WEBVTT

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Thank you so much Paola.

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Thank you Poetry Center, thank
you Tyler and your entire team,

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it is my pleasure to be here.

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I'm going to start first
by turning my phone off.

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Because my mom is a type
that, she's watching.

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And so she's the type
to text me, and be like,

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do that one poem.

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So I'm going to do it, Ma,
I got you, but don't text.

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I'm going to read from
a bit of this book.

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This was designed to
be the book release.

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And I'm very thankful
that Tyler said yes.

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Writing about mass
incarceration,

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and the impact on
women and children,

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it feels like a dissertation.

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Until you realize how
impacted you are by it.

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My father has been incarcerated
for the majority of my life.

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All the men in my family
have been impacted by prison.

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If not in prison,
working at a prison.

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And so this is about that.

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