Hello, everybody.
Hello.
Welcome.
Hi.
How are you all?
All right.
It's a thrill to see so many people in Tucson for a poetry
reading, and we're grateful for it.
And we're a mix of humans tonight.
How many of you have a practice as a literary translator?
Amazing.
And how many of you live in Tucson?
Great.
This was always what we were so excited about,
all these Tucsonans and translators
would be mixed together.
And so you've done it, and you've
fulfilled our great dream, and we're thrilled for that.
So if you're from Tucson, say hello to a translator.
If you're a translator, look for the Tucsonans,
and say hello to each other.
They've got all the tips on where to get food.
And if you're a Tucsonan, the translators
will help you understand the magic of language.
My name is Tyler.
I work here as the director at the Poetry Center
with an amazing staff.
We're really thrilled to be collaborating,
and part of what's happening with ALTA and the conference
here in Tucson, which has been a great gift for us.
And so we are a place that cares so deeply about language,
and about the work that language workers do in the world.
And it means so much to have so many translators,
400 translators we understand, that are here
in Tucson during this weekend and celebrating
the work that they do, and thinking
about the questions, and the possibilities, and the future.
And generally, making the world a better place.
So it means a lot to have you here, and thank you
so much for the work that you all do.
I'll just have a couple of quick housekeeping things
that I want to share about some upcoming events at the Poetry
Center for folks that will still be around
after this weekend in Tucson.
Things that you can do at the center.
So the poet Marilyn Chin will be here next week.
We're thrilled about that.
So Marilyn Chin will be back in this space at 7:00
on November 16.
And then our fall season of readings
closes with the poet Charif Shanahan.
And Charif will be reading on December 5.
And what's important about that is that's a Tuesday
night instead of a Thursday.
So slight deviation from our norm of Thursday nights.
The last reading is December 5, and that's
a Tuesday with the wonderful poet Charif Shanahan,
and his great book, Trace Evidence.
So please come back for those again back here at 7:00.
I want to thank lots of people.
But I will say, I want to thank the College of Humanities
for their support of the Poetry Center.
So this is our institutional home
here at the University of Arizona.
It's a tremendous home, and we are so grateful for the support
that we get from the college.
The college is also the home of ALTA at the University
of Arizona, and a place where ALTA
has found a connection with this university
in this part of the world.
So applause for the College of Humanities,
and for the work that happens there.
[APPLAUSE]
I want to thank--
if you walked in and noticed that there's
a lot of graffiti with chalk, it's
the right kind of graffiti.
These are all excerpts from the National Translation Award
shortlist-- longlist for this year.
So there's a group in Tucson that
does this kind of creative chalking of poetry
in guerrilla ways.
And so it will appear and manifest,
and then eventually, it rains--
one day, it rains in Tucson--
and it goes away.
And that group is called The Urban Poetry Pollinators.
And so we're so thrilled that they spent time today
bringing translation into our outdoor space.
So you're kind of in a virtual anthology
while we're here for this reading as well.
And I hope that you'll join me in applauding the two staff
members at ALTA that make everything click and go.
And that's Lissie Jaquette and Kelsi Vanada.
And they're amazing.
[APPLAUSE]
It's delightful to be in community with them,
and to be working with them, and imagining with them.
And we're grateful for that.
Lissie will come up now and introduce
our poet, the wonderful poet Sawako Nakayasu.
We're so thrilled that Sawako is back in Tucson
after visiting previously.
But it's a great generosity to have her back in this space
again.
Lissie, of course, is the executive director of ALTA,
a terrific translator from Arabic,
and a great friend and colleague.
And so please help me welcome Lissie Jaquette
up to the podium.
[APPLAUSE]
Yeah.
And when she's coming up-- come on up--
I will also say-- so we have books for sale
after the reading.
We're going to forego a sort of traditional Q & A.
But those books are for sale over on my right,
and the bookstore staff is happy to sell those to.
I know Sawako's happy to sign those
if you might want to buy one.
It's a great thing to do with extra money is
buy poetry books.
So I encourage that every time you have that.
And here's Lissie.