WEBVTT

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Hey, everybody, welcome.

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Hello, can you hear me OK?

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You can, good.

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Good work, you've chosen
wisely on a Thursday night

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in Tucson once again,
and I'm proud of you

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all for being here at a poetry
reading, braving the cold.

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You had to get into cold
cars and drive here or maybe

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cold bicycle rides or
cold streetcar rides.

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However you got here,
thanks for coming,

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and welcome to
the Poetry Center.

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My name is Tyler.

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I work here as the director
at the Poetry Center,

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and I want to just mention
a couple of quick things

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before I turn things over for
this very special night where

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we're celebrating two
readers in person, one who's

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going to visit us from
afar, who's here in spirit,

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in person, and we're celebrating
the work of an amazing Tucson

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literary institution
called Terrain.org.

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So you know about Terrain.org?

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[CLAPPING]

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Good.

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OK.

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And I'm sure Simmons is going
to tell us more about it.

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I'll have a couple of
things to say about it.

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But that's one of our reasons
for gathering tonight.

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It's to celebrate the
work of Terrain.org

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over the past 25 years, which
is a bright and shining legacy

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and incredible to
think of what it's

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done in a quarter
century of time, and so,

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worth celebrating.

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So we'll talk more about that,
and to do that with poets

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is especially exciting for us.

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So many thanks to Allison
for being here, for Julie,

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and for Derek who's trying to
be here and waylaid by flights

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that have kept him away.

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So if you-- one thing
I'll say very quickly.

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If you have not
yet picked them up,

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there's three piles up here,
three stacks of broadsides.

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Each of them are
different, and each of them

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feature work from
the three readers.

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So if you haven't been
able to pick these up,

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please come do so
after the reading,

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and they're delightful.

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It should not deter you
from also buying books which

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is conveniently just adjacent.

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So-- and there's two
book-selling stations today.

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So there's our U of A bookstore
stacks that are over there.

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They're happy to
sell books to you.

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And then, there are some
books that the bookstore

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has some trouble getting
that are also for sale here.

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And Mark, our
excellent docent will

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be happy to vend those to you.

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And there are ways, I think they
use cash or Venmo or other ways

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to buy those.

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So come buy some books
after the reading.

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I do want to share-- this
is our first event in 2024.

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If you don't get one
of these in the mail,

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we've got extras of
these over on the table

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that's around the sort of
half wall by the front door.

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This is our calendar
for the spring season.

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There are many, many good things
happening at the Poetry Center

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that we're so excited about.

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Readings galore
including next week,

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we have a reading from
the poet Edgar Kunz.

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He'll be reading on the 18th
here at the Poetry Center

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that Thursday at 7 o'clock.

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And then, on the 25th, we have
a reading from the poet Brenda

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Hillman back here
at Thursday night

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at the Poetry
Center at 7 o'clock,

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and a reading from Robert
Hass on Saturday, the 27th.

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This is a departure
from our normal time.

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So that's going
to be a 3 o'clock

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matinee reading here at
the Poetry Center as well.

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And again, that's at 3 o'clock.

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So the other two are
Thursdays at 7:00.

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Hass's reading is
on Saturday at 3:00.

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And you can find
all those details

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on this delightful,
beautifully-designed calendar

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that looks good in your houses.

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You can fashion some
garments out of them

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and just promote what is
happening at the Poetry Center

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wherever you go.

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They're available, and they're
around the corner, and help

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yourselves.

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You'll also learn about the
classes and workshops programs

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at the Poetry Center.

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There are lots of--

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I think there's eight
different classes happening

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here taught by many of
the visiting writers

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who are coming through.

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Some of those have sold out.

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Some of those still have spots.

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So if you're interested in
thinking about poetry more,

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you can learn more about
that in the calendar as well.

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I want to quickly point out that
across the way in the Poetry

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Center, we're
continuing the exhibit

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that we have up right
now of another Tucson

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literary institution
that features

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Kore Press and the work
that Kore Press has

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done over the last 30 years,
another thing to applaud.

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[APPLAUSE]

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These are among the many
riches of this place--

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are these people that are doing
the work of literary production

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and bringing voices
into the world

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and finding ways to bring
language to all of us.

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And so, we're celebrating
what Kore Press has been

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and what it's done
and some of the things

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that it aims towards
in the future.

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And so, you can come visit
while the Poetry Center is open

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and see that exhibit.

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It's delightful.

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Julie Johnson, who is
one of our readers,

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is also the curator of these
exhibits with the other library

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staff.

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And so, it's one of the
things we celebrate.

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Come visit and see that.

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So I mentioned Terrain.org.

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We're celebrating 25
years of their work, which

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means, if you track backwards,
that Terrain started in 1997.

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So if we can put ourselves
in a time machine

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and think all the way back to
what was happening in 1997,

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I know that I, at
that time, did not

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own a cell phone, delightfully.

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I would sometimes like
to go back to that time.

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CD players were
a luxury in cars.

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I had lots of cassettes.

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You might have had a
lot of cassettes too.

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To think of what
was happening then

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with a magazine that was
publishing in digital spaces

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is really exciting to think
what it has become now.

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And so, I credit
Simmons with this

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foresight to imagine
what Terrain.org could be

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and to put energy and love
into it for so long to make it

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into what it has become.

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It's really, really exciting.

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[APPLAUSE]

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So if we come back
to the present,

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this means more than 3,000
pieces have been published

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across that 25-year history.

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It is the longest,
still-publishing online journal

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and the longest continuously
publishing online journal.

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So that has happened
here, and it's

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happened because of this
foresight, this interest,

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this energy, and
the intersection

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between the natural
world and the built world

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and where language
sort of explores

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that intersection in the work
that-- and with other artists

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as well.

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The poet and former director
of the Poetry Center,

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Alison Deming, sends her
regards to everybody.

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She's away right now
on a trip in Mexico,

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but she said, please say
this when you're introducing.

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And Alison is a
longtime board member,

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I think, for Terrain, so has
carried also with Simmons

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about how to do this
work and how to help

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celebrate what Terrain
might make it possible.

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And in Alison's words, she
says, "For its whole history,

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Terrain.org has published
outstanding works

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for writing and visual art that
celebrate the natural world,

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interrogate our
human place in it,

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and explore how we
inhabit our communities."

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So we celebrate that,
Alison, and thank you

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for being here in
spirit as well.

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I want to bring up Simmons now
to tell you a little bit more

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about Terrain to
introduce our readers.

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Simmons is the publisher,
the editor-in-chief,

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delightful poet, Tucson
literary citizen,

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a great friend of
the Poetry Center.

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Please help me welcome
up Simmons Buntin.

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[APPLAUSE]

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--

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