We have to introducers tonight.
And I'm excited just to tell you a little bit about both of them
because they're very special people.
And then, I will get out of the way
and let them come talk about the poets who
are here to visit with us.
The second reader tonight will be Ocean Vuong who's visiting.
And he'll be introduced by TC Tolbert.
And I'm thrilled to share, in case you maybe missed this
in the recent weeks, that TC is Mayor Rothschild's
appointee as our next Tucson Poet Laureate.
So if you haven't heard that, big news.
And if you have heard that, well,
help us celebrate with TC.
And he'll come up and introduce Ocean in a second.
And then, Kristen Nelson will come up
and welcome Camille Rankine, who we're so excited to see here.
And you may know Kristen from her work
with the LGBT Institute here at the University of Arizona.
You may also know her for her work as one of the founders
and a director for many years of an important space in Tucson
called Casa Libre.
And this is more than a decade of work at this point.
12 years, I think is what I heard.
14 years.
It goes up.
And so it's an incredible place.
It's been an incredibly important place
for a long time in the literary fabric of what Tucson is, how
it evolves, what it becomes.
And Kristen is not going away, but she's making more space
for a new executive director of that,
of Casa Libre going forward.
So when I welcome her up here to introduce Camille,
I hope you will welcome her with your applause
and also thank her a little bit for a decade plus
of service into what Tucson is, which is one of the greatest
places for writing that I know.