WEBVTT

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Tonight's reading by Alec Finlay
has been almost five years

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in the planning.

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A look at his retrospective
exhibit "Correspondences--

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Morning Star 1991 to 2018."

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which is on view in
the Jeremy Ingalls

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Gallery of the Poetry Center
library through April 21,

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will make it clear why we've
been excited about Alec's

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visit for such a long time.

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And so will the work
you're about to hear

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and the images
you're about to see.

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Tonight we will experience a
sampling of the impressive body

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of work of a poet and
artist who has published

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more than 40 books and is
the recipient of six Scottish

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Design Awards.

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We will also experience
how Alec's poetry documents

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with vitality and variety an
equally impressive sequence

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of actions and ways of
existing in the world.

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Alec's works and
collaborations invite

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us to participate in such
modes as shared writing, shared

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journeying, shared
dancing, and shared naming.

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Deeply concerned with
ecologies, his art

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is as deeply concerned
with communities.

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As Daisy Lafarge puts it, in
an essay on Alec's work, which

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you can read in its entirety
in the Poetry Center library

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as part of the exhibit quote,
"Finlay's ongoing practice

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is defined by its movement
away from obfuscation

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toward balance,
communication, and relation.

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Characteristics we
need in order to live

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transformatively, amiss
the ecological devastation

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of the Anthropocene."

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I agree wholeheartedly.

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To paraphrase the title of
one of his recent books,

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A Better Tale To Tell, when one
encounters Alec Finlay's poetry

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and practice, one is inspired to
engage in better ways to live.

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Let's all welcome Alec Finlay.

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