WEBVTT

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So quick story before
I do the introduction.

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So before-- this is
my first reading here

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with the Poetry Center.

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Yeah, it's awesome.

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It's awesome.

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Love it here.

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But one of the things
is we were trying

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to calculate how
many chairs to use,

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and I was like, oh,
definitely not more than 100.

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And I think I owe Patri,
informally, some baked cookies.

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Because you guys really
did come out and support.

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And I can't blame you,
because Tommy Pico and Morgan

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Parker are amazing.

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I'm so happy to know them even
outside of our poetry work.

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And here's a little
bit more about them.

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Tommy Pico is originally from
the Viejas Indian reservation.

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He recently moved to LA and
he lives near Morgan Parker,

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who is also in LA.

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Tommy is the author of
IRL, Nature Poem, and Junk.

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He co-curates the reading
series, Poets With Attitude

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with Morgan, co-hosts the
podcast Food for Thought,

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and is a contributing
editor at Literary Hub.

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He's a 2018 Whiting fellow.

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A line from one
of Tommy's books.

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"The office of my
hummingbird heart

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rattles the sparkling office."

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On the page and in
person, Tommy and Morgan

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really matter to
poetry, because they

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expand the boundaries
of what it means

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to speak about identity
through their poetry.

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They are fearless, and
they exalt language

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in a way that makes me
think about the future,

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it makes me think
about now, and it also

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makes me think about
what is possible.

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So without further ado, I'd
like to introduce Tommy Pico.

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