WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.140 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.140 --> 00:00:02.520 align:middle line:90% Let me take my mask off here. 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:05.560 align:middle line:90% 00:00:05.560 --> 00:00:09.240 align:middle line:84% Thank you so much for that beautiful introduction. 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:11.970 align:middle line:84% I was incredibly touched and moved, and touched 00:00:11.970 --> 00:00:18.120 align:middle line:84% by everybody's presence here, for having me to the Center, 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:22.020 align:middle line:84% Diana, for the resources, the space 00:00:22.020 --> 00:00:25.500 align:middle line:84% to be able to think through these poems, 00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:31.320 align:middle line:84% to be able to continue work in all of its myriad ways. 00:00:31.320 --> 00:00:34.080 align:middle line:90% Work takes on different-- 00:00:34.080 --> 00:00:38.400 align:middle line:84% work takes on different actions, and this is one of them. 00:00:38.400 --> 00:00:42.030 align:middle line:84% This is one of them that is at the forefront, but one of them 00:00:42.030 --> 00:00:43.975 align:middle line:90% nonetheless. 00:00:43.975 --> 00:00:45.600 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read you some of the poems 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:49.440 align:middle line:84% that I've been working on over the last year, 00:00:49.440 --> 00:00:53.790 align:middle line:84% for this project, from the Marshall Project. 00:00:53.790 --> 00:01:00.990 align:middle line:84% And I am thinking of how I have come to them. 00:01:00.990 --> 00:01:06.150 align:middle line:90% I do a lot of education around-- 00:01:06.150 --> 00:01:10.770 align:middle line:84% for incarcerated youth teaching poetry exercises, 00:01:10.770 --> 00:01:18.180 align:middle line:84% poetry workshops for juvenile detention facilities. 00:01:18.180 --> 00:01:21.150 align:middle line:84% And the poems I'm going to be reading today, 00:01:21.150 --> 00:01:27.420 align:middle line:84% there are two sequenced poems on how to approach 00:01:27.420 --> 00:01:30.870 align:middle line:90% this pain through writing. 00:01:30.870 --> 00:01:36.750 align:middle line:84% I'm going to be showing a video, and it's a video text, 00:01:36.750 --> 00:01:41.130 align:middle line:84% in which the video says things that I cannot say yet, 00:01:41.130 --> 00:01:46.927 align:middle line:84% have not brought myself to yet, but they're still in the ether. 00:01:46.927 --> 00:01:48.510 align:middle line:84% They're still in my head, I just don't 00:01:48.510 --> 00:01:51.000 align:middle line:84% know how to put them there, and I 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.940 align:middle line:84% felt like I couldn't leave them behind. 00:01:53.940 --> 00:01:56.460 align:middle line:84% So I have two versions of it, one is the video 00:01:56.460 --> 00:02:00.690 align:middle line:84% and then one is the text which I'll read after the video. 00:02:00.690 --> 00:02:05.340 align:middle line:84% And I'm thinking of which ones are facts 00:02:05.340 --> 00:02:06.910 align:middle line:90% and which ones are stories. 00:02:06.910 --> 00:02:09.539 align:middle line:84% And one of the precepts of this project 00:02:09.539 --> 00:02:13.170 align:middle line:84% is, activists have the statistics, 00:02:13.170 --> 00:02:15.900 align:middle line:84% they have the facts, but they need the stories. 00:02:15.900 --> 00:02:19.200 align:middle line:84% And so, are we as poets producing the stories, 00:02:19.200 --> 00:02:21.330 align:middle line:84% can we produce the stories, and can 00:02:21.330 --> 00:02:25.860 align:middle line:84% we approach that angle of the larger advocacy 00:02:25.860 --> 00:02:29.890 align:middle line:84% work to fill in that gaps that is needed? 00:02:29.890 --> 00:02:33.960 align:middle line:84% And so, for me, I was thinking of facts and stories, 00:02:33.960 --> 00:02:36.490 align:middle line:84% which one is held longer in the imagination? 00:02:36.490 --> 00:02:38.460 align:middle line:84% Which one makes you move your hand, 00:02:38.460 --> 00:02:41.295 align:middle line:84% or which one makes you put one foot in front of another? 00:02:41.295 --> 00:02:44.190 align:middle line:90% 00:02:44.190 --> 00:02:46.545 align:middle line:84% I'm not going to be reading in order. 00:02:46.545 --> 00:02:49.110 align:middle line:90% 00:02:49.110 --> 00:02:51.540 align:middle line:84% Every time I read this poem, which so far has only 00:02:51.540 --> 00:02:53.280 align:middle line:84% been twice, this is the second time, 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:56.400 align:middle line:84% I tried it out in this smaller reading 00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:59.250 align:middle line:84% that I had not too long ago, just to test the waters. 00:02:59.250 --> 00:03:01.030 align:middle line:84% But every time that I will be reading it, 00:03:01.030 --> 00:03:02.850 align:middle line:84% It's going to be a new project that's 00:03:02.850 --> 00:03:04.320 align:middle line:84% going to be a new object, and it's 00:03:04.320 --> 00:03:06.900 align:middle line:84% going to move differently depending on the space, 00:03:06.900 --> 00:03:09.720 align:middle line:84% depending on the people, depending on my whims. 00:03:09.720 --> 00:03:12.900 align:middle line:90% 00:03:12.900 --> 00:03:16.440 align:middle line:84% And I'm thinking about the fact that things move differently 00:03:16.440 --> 00:03:17.640 align:middle line:90% for people in detention. 00:03:17.640 --> 00:03:20.070 align:middle line:84% My mother, a couple of years ago, 00:03:20.070 --> 00:03:23.280 align:middle line:84% was in detention as she was seeking for asylum. 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:25.560 align:middle line:84% And I'm thinking of time, and the people that 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:28.650 align:middle line:84% are in my life who are in detention now. 00:03:28.650 --> 00:03:33.330 align:middle line:84% That, in these poems, where are we going, and what is stagnant? 00:03:33.330 --> 00:03:36.000 align:middle line:84% Things go fast, and you'll see from the video things go fast, 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:40.560 align:middle line:84% things happen fast, too fast to allow you to make change, 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:41.670 align:middle line:90% to adapt. 00:03:41.670 --> 00:03:44.790 align:middle line:90% But also, things go slow. 00:03:44.790 --> 00:03:47.790 align:middle line:84% And what I'm thinking of is this slowing 00:03:47.790 --> 00:03:53.460 align:middle line:84% down so that words appear for longer instances 00:03:53.460 --> 00:03:57.090 align:middle line:84% than they would in a normal reading. 00:03:57.090 --> 00:03:59.040 align:middle line:84% They would replace the idea of repetition 00:03:59.040 --> 00:04:00.435 align:middle line:90% with repetition of presence. 00:04:00.435 --> 00:04:07.370 align:middle line:90% 00:04:07.370 --> 00:04:12.370 align:middle line:84% I think that's-- a lot of it had to do with some software that I 00:04:12.370 --> 00:04:13.000 align:middle line:90% had to find. 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:16.980 align:middle line:90% 00:04:16.980 --> 00:04:18.750 align:middle line:84% A lot of it is just about complicity, 00:04:18.750 --> 00:04:20.609 align:middle line:90% how am I complicit in this? 00:04:20.609 --> 00:04:24.170 align:middle line:90% 00:04:24.170 --> 00:04:26.450 align:middle line:84% Having to navigate, for those of you who do-- 00:04:26.450 --> 00:04:30.350 align:middle line:84% had to navigate the immigration system, 00:04:30.350 --> 00:04:33.350 align:middle line:84% you have to be at full attention 100% of the time. 00:04:33.350 --> 00:04:36.020 align:middle line:84% And you can't miss one piece of mail, 00:04:36.020 --> 00:04:39.020 align:middle line:84% because that piece of mail, if you didn't get it, 00:04:39.020 --> 00:04:40.370 align:middle line:90% can cause disaster. 00:04:40.370 --> 00:04:42.800 align:middle line:84% Which is the reason why I didn't get my green card when I 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:45.740 align:middle line:90% did because the mail delivery-- 00:04:45.740 --> 00:04:48.770 align:middle line:84% the mail carrier decided that day there 00:04:48.770 --> 00:04:54.620 align:middle line:84% was some traffic cones around my mailbox, so they said, 00:04:54.620 --> 00:04:56.090 align:middle line:90% I'll bring it back later. 00:04:56.090 --> 00:04:58.490 align:middle line:84% And of course, that's mail that if it goes back 00:04:58.490 --> 00:05:04.070 align:middle line:84% to the post office it gets returned, sent back to sender. 00:05:04.070 --> 00:05:08.210 align:middle line:84% So yeah, things as simple as that, the hypervigilance, 00:05:08.210 --> 00:05:13.270 align:middle line:84% if you're not focused intensely, it can cost you. 00:05:13.270 --> 00:05:16.300 align:middle line:84% And so, I think that's all I'll say. 00:05:16.300 --> 00:05:20.230 align:middle line:84% This poem separates the poetry, the poem, and the poetics. 00:05:20.230 --> 00:05:23.160 align:middle line:90% So if you could play that.