The Poetics and Politics of Water is a series of readings
that Professor Ofelia Zepeda and I
planned and organized for this spring,
in conjunction with a graduate class.
The series explores how water works
in contemporary American Indian writing, how
sacred essence contends with commodification,
how an element that formed the original environment for all
of us now sustains us via taps, and plastic bottles,
and a 336 mile uphill climb from the Colorado River.
And, yes, sometimes it rains.
Still.
The writers reading in this series
are custodians and stewards of indigenous conceptions
of water.
And through their words, their creativity,
they can help us to think more deeply
about an element in our lives that we can't do without.
We have many sponsors.
And I'm going to thank them very briefly.
We thank them for the time they've given us,
the space they've given us, the labor,
and for many other resources.
American Indian Studies, the Department of English,
the University of Arizona Poetry Center,
and the American Indian Language Development Institute,
the Institute of the Environment,
the Southwest Center, the College
of Social and Behavioral Sciences,
the Confluence Center--
thanks to you all.
And thanks to our students and our class,
we very much appreciate your engagement, your ideas
and your hard work.
Upcoming, as Tyler said, we have Ofelia speaking on March 12.
Natalie Diaz will read in our series on April 2nd.
And I'm very pleased to be able to announce that we've
added another event in this series, that
will have on Wednesday, April 15, at 7:00.
Working with Robert Hershey, from the Indigenous Law
program in our law school, and Dr. Ofelia Zepeda,
we've been able to arrange a panel--
a roundtable discussion on American Indian water issues.
So the presenters will be--
they're real luminaries in this field--
Jim Enote, Jim Enote from Zuni Pueblo, director
of the museum there, Charles Wilkinson,
who's an endowed professor at the University of Colorado,
Boulder, and James Anaya, who is our colleague here in the law
school at the University, and an international expert
in human rights and related issues.
Robert Hershey will serve as the moderator.
April 15, Wednesday night, 7:00 PM.
Now my colleague and friend, Regents' Professor Ofelia
Zepeda, will introduce our speaker.