WEBVTT

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Hello everyone, welcome.

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How are you all?

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Good, yeah, we're great.

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Happy to see everybody,
thanks for being here.

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Glad you're here at
the Poetry Center,

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thanks for choosing
the Poetry Center

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on a blustery night
in Tucson, which

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we don't get to say very
often in describing Tucson.

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But also, glad that you're here
for this one in particular,

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this is going to
be a great reading.

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This is the first
of an annual series

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that we're launching here at
the Poetry Center called the Tom

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Sanders Memorial reading.

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And it's a new reading
in our reading series

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that brings back writers
with the connection

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to the University of
Arizona, writers who've

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graduated from the U of A,
or connected to the U of A

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through the U of A press,
or connected in other ways.

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And we're really excited to
launch this reading tonight

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in legacy of Tom Sanders.

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Tom was really an
extraordinary person,

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with a career in service to
the University of Arizona,

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and to the nonprofit
sector here in Tucson.

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How many of you
knew Tom, know Tom?

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Many of you do, yeah, thank you.

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He would like all of you
enormously because you

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chose to come to
a poetry reading

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tonight while there was also
a U of A basketball game,

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and that would please him.

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Although he would
also say Go Cats

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on the side, or Andale Gatos.

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It's grateful to all of you
for being here for this.

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Tom was an undergraduate
creative writing major

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here at the U of A, and he loved
very much the Poetry Center.

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He played an important role in
the construction of this home

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for the Poetry Center, the
Helen S. Schaefer building.

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And when I showed up in Tucson,
almost six years ago now,

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as a very excited and
goofy guy from the Midwest,

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Tom was one of many people
who took me under his wing

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and showed me many
kinds of possibilities

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and opportunities, and
offered a lot of help

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that I both really
desperately needed.

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And then also, he was one of the
only people who could give that

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to me through his connections,
and through what his work had

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been at the university.

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And I came,
ultimately, to realize

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that as a real kind of
grace, and a kind of support

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that I came to really deeply
value and love about him.

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No op-ed space in Tucson
was safe from his pen,

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and so that was another
thing I loved about him.

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He was happy to speak his
mind, and wanted to, and would.

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And he also wrote very
lovely holiday cards

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that were full of
his original poems,

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and if you were were lucky,
you got one of those.

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So we launch this
reading tonight

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to recognize Tom's great
love of the Poetry Center,

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and the University of Arizona.

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We're very happy to bring
back Peggy Shumaker, an alum

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of the MFA program
here at the U of A.

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We're so happy that Maurya
is here to help us celebrate

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and launch this reading
tonight, and grateful for it,

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behind both of their
selected poems, which

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are available for sale if
you are so inclined over here

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at the table.

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And we're grateful to
them for being here.

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A couple of things, I
also want to mention

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about what's upcoming
next at the Poetry Center.

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Next week we have an event
with the Mexican poet Myriam

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Moscona, who's here
with her translators

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John Hofer and Jen Pluecker, who
together make up a translation

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collaborative known as Antena.

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And so they read on
Wednesday evening

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in Tucson, so not the
typical Thursday night,

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on Wednesday at the Jewish
History Museum, which

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will be a trilingual reading in
Spanish, English, and Ladino.

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And we're so excited about that.

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And then they'll read here on
Thursday night at the Poetry

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Center together,
featuring Myriam, but also

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talking a lot about the
work that Jen and John do

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as the translation--

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a radical translation
collaborative known as Antena

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here at the Poetry Center.

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And that's Thursday
evening at 7 o'clock.

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So Wednesday at the
Jewish History Museum

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and then Thursday back
here at the Poetry Center,

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both events are free,
please come and see those.

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To help welcome and
introduce Peggy and Maurya,

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I want to introduce my friend,
the poet and translator Cynthia

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Hogue, who we're so grateful
to have here in Tucson

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in a permanent way.

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So come on up, Cynthia.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Stay here.

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Also, I just want to
thank Ander Monson

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for making the very
beautiful broadsides that you

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have at your seats tonight.

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We don't get to have that
every single reading,

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and it's special when we do.

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And so a quick round
of applause to Ander

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and to New Michigan Press for
their generosity in making

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these.

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[APPLAUSE]

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There's just a small
matter of business

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before I introduce
our honored guests,

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and that is that it is
Tyler's 40th birthday today.

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Happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to you,

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happy birthday dear Tyler,
happy birthday to you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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I told Ander I would not sing
on key, and I think I delivered.

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[LAUGHTER]

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