WEBVTT

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Thank you all.

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It is so nice to see you all.

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I feel words have felt
so divisive lately,

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and it's really,
really beautiful

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to see a bunch of folks getting
together to hear some words.

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So thank you,
Poetry Center, thank

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you Marilyn, and thank you
to the universe for just even

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the smell of rain in
the air right now--

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[LAUGHTER]

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[APPLAUSE]

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--which for Tucsonans
it's like you're

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bringing the magic already.

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It's amazing.

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So I want to start by using the
words of Marilyn Chin herself.

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In one moment she described
herself as, quote,

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"an activist, subversive,
radical, immigrant, feminist,

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transnational, Buddhist,
neoclassical, nerd poet."

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[LAUGHTER]

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And what is so fantastic
about that phrase

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is that it's not
even complete when

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you start to look at the
trajectory of her work.

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Born in Hong Kong and
raised in Portland,

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Chin once recalled
that as a child

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her grandmother carried her on
her back chanting Chinese poems

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and sayings.

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This bilingual and
bicultural attunement

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would lay the foundation
for groundbreaking

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writing that has done
nothing less than expand

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the canon of poetry today.

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Chin has been
credited with creating

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the Chinese-American
quatrain, the lyric

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manifesto, the erotic
haiku, and the remix sonnet.

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And that's probably
among other things.

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Adrienne Rich once said that
Marilyn Chin's poetry, quote,

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"excites and incites
the imagination."

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Rich continued
that, "reading her,

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our sense of the possibilities
of poetry is opened further,

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and we feel again what an
active powerful art it can be."

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In addition to authoring
six books of poems including

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the most recent collection,
Sage, as well as fiction,

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Chin has translated poetry
by various Asian writers

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and edited groundbreaking
anthologies

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of Asian-American writing.

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She's won the
prestigious Ruth Lilly

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prize, the Academy of American
Poets Arts and Letters

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award, the United
Artists Foundation award,

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the Radcliffe Institute
Fellowship at Harvard,

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the list goes on.

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And I usually don't
read those lists,

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but it just feels
like there's so much.

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You got to give it credit.

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She's been variously
described as, quote,

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"a poet of contradictions,
poignant sentiment,

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beat your ass toughness,
and unexpected humor."

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And I can tell you that
she will seduce you

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one minute with an image,
for example, this one's

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from her poem, "Love poem
from Nagasaki" such as, quote,

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"10,000 dragons flies
spinning around the moon,"

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then have you laughing out
loud with the first stanzas

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of her poem, "So you fucked
John Donne," which reads,

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I couldn't resist, "So
you fucked John Donne?

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Wasn't very nice of you.

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He was betrothed to God, you
know, a diet of worms for you."

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[LAUGHTER]

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And then she'll leave
you moved and mesmerized

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with questions from her identity
poem, "Number 99," such as,

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are you baby's breath face down
on a teenage road in America?

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Are you earphones left
dangling on an airplane jack

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to diaspora?

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In her "Brown Girl
Manifesto" she writes, quote,

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"the speaking subject is
always an oppositional voice.

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If the majority says,
no dogs allowed,

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she says grrrr,
and wags her tail,

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and bites the man in the
ass, and won't let go."

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"If the majority says, we
don't want you immigrant.

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We'll send you back."

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The speaking subject writes
on the walls of Angel Island,

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"I shall stay firm.

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I shall endure.

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I shall not be erased."

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Unerased, enduring, and
firmly established as a poet

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of immense talent,
Chin is an innovator

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whose experiments were born
not just from her genius

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but out of survival.

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Born from her need to stretch
a language and a tradition

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to accommodate her
experience and vision.

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In doing so she not only
created and continues

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to create a stunning
legacy, but she's

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made more room within that
tradition for all of us.

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Please join me in
welcoming Marilyn Chin.

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[APPLAUSE]

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