WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.790 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.790 --> 00:00:03.650 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:00:03.650 --> 00:00:08.420 align:middle line:84%
Hannah and Tyler and Ander
and Erin, thank you very much.

00:00:08.420 --> 00:00:11.540 align:middle line:90%
Buenas noches and good evening.

00:00:11.540 --> 00:00:17.120 align:middle line:84%
I want to begin acknowledging
Tucson Youth Poetry

00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:18.830 align:middle line:90%
Slam, TYPS, is in the house.

00:00:18.830 --> 00:00:21.320 align:middle line:84%
And if you would just stand
up and let us see you--

00:00:21.320 --> 00:00:21.960 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:00:21.960 --> 00:00:24.140 align:middle line:90%
Sarita, hey.

00:00:24.140 --> 00:00:26.220 align:middle line:90%
Yeah, you, too.

00:00:26.220 --> 00:00:26.740 align:middle line:90%
You, too.

00:00:26.740 --> 00:00:30.140 align:middle line:90%


00:00:30.140 --> 00:00:33.200 align:middle line:84%
I love this place and I
love it, in part, because

00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:35.340 align:middle line:84%
of who it brings
into the audience.

00:00:35.340 --> 00:00:37.610 align:middle line:90%
So I'm thrilled to be here.

00:00:37.610 --> 00:00:44.360 align:middle line:84%
And it's my pleasure to
introduce Vickie Vértiz.

00:00:44.360 --> 00:00:47.840 align:middle line:84%
Before I do, I want to
acknowledge the people who

00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:50.330 align:middle line:84%
prepared the room
for us tonight,

00:00:50.330 --> 00:00:54.020 align:middle line:84%
the very people who will clean
up and put everything back

00:00:54.020 --> 00:00:55.620 align:middle line:90%
into order after we leave.

00:00:55.620 --> 00:00:59.680 align:middle line:90%
So thank you to the laborers.

00:00:59.680 --> 00:01:03.310 align:middle line:84%
Vickie is one of this year's
Poetry Center summer residents.

00:01:03.310 --> 00:01:07.030 align:middle line:84%
When I met her, I have to
say, I thought immediately

00:01:07.030 --> 00:01:09.880 align:middle line:90%
of Gloria Anzaldúa.

00:01:09.880 --> 00:01:14.290 align:middle line:84%
In the preface to Gloria
Anzaldúa's 2002 co-edited book,

00:01:14.290 --> 00:01:17.710 align:middle line:84%
This Bridge We Call Home:
Radical Visions for Social

00:01:17.710 --> 00:01:19.030 align:middle line:90%
Transformation,

00:01:19.030 --> 00:01:24.280 align:middle line:84%
Gloria writes in honor of las
luchadoras que nos dejaron un

00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:29.140 align:middle line:84%
legado de protesta y activismo
por medio de la pluma.

00:01:29.140 --> 00:01:32.110 align:middle line:84%
She goes on to reference
those to whom the torch should

00:01:32.110 --> 00:01:35.710 align:middle line:84%
be passed, those who
por medio de la pluma,

00:01:35.710 --> 00:01:38.050 align:middle line:84%
or through their
power of writing,

00:01:38.050 --> 00:01:41.830 align:middle line:84%
will confront the realities of
our world and imagine for us

00:01:41.830 --> 00:01:45.160 align:middle line:84%
a reality that differs
from the one that exists.

00:01:45.160 --> 00:01:48.430 align:middle line:84%
Anzaldúa was speaking
of feminist and queer

00:01:48.430 --> 00:01:52.900 align:middle line:84%
writers, thinkers, dreamers,
and activists of color.

00:01:52.900 --> 00:01:54.550 align:middle line:84%
And I believe that
Vickie is someone

00:01:54.550 --> 00:01:59.230 align:middle line:84%
whom Gloria would recognize as
a guide among us, one whose work

00:01:59.230 --> 00:02:02.810 align:middle line:84%
can extend us "beyond
the confines of our skin,

00:02:02.810 --> 00:02:07.270 align:middle line:84%
our situation, and condition
to create new guiding

00:02:07.270 --> 00:02:09.310 align:middle line:90%
myths of our time."

00:02:09.310 --> 00:02:11.860 align:middle line:84%
Like Gloria, Vickie
believes that writing

00:02:11.860 --> 00:02:15.520 align:middle line:84%
is one of the greatest
acts of self-determination.

00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:18.220 align:middle line:90%
Vickie is a poet and a teacher.

00:02:18.220 --> 00:02:22.300 align:middle line:84%
She identifies as queer,
Chicana, uses her writing

00:02:22.300 --> 00:02:25.030 align:middle line:84%
to honor those who have
gone before her, los

00:02:25.030 --> 00:02:30.070 align:middle line:84%
antepasados, those who
labor, and her parents, who

00:02:30.070 --> 00:02:32.380 align:middle line:84%
had a fourth grade
education, a story that's

00:02:32.380 --> 00:02:38.090 align:middle line:84%
not unfamiliar to many of
us who share her history.

00:02:38.090 --> 00:02:42.170 align:middle line:84%
She also takes the time to
support the young writers

00:02:42.170 --> 00:02:43.370 align:middle line:90%
among us.

00:02:43.370 --> 00:02:47.120 align:middle line:84%
She teaches with 826 Los
Angeles, an organization that

00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:49.700 align:middle line:84%
publishes children's
writing and serves

00:02:49.700 --> 00:02:54.860 align:middle line:84%
over 9,000 students a year, most
of them working class Latinos.

00:02:54.860 --> 00:02:58.160 align:middle line:84%
When she speaks of her
students, she speaks of the way

00:02:58.160 --> 00:03:02.570 align:middle line:84%
that they "polish their writing
with a great deal of heart."

00:03:02.570 --> 00:03:03.920 align:middle line:90%
I love that.

00:03:03.920 --> 00:03:06.770 align:middle line:90%
I love seeing that in my mind.

00:03:06.770 --> 00:03:08.210 align:middle line:84%
A process through
which, she says,

00:03:08.210 --> 00:03:10.850 align:middle line:84%
they develop a new
relationship to words

00:03:10.850 --> 00:03:12.860 align:middle line:84%
and to the worth
of their stories,

00:03:12.860 --> 00:03:14.900 align:middle line:90%
and therefore of themselves.

00:03:14.900 --> 00:03:17.360 align:middle line:84%
By publishing their
writing, she explains,

00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:20.570 align:middle line:84%
they're cultivating a
love for their own voices,

00:03:20.570 --> 00:03:24.500 align:middle line:84%
their own histories, those that
have been erased and devalued,

00:03:24.500 --> 00:03:27.050 align:middle line:84%
and thereby, she
says, they're engaging

00:03:27.050 --> 00:03:30.380 align:middle line:84%
in an anti-colonial act
of love and affirmation.

00:03:30.380 --> 00:03:33.860 align:middle line:84%
This is how she's supporting
the next generation of writers

00:03:33.860 --> 00:03:35.480 align:middle line:90%
and poets.

00:03:35.480 --> 00:03:40.100 align:middle line:84%
I recognize, then, Vickie as
a poet, a writer, a teacher,

00:03:40.100 --> 00:03:43.790 align:middle line:84%
and a public intellectual, who's
attuned to the everyday places

00:03:43.790 --> 00:03:46.970 align:middle line:84%
where we produce and
co-produce knowledges,

00:03:46.970 --> 00:03:48.980 align:middle line:90%
transformational knowledges.

00:03:48.980 --> 00:03:52.100 align:middle line:84%
Her work calls us to
consider everyday rhythms

00:03:52.100 --> 00:03:54.050 align:middle line:90%
and daily rituals.

00:03:54.050 --> 00:03:57.780 align:middle line:90%
Vickie's words move me.

00:03:57.780 --> 00:04:02.400 align:middle line:84%
He spoke to me in Spanish,
so I answered in English,

00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:06.300 align:middle line:90%
sprinkled him on my black beans.

00:04:06.300 --> 00:04:10.950 align:middle line:84%
And my mother and brother
are 10,000 truck miles.

00:04:10.950 --> 00:04:14.010 align:middle line:90%
Why won't their coughs go away?

00:04:14.010 --> 00:04:18.329 align:middle line:84%
The freeway, my lover
says, coffins with windows.

00:04:18.329 --> 00:04:21.329 align:middle line:90%
This, she says, is my home.

00:04:21.329 --> 00:04:26.130 align:middle line:84%
And-- But I hold your hand, love
you like you're the only one,

00:04:26.130 --> 00:04:28.980 align:middle line:84%
the last piece of
steak in chile verde.

00:04:28.980 --> 00:04:30.000 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:34.440 align:middle line:84%
When I read Vickie's poems, I
want to dance, I want to laugh,

00:04:34.440 --> 00:04:38.700 align:middle line:84%
I want to scream and I want
to cry, I want to remember.

00:04:38.700 --> 00:04:40.950 align:middle line:84%
Throughout her work,
she's attentive to words

00:04:40.950 --> 00:04:44.490 align:middle line:84%
as fierce and tender
instruments that aid her

00:04:44.490 --> 00:04:48.180 align:middle line:84%
in surfacing inequalities
and in replacing shame

00:04:48.180 --> 00:04:50.130 align:middle line:90%
with conocimiento.

00:04:50.130 --> 00:04:54.330 align:middle line:84%
Poetry, she says, is a way
of sharing and connecting

00:04:54.330 --> 00:04:57.120 align:middle line:84%
and engaging in
acts of exchange.

00:04:57.120 --> 00:05:01.310 align:middle line:84%
These things, she says,
can change the world.

00:05:01.310 --> 00:05:03.560 align:middle line:84%
She's a seven-time
VONA participant,

00:05:03.560 --> 00:05:06.470 align:middle line:84%
also the 2015 Lucille
Clifton Scholar

00:05:06.470 --> 00:05:07.940 align:middle line:90%
at the Community of Writers.

00:05:07.940 --> 00:05:11.120 align:middle line:84%
Her work has been nominated
for the Gabriela Mistral Poetry

00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:13.820 align:middle line:84%
Prize from the Cobalt
Review and her writing

00:05:13.820 --> 00:05:17.480 align:middle line:84%
is featured in The Volta,
Los Angeles Review of Books,

00:05:17.480 --> 00:05:22.220 align:middle line:84%
The Offing, James Franco
Review, KCET Departures,

00:05:22.220 --> 00:05:26.540 align:middle line:84%
and The Anthology, Open The Door
from McSweeney's and The Poetry

00:05:26.540 --> 00:05:27.530 align:middle line:90%
Foundation.

00:05:27.530 --> 00:05:30.080 align:middle line:84%
I have to say smash
the patriarchy.

00:05:30.080 --> 00:05:32.825 align:middle line:84%
Join me in offering her a
warm welcome, una bienvenida

00:05:32.825 --> 00:05:33.710 align:middle line:90%
a Vickie.

00:05:33.710 --> 00:05:37.060 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]