Hi, everybody.
Welcome.
Glad you're all here.
We're going to get this show on the road.
My name's Tyler Meier.
I work here as the director at the Poetry Center.
We're so excited that Khaled is here.
Khaled are our spring poet in residence
here at the Poetry Center, which is a beautiful thing.
I'm clapping for that.
[APPLAUSE]
We're grateful to the Amazon Literary
Partnerships for support that make
these residencies possible.
Khaled's working on a new book of poems,
which is the dream for what these residencies are all
about.
So we're really excited about his work in general,
but also excited that this day is about new work and about new
work that-- some of which we'll get to here tonight--
and the new poems that will come out of his visit.
So we're excited about that and about his presence here.
He's reading tonight, of course.
But come back next week because we're also having
a presentation from Khaled.
It's a lecture next week, and it's
a lecture on the long poem.
And we're really excited about that as well.
So glad you're here tonight, but pencil in Thursday next week
to be back here again, or put out a cot and just
stay for the whole week.
We'll bring you water and crackers.
And come back.
We're excited about that.
It's my pleasure to welcome up my friend Farid Matuk, who's
going to introduce Khaled, a colleague
in the English department, has a beautiful new book of poems
coming out very soon from the U of A Press.
Please help welcome my friend Farid Matuk.
[APPLAUSE]