WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.630 align:middle line:84% Anyway, to help us welcome Camille Dungy, 00:00:03.630 --> 00:00:05.250 align:middle line:84% I'd like to welcome Aisha Sabatini 00:00:05.250 --> 00:00:08.910 align:middle line:84% Sloan who works in the education programs at the Poetry Center. 00:00:08.910 --> 00:00:11.070 align:middle line:84% Aisha is the author of the essay collection, 00:00:11.070 --> 00:00:12.300 align:middle line:90% The Fluency of Light. 00:00:12.300 --> 00:00:14.640 align:middle line:84% Her second book, Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:16.370 align:middle line:90% is forthcoming next year. 00:00:16.370 --> 00:00:16.870 align:middle line:90% Aisha. 00:00:16.870 --> 00:00:24.390 align:middle line:90% 00:00:24.390 --> 00:00:25.840 align:middle line:90% Hi. 00:00:25.840 --> 00:00:27.290 align:middle line:90% So full today. 00:00:27.290 --> 00:00:30.320 align:middle line:90% 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:33.110 align:middle line:84% I'm so honored to have been asked to do this. 00:00:33.110 --> 00:00:36.770 align:middle line:84% I've been a really big fan of Camille Dungy's 00:00:36.770 --> 00:00:40.700 align:middle line:84% for a long time, and I'm very happy you're here. 00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:44.090 align:middle line:84% And pardon me for a personal intro, 00:00:44.090 --> 00:00:47.780 align:middle line:84% I had an experience that really lends itself 00:00:47.780 --> 00:00:51.200 align:middle line:84% to this introduction last week, so. 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:54.440 align:middle line:84% Last week I was taking a hike at a residency in Southeast 00:00:54.440 --> 00:00:57.290 align:middle line:84% Oregon, and the trail turned on what I feared 00:00:57.290 --> 00:00:59.960 align:middle line:84% might be private property, which we'd been warned not to go on 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:03.350 align:middle line:90% to and a loud shot rang out. 00:01:03.350 --> 00:01:07.010 align:middle line:84% I turned around and I ran, and as I acted out 00:01:07.010 --> 00:01:09.170 align:middle line:84% my own version of an action adventure film, 00:01:09.170 --> 00:01:10.850 align:middle line:84% stumbling down the hill and peeking 00:01:10.850 --> 00:01:13.460 align:middle line:90% over rocks, holding my-- 00:01:13.460 --> 00:01:16.940 align:middle line:84% I hiked like this for a little while, 00:01:16.940 --> 00:01:20.930 align:middle line:84% holding my hands in the air screaming, "Hello, help." 00:01:20.930 --> 00:01:23.520 align:middle line:90% I could tell how silly I looked. 00:01:23.520 --> 00:01:25.640 align:middle line:84% And it took me a while before I had the courage 00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:28.610 align:middle line:90% to return back the way I came. 00:01:28.610 --> 00:01:32.630 align:middle line:84% As I made my way down the path, hands in prayer, 00:01:32.630 --> 00:01:35.210 align:middle line:84% I kept picturing the cover of an anthology 00:01:35.210 --> 00:01:38.870 align:middle line:84% that Camille Dungy edited called Black Nature. 00:01:38.870 --> 00:01:40.730 align:middle line:84% Poems that meditate on the many ways 00:01:40.730 --> 00:01:44.340 align:middle line:84% Black bodies move in the natural world. 00:01:44.340 --> 00:01:46.520 align:middle line:84% I remembered a class that I taught last spring 00:01:46.520 --> 00:01:48.050 align:middle line:90% in a cabin in the woods. 00:01:48.050 --> 00:01:50.900 align:middle line:84% The wind pounding at the door as we discussed work 00:01:50.900 --> 00:01:54.290 align:middle line:84% from that anthology, the way James Emanuel 00:01:54.290 --> 00:01:58.670 align:middle line:84% retold the story of Emmett Till as though it were a fairy tale. 00:01:58.670 --> 00:02:00.620 align:middle line:84% Dungy writes in the introduction, 00:02:00.620 --> 00:02:05.150 align:middle line:84% "The poems described moss, rivers, trees, dirt, caves, 00:02:05.150 --> 00:02:06.860 align:middle line:90% dogs, fields. 00:02:06.860 --> 00:02:08.720 align:middle line:84% Elements of an environment steeped 00:02:08.720 --> 00:02:10.490 align:middle line:90% in a legacy of violence. 00:02:10.490 --> 00:02:13.520 align:middle line:84% Forced labor, torture, and death, 00:02:13.520 --> 00:02:16.820 align:middle line:84% are these not meditations on nature?" 00:02:16.820 --> 00:02:20.270 align:middle line:84% I tried to feel the company of all the voices collected 00:02:20.270 --> 00:02:23.983 align:middle line:84% in that anthology as I made my way back to my cabin, 00:02:23.983 --> 00:02:25.400 align:middle line:84% and I also thought, oh good, now I 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:29.150 align:middle line:84% have something to say for the introduction. 00:02:29.150 --> 00:02:32.990 align:middle line:84% Although I was genuinely terrified. 00:02:32.990 --> 00:02:35.600 align:middle line:84% In addition to editing an incredible anthology that 00:02:35.600 --> 00:02:38.030 align:middle line:84% offers Black hikers solace when they worry 00:02:38.030 --> 00:02:39.800 align:middle line:84% they are under attack in the woods, 00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:43.520 align:middle line:84% Miss Dungy has written three books of poetry, Smith Blue, 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:46.400 align:middle line:84% Suck on the Marrow, which I can't tear out of my father's 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:49.160 align:middle line:84% hands, and What to Eat, What to Drink, 00:02:49.160 --> 00:02:50.990 align:middle line:90% What to Leave for Poison. 00:02:50.990 --> 00:02:53.750 align:middle line:84% She will soon release a collection of essays entitled, 00:02:53.750 --> 00:02:55.820 align:middle line:84% Guidebook to Relative Strangers, which 00:02:55.820 --> 00:02:57.710 align:middle line:84% has been described as a stunningly 00:02:57.710 --> 00:03:01.040 align:middle line:84% graceful and honest exploration of race, 00:03:01.040 --> 00:03:02.960 align:middle line:90% motherhood, and history. 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:05.930 align:middle line:84% She has received pretty much every single award 00:03:05.930 --> 00:03:07.520 align:middle line:90% and fellowship. 00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:10.010 align:middle line:84% She teaches at Colorado State University, 00:03:10.010 --> 00:03:13.130 align:middle line:84% and Nikki Giovanni has described her work 00:03:13.130 --> 00:03:16.640 align:middle line:84% as a garden of verses that spring up with the sunshine 00:03:16.640 --> 00:03:18.650 align:middle line:90% or hide with you in the dusk. 00:03:18.650 --> 00:03:20.915 align:middle line:84% Please join me in welcoming Camille Dungy. 00:03:20.915 --> 00:03:27.250 align:middle line:90% 00:03:27.250 --> 00:03:28.940 align:middle line:90% I'm glad you made it out. 00:03:28.940 --> 00:03:31.050 align:middle line:90% Yeah, me too.