Hello, everyone.
Good evening.
I want to welcome everyone to the first reading of the fall
here at the Poetry Center.
[APPLAUSE]
We had a very--
it feels like short summer, but we have been
working really, really hard.
And if you don't already know of our lineup for fall,
please step over and take a flyer which is over at the book
area, which I'm hoping you will also visit to purchase books
from sam sax, Erika Sánchez as well as the book that is
in collaboration with the whole reason why we're having this
reading with the Center for Creative Photography,
which is A Portrait of Poetry: Photographs and Video by B. A.
Van Sise over at the Center for Creative Photography.
So we also have that book there.
This is our annual Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading,
and, as I already mentioned, will be hosting Erika Sánchez
and sam sax introduced by Raquel Gutiérrez.
This reading again is in collaboration with the Center
for Creative Photography.
And I would just want to thank the Center
for Creative photography for being here today.
[WHISTLING]
Yes.
And their teamwork--
[APPLAUSE]
--on all aspects of this collaboration--
if you have not already gone there,
I just want to urge you to head over there and see it.
It's over 80 portraits of contemporary poets
along with their poems.
And this is going to be up through November 23.
So it's going to be ending very soon,
so please take a moment to head over there.
It's very close, and check that out.
One of the other things I want to do
is just give you two reminders.
The first reminder is that our next reading
with Kim Addonizio, Javier Zamora, and Joseph Legaspi--
Woohoo.
Yeah.
It's a big deal.
[LAUGHTER]
It's going to be a trio.
It's not going to be at the Poetry Center.
It's going to be over at the Center
for Creative Photography which is over
at 1030, North Olive Road.
So you just want to remember that.
And you also want to remember that normally our readings
start at 7:00, but this particular reading is
going to start at 6:00 PM.
OK.
So don't come to Poetry Center at 7:00
because we will be celebrating--
[LAUGHTER]
--over at the Center for Creative Photography.
Just remember that part.
The other thing I wanted to mention is that, as many of you
know, we have classes and workshops every quarter,
seasonally.
And we have a few openings still left
and a really amazing class with one
of my colleagues, Wren Awry, who is putting
on a really amazing class called "Food
is Connected to Everything: Writing the Culinary Essay."
That's starting Tuesday, October 15, from 6:00 to 9:00,
every Tuesday through November 5.
So I just want to mention if you're
interested in that class, come and talk to me,
come and talk to Wren, who happens to be here today
because we do still have a few slots in that class,
and I'm sure it's going to be an amazing class.
The last thing I want to mention is
that we do have books for sale over here,
as I mentioned earlier.
So please make sure that you stop by after the reading
to pick up some books.
We will be also ending the reading with a Q&A the way
we normally do.
So please start thinking about some good questions
that you may want to ask at the end of the reading.
The last thing I'd like to do is just say a few things about
our introducer who will be up, which is Raquel Gutiérrez.
Raquel will be introducing sam and Erika,
and then the reading will go in the order
where sam will read first, and then
Erika will close the reading.
So I just want to share a few things about Raquel.
Raquel Gutiérrez writes personal essays, memoir, art criticism,
and poetry.
She's an adult child of Mexican and Salvadoran immigrants
and was born and raised in LA and currently lives here,
where she just completed two MFAs in poetry and nonfiction
at the U of A. Amazing news about Raquel
is that her first book Brown Neon
will be published by Coffee House Press in spring of 2021.
That's right.
[APPLAUSE]
Go, Raquel.
And I just found this out.
Very happy to also announce that her poetry collection Southwest
Reconstruction will be published in 2022 by Noemi Press.
[APPLAUSE]
So, hey.
So I'd like to invite Raquel up for the introduction.
Gracias.
[APPLAUSE]
Hey, thank you.
All right.