WEBVTT

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Hi, everyone.

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I'm Diana Marie Delgado,
the literary director

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of the University of
Arizona Poetry Center.

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And I want to welcome
everyone to another episode

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of the Institute for
Inquiry and Poetics,

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featuring ambassadors from our
Art for Justice Initiative.

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The Institute for
Inquiry and Poetics,

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founded at the University
of Arizona Poetry Center,

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is a thought center designed to
create space and time for poets

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to respond to pressing
questions that

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reside at the intersection
of social concern and poetry.

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Encouraging
interdisciplinary modalities

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and investigative
research, the institute

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will ask poets a series
of questions and digitally

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archive their responses
on poetry.arizona.edu,

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in addition to YouTube and
the Center's archive, Voca.

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Tonight, I'm excited and honored
to host Nicole Sealey, Hanif

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Abdurraqib, and John
Murillo, as part of Art

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for Justice, a three-year
project that commissions

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new work from leading
writers, in conversation

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with the crisis of mass
incarceration in the US,

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with the goal of
creating new awareness

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and empathy through
presentation and publication.

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I want to give a special
thanks to TJ Hill at the UA,

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who is our producer, the Ford
Foundation, and the entire team

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at the University of
Arizona Poetry Center, who

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make this reading possible.

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In our program
tonight, we are hoping

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to encourage an
organic conversation

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about the process,
craft of poetry,

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the ethics of mass
incarceration,

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writing about it.

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In order to encourage
that dialogue,

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we will have each
poet read a poem,

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and then have
another poet respond

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to the work with the
poem that they've

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created for the project.

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We're encouraging
conversation between the poets

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as a means of deeper
understanding in the many forms

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of impact that
mass incarceration

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has on so many lives.

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Let me begin with
introducing all of our three

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readers and their bios.

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Nicole Sealey.

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Nicole Sealey is the
author of "Ordinary Beast,"

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finalist for the PEN Open
Book and Hurston/Wright Legacy

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Awards, and "The Animal After
Whom Other Animals are Named,"

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winner of the Drinking
Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize.

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Her honors include a Rome
Prize from the American Academy

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in Rome, a Hodder fellowship
from Princeton University,

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the Stanley Kunitz Memorial
Prize from the American Poetry

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Review, a Daniel Varoujan Award
from the New England Poetry

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Club, and a Poetry
International Prize,

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grants from the Elizabeth
George and Jerome foundations,

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as well as fellowships from the
Bread Loaf Writers Conference,

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Canto Mundo, Cave
Canem, MacDowell,

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the New York Foundation for the
Arts, and the Poetry Project.

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Nicole, you've been busy.

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Formerly the executive director
at Cave Canem Foundation,

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she is a visiting professor at
Boston University, City College

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of New York, and
Syracuse University,

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and also teaches in New York
University's Low-Residency MFA

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Writers Workshop in Paris.

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Welcome, Nicole.

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Continuing with our
program, we will also

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be hosting Hanif Abdurraqib,
who is a poet, essayist

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and cultural critic
from Columbus, Ohio.

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His poetry has been published
in Muzzle, Vinyl, PEN America,

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and various other journals.

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His essays and
music criticism have

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been published in the FADER,
Pitchfork, the New Yorker,

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and the New York Times.

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His first full length
poetry collection,

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"The Crown Ain't Worth Much,"
was released in June 2016

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from Button Poetry.

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It was named a finalist for
the Eric Hoffer Book Prize

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and was nominated for
Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.

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With Big Lucks, he released
the limited edition chapbook,

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"Vintage Sadness,"
in summer 2017.

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You can't get it anymore.

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And he's very sorry.

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His first collection of
essays, "They Can't Kill Us

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Until They Kill Us," was
released in winter 2017

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by Two Dollar Radio and was
named a book of the year

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by BuzzFeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah
Magazine, Paste, CBC, the Los

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Angeles Review, Pitchfork,
and the Chicago Tribune,

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among others.

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Amazing.

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He released "Go
Ahead in the Rain:

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Notes to a Tribe Called Quest"
with University of Texas Press

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in February 2019.

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The book became a New
York Times best seller,

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was a finalist for
the Kirkus Prize,

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and was longlisted for
the National Book Award.

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His second collection of poems,
"A Fortune For Your Disaster,"

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was released in
2019 by Tin House,

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and won the 2020
Lenore Marshall Prize.

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In 2021, he will release
the book "A Little Devil

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in America" with Random House.

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He is a graduate of
Beechcroft High School.

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Welcome, Hanif.

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John Murillo is up also.

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John Murillo is the author
of the poetry collections,

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"Up Jump the Boogie,"
Cypher, 2010, Four Way, 2020,

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finalist for both the Kate Tufts
Discovery Award and the PEN

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Open Book Award.

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And "Contemporary
American Poetry,"

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forthcoming from
Four Way Books, 2020.

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But that's out, you
can get that now.

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His honors include
a Pushcart Prize,

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the J. Howard and Barbara M.J.
Wood Prize from the Poetry

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Foundation, and fellowships
from the National Endowment

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for the Arts, the Bread
Loaf Writers Conference,

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Fine Arts Work Center
in Provincetown,

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Cave Canem Foundation, and
the Wisconsin Institute

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for Creative Writing.

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His work has appeared or is
forthcoming in American Poetry

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Review, Ploughshares,
Poetry, Prairie Schooner,

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and Best American Poetry
2017, 2019, and 2020.

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He's an assistant professor of
English at Wesleyan University

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and also teaches in the
Low-Residency MFA program

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at Sierra Nevada College.

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Welcome, John.

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Hey.

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