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So I live in one of those
small genteel New England towns

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that for white, heteronormative
faculty is the perfect place

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to live and raise children.

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It's safe, friendly, et cetera.

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But a place that for
any non-normative being,

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especially a person
of color with an iota

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of racial consciousness, feels
like a mix between Shirley

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Jackson's short story "The
Lottery" and the movie Get Out.

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Needless to say, when
I arrived in 2006,

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almost no one in that college's
genteel English department

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had any idea of or
interest in minority

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poetry or experimental
minority poetry.

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Imagine my surprise
when one day in 2012, I

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learned that Roberto
Tejada was going

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to be visiting my school for
a year as the joint fellow

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of the Humanities Center and
the Clark Art Institute in town.

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I had long been an admirer of
his poetry and had, in fact,

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taught all three of his
books in my courses.

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When I finally met Roberto,
my admiration for him

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as a poet was only deepened by
my respect for him as a person,

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as a scholar, and most
of all, as a friend.

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One of the few precious
gifts and compensations

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of my still-difficult time
at a very white and white

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supremacist institution
of higher learning

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has been my having had the
opportunity to meet him.

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Since our first
encounter, we have

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had many, many conversations
about politics and aesthetics,

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race and poetry at
various places--

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Boulder, Colorado,
Williamstown, most recently,

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Houston, where
since 2014, he has

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held the Hugh Roy and
Lillie Cranz Cullen

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distinguished professorship of
English and creative writing

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at the University of Houston.

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He is the author
of two chapbooks

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and three books of
poetry and has recently

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completed a new poetry
manuscript whose publication I

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eagerly await.

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Roberto is a rare
combination of talents--

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scholar, poet, art historian,
literary critic, translator,

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editor, teacher.

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Tonight, all of you will get
a taste of his insightfullness

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and humanity.

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Please join me in
welcoming Roberto Tejada.

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