WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.510 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.510 --> 00:00:05.160 align:middle line:84%
I feel compelled to say that
I include the nationalization

00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:08.100 align:middle line:84%
categories in my bio,
one for visibility,

00:00:08.100 --> 00:00:11.055 align:middle line:84%
but two, to undermine them;
they're in quotation marks.

00:00:11.055 --> 00:00:14.400 align:middle line:90%


00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:15.510 align:middle line:90%
I beg your patience.

00:00:15.510 --> 00:00:18.030 align:middle line:84%
I have the honor
tonight of introducing

00:00:18.030 --> 00:00:21.670 align:middle line:90%
both a poet and a book.

00:00:21.670 --> 00:00:25.540 align:middle line:84%
Out of print and never really
included in the lineages

00:00:25.540 --> 00:00:29.440 align:middle line:84%
of any poetry coterie
or school, Akrílica

00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:33.400 align:middle line:84%
was an uncategorizable mystery
to those of us lucky enough

00:00:33.400 --> 00:00:35.530 align:middle line:90%
to encounter it.

00:00:35.530 --> 00:00:37.630 align:middle line:84%
Poet and editor
Carmen Giménez Smith

00:00:37.630 --> 00:00:40.870 align:middle line:84%
was so moved by the book's
restless inventiveness,

00:00:40.870 --> 00:00:43.930 align:middle line:84%
that she borrowed its name
for the Akrílica book series

00:00:43.930 --> 00:00:46.780 align:middle line:84%
at the publishing house she
co-founded, Noemi Press.

00:00:46.780 --> 00:00:50.170 align:middle line:90%


00:00:50.170 --> 00:00:53.110 align:middle line:84%
With a supporting investment
from Francisco Alarcón

00:00:53.110 --> 00:00:56.980 align:middle line:84%
of Letras Latinas at Notre
Dame, the Akrílica book series

00:00:56.980 --> 00:00:59.770 align:middle line:84%
has become arguably the
most important incubator

00:00:59.770 --> 00:01:03.760 align:middle line:84%
of innovative Latinx
poetry in the US.

00:01:03.760 --> 00:01:06.790 align:middle line:84%
Carmen has gone on to serve
now as publisher and executive

00:01:06.790 --> 00:01:10.510 align:middle line:84%
director at Graywolf Press, but
she has left the Akrílica book

00:01:10.510 --> 00:01:14.200 align:middle line:84%
series and all of Noemi in the
capable hands of our own Sarah

00:01:14.200 --> 00:01:20.440 align:middle line:84%
Gzemski and her co-editors,
Anthony Cody and Suzi Garcia.

00:01:20.440 --> 00:01:22.750 align:middle line:90%
But one last thing.

00:01:22.750 --> 00:01:24.940 align:middle line:84%
One of the last things
Carmen did at Noemi

00:01:24.940 --> 00:01:28.030 align:middle line:84%
was to convene Anthony Cody
and myself as co-editors

00:01:28.030 --> 00:01:31.390 align:middle line:84%
to bring the second edition
of Akrílica the book

00:01:31.390 --> 00:01:34.460 align:middle line:90%
to a new generation of readers.

00:01:34.460 --> 00:01:38.300 align:middle line:84%
The Akrílica we launched tonight
includes a new introduction,

00:01:38.300 --> 00:01:39.920 align:middle line:84%
a new interview
with Juan Felipe,

00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:42.440 align:middle line:84%
reproductions of photographs,
and original artwork

00:01:42.440 --> 00:01:45.270 align:middle line:84%
from his archives,
and bold design

00:01:45.270 --> 00:01:47.445 align:middle line:84%
by the poet and
artist Doug Kearney.

00:01:47.445 --> 00:01:52.300 align:middle line:90%


00:01:52.300 --> 00:01:53.710 align:middle line:90%
Do we have the video?

00:01:53.710 --> 00:01:54.300 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:01:54.300 --> 00:01:56.770 align:middle line:84%
There should be a
video coming up.

00:01:56.770 --> 00:01:59.980 align:middle line:84%
I kept joking, if you see the
promo material for Juan Felipe

00:01:59.980 --> 00:02:01.990 align:middle line:90%
and I, Juan Felipe is the tío.

00:02:01.990 --> 00:02:04.994 align:middle line:84%
And I'm the tío in training
with our mustaches.

00:02:04.994 --> 00:02:08.382 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:02:08.382 --> 00:02:13.010 align:middle line:90%


00:02:13.010 --> 00:02:15.770 align:middle line:84%
This is not an easy video
to watch necessarily,

00:02:15.770 --> 00:02:17.990 align:middle line:90%
but we'll talk about it.

00:02:17.990 --> 00:02:20.570 align:middle line:84%
So the Akrílica
we launch tonight

00:02:20.570 --> 00:02:22.880 align:middle line:84%
includes a new introduction,
a new interview,

00:02:22.880 --> 00:02:24.530 align:middle line:84%
the reproductions
of the photographs,

00:02:24.530 --> 00:02:26.660 align:middle line:90%
and the design by Doug Kearney.

00:02:26.660 --> 00:02:30.500 align:middle line:84%
Translator- poet Rosa Alcalá,
Suzi Garcia, hanta samsa,

00:02:30.500 --> 00:02:34.310 align:middle line:84%
J. Michael Martinez joined
Carmen, Anthony, and myself

00:02:34.310 --> 00:02:36.650 align:middle line:84%
in creating all
new translations,

00:02:36.650 --> 00:02:42.770 align:middle line:84%
not because the first edition
translations needed correction,

00:02:42.770 --> 00:02:45.410 align:middle line:84%
but because Juan Felipe
imbued the original work

00:02:45.410 --> 00:02:49.040 align:middle line:84%
with enough complexity
and irrepressible energy

00:02:49.040 --> 00:02:51.110 align:middle line:84%
that it lends itself
to almost infinite

00:02:51.110 --> 00:02:54.630 align:middle line:90%
reading and reimagining.

00:02:54.630 --> 00:02:56.190 align:middle line:84%
We're lucky to
launch the book here

00:02:56.190 --> 00:02:59.730 align:middle line:84%
in the context of a beautiful
exhibition of Juan Felipe's art

00:02:59.730 --> 00:03:02.340 align:middle line:84%
over in the Poetry
Center Gallery.

00:03:02.340 --> 00:03:04.680 align:middle line:84%
And tonight, we get to
welcome poet, artist,

00:03:04.680 --> 00:03:11.120 align:middle line:84%
community coconspirator, and
poetry tío Juan Felipe Herrera.

00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:14.090 align:middle line:84%
Juan Felipe's work has earned
a long list of accolades,

00:03:14.090 --> 00:03:17.180 align:middle line:84%
including the Latino Hall
of Fame Poetry Award,

00:03:17.180 --> 00:03:19.760 align:middle line:84%
fellowships from the
Guggenheim Foundation,

00:03:19.760 --> 00:03:23.410 align:middle line:84%
the National Endowment for
the Arts and UC Berkeley.

00:03:23.410 --> 00:03:25.630 align:middle line:84%
The recent publication
of his selected poems,

00:03:25.630 --> 00:03:28.870 align:middle line:84%
Half the World in Light, earned
a National Book Critics Circle

00:03:28.870 --> 00:03:32.680 align:middle line:84%
Award for Poetry and the
PEN Beyond Margins Award.

00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:35.200 align:middle line:84%
Last year, the Fresno
Unified School District

00:03:35.200 --> 00:03:38.100 align:middle line:84%
dedicated an elementary
school to his name.

00:03:38.100 --> 00:03:40.632 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:03:40.632 --> 00:03:43.090 align:middle line:90%


00:03:43.090 --> 00:03:46.390 align:middle line:84%
He served as the 21st poet
laureate of the United States

00:03:46.390 --> 00:03:48.850 align:middle line:90%
from 2015 to 2017.

00:03:48.850 --> 00:03:52.060 align:middle line:84%
And just a few days ago, he
was awarded the Poetry Society

00:03:52.060 --> 00:03:56.357 align:middle line:84%
of America's Frost Medal
for Lifetime achievement.

00:03:56.357 --> 00:03:59.766 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:03:59.766 --> 00:04:01.720 align:middle line:90%


00:04:01.720 --> 00:04:07.470 align:middle line:84%
But what kind of
poetry could properly

00:04:07.470 --> 00:04:11.070 align:middle line:84%
be celebrated without grounding
its appraisal in the context

00:04:11.070 --> 00:04:13.440 align:middle line:90%
of our actual lives?

00:04:13.440 --> 00:04:15.840 align:middle line:84%
Both halves of the world
know they are constantly

00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:18.930 align:middle line:90%
trading light and the dark.

00:04:18.930 --> 00:04:20.670 align:middle line:84%
These last few days,
I've been thinking

00:04:20.670 --> 00:04:24.120 align:middle line:84%
of the poet Divya Victor,
who teaches at Michigan State

00:04:24.120 --> 00:04:26.880 align:middle line:84%
University, where three
students were recently murdered

00:04:26.880 --> 00:04:29.460 align:middle line:84%
and another five
injured by a gunman who

00:04:29.460 --> 00:04:33.210 align:middle line:84%
walked the campus with a
list of his intended victims.

00:04:33.210 --> 00:04:38.760 align:middle line:84%
In response, Divya
Victor posted, quote,

00:04:38.760 --> 00:04:40.920 align:middle line:84%
"to imagine creative
writing without

00:04:40.920 --> 00:04:47.100 align:middle line:84%
a trauma-informed approach
has been reckless for decades.

00:04:47.100 --> 00:04:50.730 align:middle line:84%
But especially now, the
field must turn away

00:04:50.730 --> 00:04:54.210 align:middle line:84%
from serving the mandates of
publishing and academic markets

00:04:54.210 --> 00:04:57.330 align:middle line:84%
to imagine first and
foremost that writing

00:04:57.330 --> 00:05:00.840 align:middle line:84%
remains for young people
a kind of survival

00:05:00.840 --> 00:05:04.620 align:middle line:84%
after repeated
national betrayals."

00:05:04.620 --> 00:05:08.400 align:middle line:84%
Trauma-informed may not
be how Juan Felipe would

00:05:08.400 --> 00:05:13.530 align:middle line:84%
describe his work, but can we
say whole- human- informed?

00:05:13.530 --> 00:05:16.860 align:middle line:90%
Can we say life-informed?

00:05:16.860 --> 00:05:20.220 align:middle line:90%
Can we say kindness-informed?

00:05:20.220 --> 00:05:22.380 align:middle line:84%
Tonight, I celebrate
Juan Felipe's work

00:05:22.380 --> 00:05:25.800 align:middle line:84%
because in his writing for
children, for the stage

00:05:25.800 --> 00:05:30.420 align:middle line:84%
and for screen, in his poems
ranging from documentary,

00:05:30.420 --> 00:05:35.210 align:middle line:84%
to lyric, to experimental, to
theatrical, to just buckwild,

00:05:35.210 --> 00:05:40.370 align:middle line:84%
in his visual art, and in his
pedagogy, most of all, realized

00:05:40.370 --> 00:05:42.680 align:middle line:84%
most fully in the
collaborative writing and art

00:05:42.680 --> 00:05:45.830 align:middle line:84%
making space known
as Laureate Lab, Juan

00:05:45.830 --> 00:05:49.370 align:middle line:84%
Felipe and his friends
have long been imagining,

00:05:49.370 --> 00:05:52.160 align:middle line:84%
developing, and
lovingly practicing

00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:54.950 align:middle line:84%
exactly the kind of
revolutionary approach

00:05:54.950 --> 00:05:58.700 align:middle line:90%
that Divya is calling for.

00:05:58.700 --> 00:06:00.740 align:middle line:84%
I celebrate Juan
Felipe to remind us

00:06:00.740 --> 00:06:05.140 align:middle line:84%
that amidst our various
crises, we are not alone.

00:06:05.140 --> 00:06:07.540 align:middle line:84%
When Juan Felipe says of
his own writing practice

00:06:07.540 --> 00:06:10.480 align:middle line:84%
that he hopes to, quote,
"generate kindness,"

00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:13.300 align:middle line:84%
it is a kindness that emerges
from and returns us back

00:06:13.300 --> 00:06:15.810 align:middle line:90%
to our capacity for care.

00:06:15.810 --> 00:06:19.470 align:middle line:84%
Reading Juan Felipe, I know that
kindness is older than betrayal

00:06:19.470 --> 00:06:21.600 align:middle line:90%
and will outlive it.

00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:26.630 align:middle line:84%
Wordplay is older than
literature and will outlive it.

00:06:26.630 --> 00:06:28.910 align:middle line:84%
In a Zoom meeting in
which we were finalizing

00:06:28.910 --> 00:06:32.120 align:middle line:84%
the proofs for Akrílica,
my co-editors and I

00:06:32.120 --> 00:06:34.400 align:middle line:84%
asked Juan Felipe to
read our translation

00:06:34.400 --> 00:06:37.940 align:middle line:84%
of the book's final poem
called "Forever Maga."

00:06:37.940 --> 00:06:41.210 align:middle line:84%
Importantly, that's Maga
as in Magdalena, not as

00:06:41.210 --> 00:06:44.390 align:middle line:90%
in the political slogan.

00:06:44.390 --> 00:06:48.530 align:middle line:84%
The poem breaks itself open,
leaving its own occasion

00:06:48.530 --> 00:06:50.420 align:middle line:84%
and evolving into
a voice that seems

00:06:50.420 --> 00:06:54.350 align:middle line:84%
to speak the entire book's
transgenerational wisdom

00:06:54.350 --> 00:06:56.930 align:middle line:90%
and mischievous encouragement.

00:06:56.930 --> 00:07:01.310 align:middle line:84%
As Juan Felipe read, it
felt like that voice took us

00:07:01.310 --> 00:07:04.880 align:middle line:84%
by the hand, like it was
reaching from decades past

00:07:04.880 --> 00:07:06.800 align:middle line:90%
to propel us forward.

00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:08.240 align:middle line:90%
Keep going.

00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:11.930 align:middle line:84%
You're not alone as you
make things hopefully worthy

00:07:11.930 --> 00:07:17.210 align:middle line:84%
of being placed in the hands
of those younger still.

00:07:17.210 --> 00:07:19.460 align:middle line:84%
I've asked the
Poetry Center to loop

00:07:19.460 --> 00:07:23.300 align:middle line:84%
the video above of the
last scene of the 2017

00:07:23.300 --> 00:07:25.820 align:middle line:90%
film, The Florida Project.

00:07:25.820 --> 00:07:29.810 align:middle line:84%
The film follows a young girl
who celebrates most of her days

00:07:29.810 --> 00:07:32.990 align:middle line:84%
even as her young
mother's attempts to make

00:07:32.990 --> 00:07:35.690 align:middle line:84%
ends meet risks
sinking both of them

00:07:35.690 --> 00:07:39.380 align:middle line:84%
deeper and deeper
into a pool of risk.

00:07:39.380 --> 00:07:42.350 align:middle line:84%
In this final scene,
the girl knows

00:07:42.350 --> 00:07:45.890 align:middle line:84%
she'll be taken from her mother
by child protective services.

00:07:45.890 --> 00:07:50.240 align:middle line:84%
And so she goes to see her
best friend one last time.

00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:52.460 align:middle line:90%
I cannot explain this.

00:07:52.460 --> 00:07:54.980 align:middle line:84%
But hearing Juan
Felipe read our version

00:07:54.980 --> 00:07:59.030 align:middle line:84%
of "Forever Maga," the way
he trusted our translation,

00:07:59.030 --> 00:08:03.350 align:middle line:84%
our words to join with his
words and with his breathing,

00:08:03.350 --> 00:08:06.770 align:middle line:84%
it felt like he was
our spiritual friend

00:08:06.770 --> 00:08:10.370 align:middle line:84%
and older brother
taking us by the hand,

00:08:10.370 --> 00:08:13.940 align:middle line:90%
rushing us past the gatekeepers.

00:08:13.940 --> 00:08:17.750 align:middle line:84%
We are not headed into
a commercial playground,

00:08:17.750 --> 00:08:19.220 align:middle line:90%
but into the promise--

00:08:19.220 --> 00:08:20.810 align:middle line:84%
the kids are going
to Disney World--

00:08:20.810 --> 00:08:24.920 align:middle line:84%
but into the promise as
fierce as a child's belief

00:08:24.920 --> 00:08:28.010 align:middle line:90%
of a freer, more tender world.

00:08:28.010 --> 00:08:32.299 align:middle line:84%
Reading Juan Felipe, we sense
poetry's kindness generator

00:08:32.299 --> 00:08:34.250 align:middle line:90%
is at full power.

00:08:34.250 --> 00:08:37.669 align:middle line:84%
And when you finally feel
it, all you have to do

00:08:37.669 --> 00:08:42.742 align:middle line:84%
is reach out, take
its hand, and run.

00:08:42.742 --> 00:08:43.909 align:middle line:90%
Please welcome Juan Felipe--

00:08:43.909 --> 00:08:45.200 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:47.050 align:middle line:90%
--Herrera.

00:08:47.050 --> 00:08:49.000 align:middle line:90%