Welcome, everyone.
Thank you.
Welcome, everyone.
I'm Diana Marie Delgado.
I'm a poet and the Literary Director
here of the Poetry Center, here at the UA.
And I'm beyond honored to host and present
a co-reading with poets Marcelo Hernandez Castillo and Marwa
Helal tonight as part of our Art for Justice
Initiative and Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading.
I want to also thank our introducers tonight,
for their gift of generosity.
Gracias to Farid Matuk, UA Associate Professor and poet,
who will introduce Marwa Helal, and Marla Franco,
Assistant Vice Provost of Hispanic Serving Institution
Initiatives, who will introduce Marcelo Hernandez Castillo.
I also want to give a very big shout
out to the Poetry Center team who make all of these readings
possible.
So thanks to everyone-- introducers, poets,
Poetry Center team.
Briefly, I just want to share a few notes
about tonight's reading.
This night's Art for Justice presentation
is part of a three-year grant funded project that commissions
new work from leading writers to explore
the relationship between poetry and the crisis
of mass incarceration in our country,
in the hope of creating a new kind of thinking
with different possibilities.
More about also the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading
can be found online.
But this reading is meant to feature
emerging and innovative poets.
This reading is presented annually
as part of the Poetry Center's Reading and Lecture Series
and is named after poet and publisher, Morgan Lucas
Schuldt.
And you can read more about these two initiatives
on the Poetry Center's website.
Before we begin tonight's program,
I want to share two reminders.
I want to remind everyone that we have books for sale.
So please don't forget to support not only the poets
but also our efforts to make sure that we have books
here for you to purchase.
And I also want to show that our next reading will be occurring
on Thursday, April 7th and will feature
poet Donika Kelly as part of our Reading and Lecture Series.
Thanks to everyone for being here.
I'd like to now invite Marla Franco up
to help us introduce Marcelo Hernandez Castillo.
Let's please give a warm welcome to Marla, please.
Thank you so much.