WEBVTT

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This evening is not possible
without some sponsorship.

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And we're grateful to have
Kyle Dacuyan here with us

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from PEN America, which is one
of the sponsors this evening.

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He's come out from New
York to be a part of this,

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and be spending some
time in Tucson talking

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to lots of different people.

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And we're grateful that this is
one of the stops on his visit.

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And so please help me
welcome Kyle Dacuyan to say

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a little bit about PEN America.

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[APPLAUSE]

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It's an honor to be here in
a community with all of you.

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Thank you to the Poetry Center
for bringing us together,

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to Hannah Ensor and Tyler
Meier for the vision

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of your programming.

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And thank you especially
to Odilia Galván Rodríguez,

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Martín Espada, and Mari Herreras
for the large-hearted courage

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of your work.

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I'm here from PEN America,
a literary organization

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with over 5,000 members
across the country,

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including writers, editors,
journalists, agents,

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publishers, and others
committed to the defense

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of free expression.

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The first PEN club
was founded in 1921

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in the spirit of fostering
international literary

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fellowship among writers
that would transcend

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ethnic and national divides.

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The poems of the writers who
will be reading and speaking

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in conversation
this evening provide

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a model for the kind
of transcendent spirit

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PEN's charter envisioned--

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transcendent in the ways
they exceed imagination,

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transcendent in
the ways they reach

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across notions of
distance and difference

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to insist upon new
conditions for being together

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in the world, and
transcendent in.

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The ways the work leaps forward
from the page and into action,

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out into community.

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I'm visiting Tucson
from PEN America

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because we've made a funding
resource available to support

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the many community engagement
projects being undertaken

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by writers around the country.

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These include symbolic
demonstrations,

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facilitated civic dialogues,
workshops and trainings

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that empower vulnerable groups,
and other ideas and frameworks

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that are still being dreamt.

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In particular, we
hope this resource

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will help reframe the
ways in which stories

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and experiences
become circulated

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as news and information.

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We hope that this
engagement will

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help to repair the
many divisions which

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arise when false
narratives are submitted

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into the public square as fact.

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It seems to me that the literary
and advocacy communities

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in Tucson are acting with a
kind of synchronicity that

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might provide a useful
template for the ambition

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of this resource.

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It would be an honor for
us to help grow and amplify

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these efforts.

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And it is an honor
for me this evening

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to learn and hear from
three individuals who

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have so clearly lit the
path through their words.

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Thank you.

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