Hello.
So nice to see you all.
So to introduce the poet, translator, scholar, and editor
Khaled Mattawa, I want to begin by quoting
from several reviews of his fourth
and most recent collection of poetry,
Tocqueville, published to much a critical acclaim in 2010.
This wildly experimental book is anchored by a 26 page title
poem.
One reviewer in Ploughshares praised it as, quote,
"a visionary reorientation in verse
of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America.
Not a mere revision of that historical document,
but a poetry based on motion, a screenplay that
metamorphoses into a democratic account, a lyric slideshow."
The same reviewer suggested that Mattawa's work, quote,
"mapped new brain circuits for art in the age of technology."
Another reviewer called that same poem
"the great poem of globalization,
combining poetry, essay, documentary, and dirge."
And finally, the critic Philip Metres
called the title poem, quote, "a tour de force,
globalist, polyphonic collage.
A lyric that repudiates lyricism,
an unrepeatable experiment.
A witness to a blindness, a shooting script
without camera or bullet."
Pretty great words, right?
In the time since that publication,
Mattawa has been awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant,
has continued the work of publishing
English translations of contemporary Arab poets,
as well as written essays on the work of Arab and Arab American
poets.
He's become a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets,
and he founded a foundation to support and promote
the creative arts in Libya.
However, I wanted to start with Tocqueville,
and end with my reference to it, because it
is a stunning example of the long poem about which Mattawa
will talk to us tonight, and a form in which Mattawa
is clearly an American master.
And it's just one of the many reasons for which we
are so lucky to have him.
Please join me in welcoming Khaled Mattawa.