WEBVTT

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We have two introducers tonight.

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And I'm excited just to tell you
a little bit about both of them

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because they're
very special people.

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And then, I will
get out of the way

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and let them come talk
about the poets who

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are here to visit with us.

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The second reader tonight will
be Ocean Vuong who's visiting.

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And he'll be introduced
by TC Tolbert.

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And I'm thrilled to share,
in case you maybe missed this

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in the recent weeks, that
TC is Mayor Rothschild's

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appointee as our next
Tucson poet laureate.

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So if you haven't
heard that, big news.

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And if you have
heard that, well,

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help us celebrate with TC.

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And he'll come up and
introduce Ocean in a second.

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And then, Kristen
Nelson will come up

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and welcome Camille Rankine, who
we're so excited to see here.

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And you may know
Kristen from her work

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with the LGBT Institute here
at the University of Arizona.

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You may also know her for her
work as one of the founders

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and a director for many years
of an important space in Tucson

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called Casa Libre.

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And this is more than a
decade of work at this point.

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12 years, I think
is what I heard.

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14 years.

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It goes up.

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And so it's an incredible place.

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It's been an incredibly
important place

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for a long time in the literary
fabric of what Tucson is, how

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it evolves, what it becomes.

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And

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Kristen is not going away,
but she's making more space

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for a new executive
director of that,

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of Casa Libre going forward.

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So when I welcome her up
here to introduce Camille,

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I hope you will welcome
her with your applause

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and also thank her a little
bit for a decade plus

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of service into what Tucson is,
which is one of the greatest

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places for writing that I know.

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Please help me welcome
Kristen Nelson.

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