WEBVTT

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Oh my God, that was
really beautiful.

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Thank you.

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[INAUDIBLE]

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It's been-- thank
you for having me.

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It's a huge honor to be here.

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Thank you Tyler, I thank
you Hannah, thank you Aisha,

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thank you Julie.

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Everyone at the
Poetry Center Library.

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It is my dream to live
next to the library

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and so this has been
a great three weeks.

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All those books
and all this time.

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Yeah, I was really moved when
Natalie Diaz picked my work

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because she's a bad ass.

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And that was enough.

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And so I'm so glad to be here.

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So joining me today will be
our two to [? Sonian ?] poets,

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and so about in a couple
of poems I'll call them up

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and we'll get to
hear their work and.

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I thought of that the first
couple of days I was here.

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I thought, well,
it'd be great for--

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I've done a lot of
readings, but what else

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can happen at this one?

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And I know that there's
a lot of amazing talent

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here as there are
in all communities.

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And so I just wanted to make
sure that we remember it,

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our homegrown talent.

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And supported it so I'm so
glad that Eric and AJ are here.

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And also very quickly.

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So with this pinata,
just your instructions.

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So there's a piece of
paper at your chair,

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and we're going to smash
this pinata at the end

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of the reading outside.

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It represents patriarchy.

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We're going to smash
patriarchy later.

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Yeah, it's going to be great.

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Everybody gets to take a whack.

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There'll be songs.

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You may write whatever
you would like,

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whatever intention
or wish you have

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for the world for yourself, for
children, for your children,

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for poetry, for the
safety of all of us,

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and we'll collect those outside.

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Everyone will get to grab those.

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And there's chips inside too.

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So all kinds.

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All kinds.

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Cheetos and chips.

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Yes.

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But I want to dedicate this
reading or my reading to all

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of those people,
trans, cis, people

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who have been murdered by
the police, and just a couple

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of days in a neighborhood near
where I live in Los Angeles,

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Jesse Romero was murdered.

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He was 14.

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And so we have a play coming
up at Borderlands Theater,

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"Nogales," about such
a young man who was

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murdered by the border patrol.

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And so this is for--

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the work I offer is for
having an imagination that

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creates a place where
that doesn't happen.

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So this is new.

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This is "Marlowe Park."

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I wrote this here.

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Susie stopped being
my best friend

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once she got bangs and a hickey.

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Because I've heard her say
it, I can hear her thinking.

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Oh, what a wetter.

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Are all your outfits
from the swap meet?

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Some kids in line still
have moca's in their eyes.

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Susie walks to the park in
her white jeans, all alone.

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Ama walks me to
Marlowe Park where kids

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ride the bus to sixth grade.

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Susie's my enemy, so she's
got bangs and a hickey.

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Ama sucks her teeth
and I know it's over.

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She says, [NON-ENGLISH].

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Are you looking at my
daughter like that?

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[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
This is rhetorical.

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But Susie, goes,
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] Oh,

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send the line.

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Some have ponytails
gelled back so

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clean you can see
your reflection.

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Instead of my usual
face, my reflection is

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[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] My smashed
antenna peek out from under

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the bottom of Susie's Nike.

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My face burns from
her hot looks.

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My guts spread over the chevron
plastic grooves of her sneaker

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the only thing Ama says,
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] and spits

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on the floor near her feet.

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Every laugh punctures
air out of my lungs.

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She's hot shit.

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[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
I can't compete.

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My clothes from the swap
meet are thick, sticky,

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as black sidewalk gum.

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The bus takes forever to
come, and I am decomposing.

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All I want to know is, don't
I have something you want?

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[APPLAUSE]

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