WEBVTT

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Good to see you.

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Can you guys hear
me OK in the back?

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Yes, you can.

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OK.

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Excellent.

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That's good.

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I like that.

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How do you feel about poetry?

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[CHEERING]

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It's a beautiful Thursday.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Juan Felipe will do more for us.

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I'm really pleased
to be here tonight

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to welcome you all
to the Poetry Center.

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It's nice to have
a big crowd to help

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welcome these poets
to come and read

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with us, to share work with us.

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My name is Tyler.

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I work as the director
here at the Poetry Center.

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I especially want to shout
out the staff at the Poetry

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Center who do the
work of this place

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and are the engines behind all
the good things that happen.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Especially my colleague Diana
Delgado and Paola Valenzuela

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and Mars Fehmi who are all--

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and Paola and Mars,
I think, are even

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doing some work getting
cleaned up inside.

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They're going to be
out here shortly.

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So they do all the work
of the reading series,

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and of the classes and workshops
programs and other events

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at the Poetry Center.

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And they have helped bring
Juan Felipe to come visit

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with us tonight, and
we're so excited about it.

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It has been a really
beautiful day.

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Juan Felipe has
met with students,

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done other work at
the Poetry Center,

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signed about 60 copies of
books, so his hand is amazingly

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dexterous and fully exercised.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Including-- he brought
a beautiful gift

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to the Poetry Center
that I just saw,

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of a first edition of his first
book which we're so thrilled

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to have here in the collection
and to take care of here

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in Tucson.

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Come visit the Poetry
Center and ask to see it.

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We'd be excited
to show it to you.

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It's beautiful.

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We're going to be talking about,
especially, other books and one

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book in particular tonight,
and I'm going to hold it up,

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and it is called Akrílica.

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It is an early Juan Felipe book.

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There'll be more that gets
discussed tonight and more

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poems that are read,
but Farid is especially

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going to talk about this book
and this project and the work

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that he's done with Juan Felipe.

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This is an early
Juan Felipe book.

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Farid will tell
us more about it.

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It's been represented,
retranslated.

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Some of the early
work is in Spanish

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with other context, a beautiful
introduction that Farid wrote.

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A wonderful interview
with Juan Felipe.

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So I encourage you
that if you have

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any gold coins in
your pocket, this

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is what you want to spend it
on over here at the book sales

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table after the reading.

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This book is out from Noemi
Press and Noemi Press's

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executive director is here
and that is Sarah Gzemski.

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And so we're really excited
that she's here also,

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and I'll shout you out.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Sarah also works at the Poetry
Center, so that's her side job,

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is making beautiful books.

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Or maybe the Poetry
Center is the side job.

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We're excited that
she works with us.

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So I'm going to introduce Farid.

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Farid is going to talk
about this book and project

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and then bring up Juan Felipe,
and they'll do some work

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together at the mic for us.

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Before I do that, this calendar
has all the information

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about what's happening
at the Poetry Center.

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So if you don't have one of
these, this is what you want.

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It'll tell you
what's happening next

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in our reading series, classes
and workshops and other events

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and programs.

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A few of those
that are coming up,

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just so you know about them.

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On March 9, we have
our spring poet

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in residence, Nicole Sealey,
who will be here reading.

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We're really excited about her
presence and visit in Tucson.

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She's been a part of
the Poetry Center's Art

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for Justice Project
and written in that.

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And so we're thrilled
that she's able to spend

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some time here and spend
some time in the cottage

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and in Tucson.

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March 11, we have the state
finals of the Poetry Out Loud

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Contest.

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How many of you know
what Poetry Out Loud is?

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You do?

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OK.

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Very good.

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If you don't know
what that is, this

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is where high school age
students memorize and recite

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poems and it is one
of the most profound

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and awesome experiences,
if you've not witnessed it.

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And so these are the winners
from across the state who

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will be competing here in
Tucson to have our state winner,

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and that state winner will
go on to the national finals.

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That's Saturday, March 11 here
at the Poetry Center at 1:00.

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So if you're interested, that
is a beautiful experience

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and open to the public.

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Juan Felipe's exhibit
is up until March 25

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so if you didn't have a chance
to see the art pieces that are

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here, please come in and visit.

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That's available any time
the Poetry Center is open.

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It's a wonderful exhibit.

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It's amazing to see all of
the visualizations of his work

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and all of the forms that have
been curated for us there.

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And then of course, there's
this thing called the Tucson

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Festival of Books happening
soon and that would be remiss

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if I didn't mention it, and
that's the March 4 and 5

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coming up really, really soon.

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I'm going to
introduce Farid Matuk

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and I want to tell
you this about Farid.

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He is a writer of Syrian
and Peruvian heritage.

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He's lived in the US
since the age of six.

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First, as an
undocumented person,

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then as a legal resident and
now as a naturalized citizen.

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He's the author of the poetry
collections, This Isa Nice

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Neighborhood and The
Real Horse and the author

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of several chapbooks including
My Daughter La Chola.

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His work has been anthologized
in the Best American

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Experimental Poetry and in
Angels of the Americlypse:

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A New Anthology of New
Latin@ Writing, among others.

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Matuk's book arts
project, Redolent was made

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in collaboration with the visual
artist Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez

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and was published in 2022 last
year by Singing Saw Press.

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It is also very beautiful, and
we have it at the Poetry Center

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so come when you're
seeing Juan Felipe's books

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and check that one out too.

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He's a beloved faculty member
here in the English department

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and teaches creative
writing and poetry.

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A fantastic teacher, an
excellent and huge friend

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of the Poetry Center.

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Please help me
welcome Farid Matuk

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to come talk about Akrílica
and his work with that project.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Thank you.

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