WEBVTT

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That was amazing.

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Thank you so much, Adam.

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Let's do another round
of applause for that

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because that was beautiful.

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So hi, everybody.

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Welcome.

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If you don't know who I am,
my name is Paola Valenzuela.

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I'm the event coordinator here.

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Yeah.

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Thank you.

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Yeah.

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And I'm so incredibly honored
to be introducing Manuel Paul

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López.

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Paul's books include
Nerve Curriculum,

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These Days of Candy, The
Yearning Feed, winner

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of the Ernest
Sandeen Poetry Prize,

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and Death of a Mexican
and Other Poems.

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He also co-edited
three anthologies,

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Reclaiming Our Stories--

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In the Time of
COVID and Uprising,

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Reclaiming Our Stories 2,
and Reclaiming Our Stories.

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All three generated from
a community-based writers'

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workshop of the same name that
he co-facilitated since 2016

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in the Southeast San Diego.

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A CantoMundo
fellow, his work has

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been published in Bilingual
Review, Denver Quarterly, Fairy

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Tale Review, Hanging
Loose and many others.

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Tim Z. Hernandez calls
Manuel Paul López one

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of the most innovative
writers of our time.

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Reading his books, it's
easy to understand why.

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Prose, verse, and
play intermingle

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to bring us characters
and stories that

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are both strange and familiar.

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Raised in the Imperial Valley of
Southern California, El Centro,

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Paul's work is informed
by the blending of borders

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and the unique
characters that reside

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in the borderlands
and his imagination.

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In his books, you will encounter
post-apocalyptic kiosks,

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strange stenographers,
rebellious sheep,

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and of course, overly
opinionated tíos and tías.

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As a fellow small
town bordertown kid,

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I feel comforted by Paul's
words, encanto borracho

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from Death of a Mexican
and Other Poems.

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He declares this poem
is not about my primo.

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This poem is not about him.

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This poem is about another.

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This poem is about others.

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I ask that you
prepare yourselves.

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These poems are about you
and about me and about us.

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They capture perfectly the
nuance, the uniqueness,

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the struggles, and the love that
our families and communities

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feel.

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Welcome, Paul.

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