WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.380 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.380 --> 00:00:05.310 align:middle line:84% So I live in one of those small genteel New England towns 00:00:05.310 --> 00:00:09.060 align:middle line:84% that for white, heteronormative faculty is the perfect place 00:00:09.060 --> 00:00:11.700 align:middle line:90% to live and raise children. 00:00:11.700 --> 00:00:15.520 align:middle line:90% It's safe, friendly, et cetera. 00:00:15.520 --> 00:00:18.210 align:middle line:84% But a place that for any non-normative being, 00:00:18.210 --> 00:00:20.520 align:middle line:84% especially a person of color with an iota 00:00:20.520 --> 00:00:23.760 align:middle line:84% of racial consciousness, feels like a mix between Shirley 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:29.280 align:middle line:84% Jackson's short story "The Lottery" and the movie Get Out. 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:32.159 align:middle line:84% Needless to say, when I arrived in 2006, 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:36.150 align:middle line:84% almost no one in that college's genteel English department 00:00:36.150 --> 00:00:39.540 align:middle line:84% had any idea of or interest in minority 00:00:39.540 --> 00:00:43.020 align:middle line:84% poetry or experimental minority poetry. 00:00:43.020 --> 00:00:46.290 align:middle line:84% Imagine my surprise when one day in 2012, I 00:00:46.290 --> 00:00:47.880 align:middle line:84% learned that Roberto Tejada was going 00:00:47.880 --> 00:00:51.420 align:middle line:84% to be visiting my school for a year as the joint fellow 00:00:51.420 --> 00:00:55.500 align:middle line:84% of the Humanities Center and the Clark Art Institute in town. 00:00:55.500 --> 00:00:58.780 align:middle line:84% I had long been an admirer of his poetry and had, in fact, 00:00:58.780 --> 00:01:01.260 align:middle line:84% taught all three of his books in my courses. 00:01:01.260 --> 00:01:04.200 align:middle line:84% When I finally met Roberto, my admiration for him 00:01:04.200 --> 00:01:08.160 align:middle line:84% as a poet was only deepened by my respect for him as a person, 00:01:08.160 --> 00:01:11.550 align:middle line:84% as a scholar, and most of all, as a friend. 00:01:11.550 --> 00:01:14.940 align:middle line:84% One of the few precious gifts and compensations 00:01:14.940 --> 00:01:17.910 align:middle line:84% of my still-difficult time at a very white and white 00:01:17.910 --> 00:01:20.400 align:middle line:84% supremacist institution of higher learning 00:01:20.400 --> 00:01:23.940 align:middle line:84% has been my having had the opportunity to meet him. 00:01:23.940 --> 00:01:25.500 align:middle line:84% Since our first encounter, we have 00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:29.100 align:middle line:84% had many, many conversations about politics and aesthetics, 00:01:29.100 --> 00:01:33.000 align:middle line:84% race and poetry at various places-- 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:36.630 align:middle line:84% Boulder, Colorado, Williamstown, most recently, 00:01:36.630 --> 00:01:39.150 align:middle line:84% Houston, where since 2014, he has 00:01:39.150 --> 00:01:41.550 align:middle line:84% held the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen 00:01:41.550 --> 00:01:44.580 align:middle line:84% distinguished professorship of English and creative writing 00:01:44.580 --> 00:01:46.560 align:middle line:90% at the University of Houston. 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:48.480 align:middle line:84% He is the author of two chapbooks 00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:51.150 align:middle line:84% and three books of poetry and has recently 00:01:51.150 --> 00:01:54.420 align:middle line:84% completed a new poetry manuscript whose publication I 00:01:54.420 --> 00:01:56.340 align:middle line:90% eagerly await. 00:01:56.340 --> 00:01:59.400 align:middle line:84% Roberto is a rare combination of talents-- 00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:04.620 align:middle line:84% scholar, poet, art historian, literary critic, translator, 00:02:04.620 --> 00:02:06.930 align:middle line:90% editor, teacher. 00:02:06.930 --> 00:02:10.410 align:middle line:84% Tonight, all of you will get a taste of his insightfullness 00:02:10.410 --> 00:02:11.580 align:middle line:90% and humanity. 00:02:11.580 --> 00:02:14.070 align:middle line:84% Please join me in welcoming Roberto Tejada. 00:02:14.070 --> 00:02:16.220 align:middle line:90% [MUSIC PLAYING]