WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.500 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:02.720 align:middle line:90% [CHEERS, APPLAUSE] 00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:04.430 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:00:04.430 --> 00:00:05.388 align:middle line:90% All right, everybody. 00:00:05.388 --> 00:00:05.930 align:middle line:90% Hello, hello. 00:00:05.930 --> 00:00:06.800 align:middle line:90% Welcome, welcome. 00:00:06.800 --> 00:00:07.940 align:middle line:90% It's a full house. 00:00:07.940 --> 00:00:11.780 align:middle line:84% And as the late great José Muñoz would say, 00:00:11.780 --> 00:00:14.210 align:middle line:90% these lights are homophobic. 00:00:14.210 --> 00:00:15.080 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:15.080 --> 00:00:17.630 align:middle line:90% But I digress. 00:00:17.630 --> 00:00:19.380 align:middle line:90% It's incredible to be here. 00:00:19.380 --> 00:00:22.700 align:middle line:84% It's nice to wear two long-sleeve shirts together. 00:00:22.700 --> 00:00:25.050 align:middle line:90% And we did it. 00:00:25.050 --> 00:00:27.180 align:middle line:84% We survived another summer here in Tucson. 00:00:27.180 --> 00:00:30.090 align:middle line:84% So for everyone that stayed in town, God bless you all. 00:00:30.090 --> 00:00:32.236 align:middle line:90% God has blessed you all. 00:00:32.236 --> 00:00:32.960 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:36.800 align:middle line:84% So think of this introduction as my-- 00:00:36.800 --> 00:00:41.710 align:middle line:84% as a queer, as our queer, to Sir, with love. 00:00:41.710 --> 00:00:46.510 align:middle line:84% Eileen Myles has saved many of our lives. 00:00:46.510 --> 00:00:50.890 align:middle line:90% And for me, I too am a former-- 00:00:50.890 --> 00:00:53.140 align:middle line:84% or a survivor Catholic school kid. 00:00:53.140 --> 00:00:55.720 align:middle line:84% And so it's hard not to think of Eileen 00:00:55.720 --> 00:01:01.930 align:middle line:84% as a patron saint of language, the language of desire, 00:01:01.930 --> 00:01:05.200 align:middle line:90% the language of self-formation. 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:08.290 align:middle line:84% I've learned, I've gleaned from reading this work-- 00:01:08.290 --> 00:01:10.360 align:middle line:90% and you may have too-- 00:01:10.360 --> 00:01:13.930 align:middle line:84% that lust for a queer touch could also 00:01:13.930 --> 00:01:16.330 align:middle line:84% be the same energizing force that we 00:01:16.330 --> 00:01:20.140 align:middle line:84% can harness to call out impunity and rage 00:01:20.140 --> 00:01:22.660 align:middle line:84% against the systems that thrive on the backs 00:01:22.660 --> 00:01:25.220 align:middle line:90% of the dispossessed. 00:01:25.220 --> 00:01:28.910 align:middle line:84% It was Eileen's prose that got me first. 00:01:28.910 --> 00:01:32.360 align:middle line:84% I arrived to Chelsea Girls with much gusto. 00:01:32.360 --> 00:01:36.740 align:middle line:84% Saying that you own the Black Sparrow edition of Chelsea 00:01:36.740 --> 00:01:39.740 align:middle line:84% Girls is equivalent to saying you 00:01:39.740 --> 00:01:45.110 align:middle line:84% went to the first Coachella, which I did. 00:01:45.110 --> 00:01:46.820 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:46.820 --> 00:01:53.270 align:middle line:84% It is a text that exemplifies resistance to genre convention. 00:01:53.270 --> 00:01:58.640 align:middle line:84% It's proof that we could loosen the straps of our captivity, 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:00.950 align:middle line:84% to do away with policing ourselves, 00:02:00.950 --> 00:02:05.480 align:middle line:84% policing each other, that we could live, risk, 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:10.280 align:middle line:84% fuck, and fail fantastically on our own terms. 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:11.044 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Eileen. 00:02:11.044 --> 00:02:13.710 align:middle line:90% 00:02:13.710 --> 00:02:21.320 align:middle line:84% For me, Eileen Myles is a true avatar of genre promiscuity 00:02:21.320 --> 00:02:24.470 align:middle line:84% and has modeled for me, for many of us, 00:02:24.470 --> 00:02:28.760 align:middle line:84% a way of being in this world through dogged persistence 00:02:28.760 --> 00:02:32.070 align:middle line:84% and giving back to your communities. 00:02:32.070 --> 00:02:36.170 align:middle line:84% To be an artery in your creative ecosystem, 00:02:36.170 --> 00:02:39.410 align:middle line:90% to give, to give, to give. 00:02:39.410 --> 00:02:42.860 align:middle line:84% And then you will maybe get-- you give what you get. 00:02:42.860 --> 00:02:43.910 align:middle line:90% You get what you give. 00:02:43.910 --> 00:02:46.430 align:middle line:84% In this terrible deadly world, in this world, 00:02:46.430 --> 00:02:48.710 align:middle line:84% we all continue to inhabit and push against 00:02:48.710 --> 00:02:51.020 align:middle line:84% and desire for its necessary transformation. 00:02:51.020 --> 00:02:56.780 align:middle line:84% Eileen Myles' words bully me into, again, 00:02:56.780 --> 00:02:59.330 align:middle line:84% what José Muñoz would call, a radical condition 00:02:59.330 --> 00:03:02.050 align:middle line:90% of possibility. 00:03:02.050 --> 00:03:04.420 align:middle line:84% Eileen Myles is here tonight to read poems 00:03:04.420 --> 00:03:07.600 align:middle line:84% from a "Working Life," which I believe is her 25th book. 00:03:07.600 --> 00:03:08.770 align:middle line:90% Not many of us can say that. 00:03:08.770 --> 00:03:10.690 align:middle line:90% So it's amazing. 00:03:10.690 --> 00:03:15.820 align:middle line:84% 25 publications, 25 texts, 25 books, everyone. 00:03:15.820 --> 00:03:20.183 align:middle line:84% Here in these poems reside many of my favorite things. 00:03:20.183 --> 00:03:21.100 align:middle line:90% So thank you for that. 00:03:21.100 --> 00:03:26.740 align:middle line:84% Dogs, Texas, big skies, coffee, friendship, and desire, or what 00:03:26.740 --> 00:03:30.760 align:middle line:84% it means to live meaningfully under late capitalism. 00:03:30.760 --> 00:03:32.680 align:middle line:84% Please join me in welcoming Eileen Myles 00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:34.090 align:middle line:90% to the Poetry Center. 00:03:34.090 --> 00:03:37.140 align:middle line:90% [CHEERS, APPLAUSE] 00:03:37.140 --> 00:03:38.000 align:middle line:90%