Can the people in the hall hear?
Ask if they can hear.
Can they hear?
There's still some more room on the floor behind me
if you want to come on up here through either of the side
doors.
I see an empty chair down there.
[CROWD LAUGHTER]
And there's one right here.
And there's one over there on the aisle.
So-- [LAUGHTER]
Tomorrow afternoon, Miss Rich will
be speaking to students at an open session--
students and all interested people--
at an open session at 3:30 in the student union terrace.
Not the student union-- the student union junior ballroom.
Junior ballroom, on the second level of the student union.
Our next reading will be in this auditorium a week from tonight.
Ishmael Reed will be the visiting poet and novelist.
He'll read for us.
And I would like to announce now,
and I'll announce it again next week,
that he also will have an open session with students the day
following his reading.
And his session will be at the Poetry Center on Thursday
morning from 11:00 to 12:00.
| see another empty seat.
Right in the middle there.
It's the same one?
Oh, I hope they don't send the fire marshal in.
I'd also like to announce a very special reading to benefit
the Tucson AIDS Project.
It would be a benefit reading of poetry and fiction sponsored
by OutLoud, a group of lesbian, gay, and bisexual graduate
students.
The readers will be Forrest Ashby, Joy Harjo,
Carolyn Kizer, Terry McMillan and Boyer Rickel.
And that will take place this Saturday evening, the 25th,
at 8 o'clock in the Orts Space Theater, which
is located at 330 East 7th Street,
between 4th and 5th Avenues.
Because this is a benefit, they're asking donation of $5.
But if you cannot subscribe that much,
come anyway and give what you can.
We have added another reading to our schedule.
And I brought some of the flyers,
and they'll be out on the refreshment table.
Refreshments will be in the breezeway this evening,
and books will be for sale in the hall.
At a reduced rate, by the way.
We are co-sponsoring, with Department
of French and Italian, a bilingual reading
by Paolo Valesio on Sunday afternoon, April the 2nd,
on the Poetry Center South Lawn.
If you regularly get our mail, don't pick up one tonight,
because there will be-- if you have an English department box,
one will be put in your box.
I promised Adrienne that I do short introductions,
but I didn't tell her that I do long announcements.
[LAUGHTER]
Many of you were handed a little pink flyer as you came in.
We are very sorry that there was not enough for everyone.
A student organization has been formed
to help save the Poetry Center.
[APPLAUSE]
If you didn't get a flyer, perhaps you'll
share it with your friends.
Have you got more?
Yeah.
OK, come on down the aisles and pass them out
while I'm talking.
This is a request for you to join this committee,
or to assist this committee by writing letters of support
for the Poetry Center.
Please, positive letters of support for the Poetry Center.
[LAUGHTER]
The little house that we are being
moved into when the Poetry Center
Library is destroyed in June--
just the library building, not the library--
is one and a half blocks north of Speedway
on Cherry, which will take us three and a half blocks further
away from this building.
Most of our users come from this building.
So it will not be as convenient for you.
One of the more important problems of that move
is that because our collection has grown so rapidly,
we've not been able to shelve all
the books in our current space for a long time.
The little house is a little bit larger than where we are,
but the extra square footage is mostly taken up
by closets and the kitchen.
And we don't have a kitchen where we are now.
And there is less wall space to put the bookshelves.
So we are putting all periodicals before 1988
into storage until we have a new home.
And we may have to put up to 3/4 of the books.
We'll know a little better, by the end of next week, just how
much shelf space we have.
But we don't want to be crowded, because we've
been so crowded now that no one could
see all of the wonderful treasures that
are coming in every day.
I promise that as long as I'm there,
if there's a book in storage that you want,
I'll get it for you within 48 hours.
But it may take us that long to get a book for you.
Many of the books are not frequently used,
but they are important.
It is important that we have them.
It is important that we have a new home
for this special collection for your use.
And we appreciate your support with letters.
Of course, we would even more appreciate your support
with money.
There are three people in this auditorium tonight
who have donated a total of $1,700
to begin the new building fund.
[APPLAUSE]
I would like to make public recognition of them,
but they have asked not.
So I will honor their request.
We had a donation given in November.
And the donor said, I will give you $1,000
only if it goes for building fund.
And we have not been authorized at that time
to solicit for a building fund.
So we had to get special permission to start a new fund.
Now, we can!
Of course, we also need money for the friends of the Poetry
Center, but this is not a fundraising evening.
I'm sorry.
[LAUGHING] I'll shut up.
I do not need to introduce Adrienne Rich to you.
You know who she is.
You know why we have invited her for her wonderful work
in poetry and in prose, and for her work as an activist.
And I'm not going to give you a recitation of her book titles.
I just want to get her up here.
Adrienne Rich.
[APPLAUSE]