:00:37.830 align:middle line:84% to give lectures all over the country, including here, 00:00:37.830 --> 00:00:41.250 align:middle line:84% and then we're sort of coming to the end of the first set 00:00:41.250 --> 00:00:42.510 align:middle line:90% of lectures that we had. 00:00:42.510 --> 00:00:45.480 align:middle line:84% We had six of them, and we had the first three lectures 00:00:45.480 --> 00:00:49.230 align:middle line:84% talk last night, and tonight we're having the other three 00:00:49.230 --> 00:00:50.100 align:middle line:90% lectures. 00:00:50.100 --> 00:00:53.850 align:middle line:84% And I'm really excited about tonight. 00:00:53.850 --> 00:00:55.500 align:middle line:90% Last night was marvelous. 00:00:55.500 --> 00:00:57.317 align:middle line:84% The panels today were great, which is-- 00:00:57.317 --> 00:00:59.400 align:middle line:84% I don't often find myself saying panels were good. 00:00:59.400 --> 00:01:01.810 align:middle line:84% That seems like kind of a contradiction in terms, 00:01:01.810 --> 00:01:05.459 align:middle line:84% but actually conversations were really amazing, and electric, 00:01:05.459 --> 00:01:09.400 align:middle line:84% and generative, and I just really enjoyed them, 00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:12.720 align:middle line:84% and made me even more excited to hear the three 00:01:12.720 --> 00:01:13.620 align:middle line:90% lectures tonight. 00:01:13.620 --> 00:01:16.290 align:middle line:84% We're going to start with Srikanth Reddy, 00:01:16.290 --> 00:01:19.440 align:middle line:84% and then we're going to hear from Rachel Zucker, and then 00:01:19.440 --> 00:01:20.190 align:middle line:90% Timothy Donnelly. 00:01:20.190 --> 00:01:24.570 align:middle line:84% And there are many things I love about these three poets, 00:01:24.570 --> 00:01:26.340 align:middle line:84% but one thing they all have in common 00:01:26.340 --> 00:01:28.770 align:middle line:84% is that they have manuscripts that are in process 00:01:28.770 --> 00:01:34.110 align:middle line:84% that Wave Books will be publishing in the coming times. 00:01:34.110 --> 00:01:37.170 align:middle line:84% Let's say, period, of various stages of completion, 00:01:37.170 --> 00:01:39.900 align:middle line:84% and so they're-- and I don't know if tonight some of them 00:01:39.900 --> 00:01:42.930 align:middle line:84% might mention what the relationship has been between 00:01:42.930 --> 00:01:45.780 align:middle line:84% this exercise of being asked-- and they're not required to do 00:01:45.780 --> 00:01:48.690 align:middle line:84% this, but some of them might mention what it's been like 00:01:48.690 --> 00:01:51.930 align:middle line:84% to kind of write a lot of prose, and think about their ideas 00:01:51.930 --> 00:01:54.495 align:middle line:84% through the prism of prose, and then also how that might have 00:01:54.495 --> 00:01:57.120 align:middle line:84% affected the poems that they're working on, and what they think 00:01:57.120 --> 00:01:59.740 align:middle line:90% will happen in the future. 00:01:59.740 --> 00:02:04.410 align:middle line:84% And so before I turn it over to Chicu, Srikanth, 00:02:04.410 --> 00:02:05.880 align:middle line:90% I'm just going to-- 00:02:05.880 --> 00:02:09.215 align:middle line:84% I want to, again, thank the Poetry Center. 00:02:09.215 --> 00:02:10.590 align:middle line:84% Tyler was very generous in saying 00:02:10.590 --> 00:02:12.798 align:middle line:84% that I organized the whole thing, that's actually not 00:02:12.798 --> 00:02:14.520 align:middle line:90% true. 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:19.560 align:middle line:84% Tyler did so much, and Becka, and so many other people here. 00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:20.850 align:middle line:90% The staff is amazing here. 00:02:20.850 --> 00:02:22.480 align:middle line:90% This is a magical place. 00:02:22.480 --> 00:02:26.070 align:middle line:84% I know you all know that, but we feel so at home here already. 00:02:26.070 --> 00:02:28.810 align:middle line:84% It's going to be hard to leave, I can already tell. 00:02:28.810 --> 00:02:30.900 align:middle line:84% And yeah, it's just been the perfect thing. 00:02:30.900 --> 00:02:34.020 align:middle line:84% And of course I want to thank Charlie and Barb 00:02:34.020 --> 00:02:36.817 align:middle line:84% for supporting all this, and for just being like the best 00:02:36.817 --> 00:02:37.650 align:middle line:90% people in the world. 00:02:37.650 --> 00:02:43.710 align:middle line:84% And Wave Books, Heidi Broadhead, who's here, and very much, 00:02:43.710 --> 00:02:47.842 align:middle line:84% again, the coordinator of the series, the Bagley Wright 00:02:47.842 --> 00:02:49.050 align:middle line:90% lecture series Ellen Welcker. 00:02:49.050 --> 00:02:50.490 align:middle line:90% Where's Ellen? 00:02:50.490 --> 00:02:52.680 align:middle line:84% I'd like to give her a special round of applause. 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:55.020 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:02:55.020 --> 00:02:57.870 align:middle line:84% She really is the person who organized everything. 00:02:57.870 --> 00:03:01.420 align:middle line:84% And again, as I said last night, thank you all for being here. 00:03:01.420 --> 00:03:03.738 align:middle line:84% It's amazing to have such great listeners, 00:03:03.738 --> 00:03:05.280 align:middle line:84% and I'm already starting to recognize 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:08.060 align:middle line:84% some of your faces, which is really cool.