Here we go.
How's everybody doing?
[APPLAUSE]
Very good.
You've made a great choice.
No one washed away on their way here, which is a good thing.
I'm glad you've persisted in a rainy night in Tucson.
And I've come to spend time thinking about poetry with us.
It's been a beautiful summer here in Tucson.
It's been a good and rainy summer.
But I'm really excited also for poetry
to come back and poetry readings.
So round of applause for Dana Levin
for bringing this back to us.
Dana's been here for a week plus as our summer poet in residence
working on projects.
And I know she'll talk a little bit more about that,
but we're thrilled to have her back in Tucson
and thrilled to have this reading happening here
at the Poetry Center.
I have some things I just want to let you know about
because there's lots of good things coming up.
My name is Tyler.
I work as the director here at the Poetry Center.
So things to tell you about.
One is how many of about the Sealey Challenge?
Very good.
How many of you are doing it?
Mostly just me and my staff, you are, good work.
I'm really glad you are.
It's not too late.
So the Sealey Challenge, if you don't know it,
is a challenge to read a book of poems every day
for the month of August, 31 books 31 days.
And I just want to remind you that there
are skinny books and big books.
You can choose wisely.
So if you jump in right now and it's not too late,
it's 23 books in 23 days.
So it's an abbreviated version, I
promise it will change your life in the most profound of ways.
So if you want to do it, you can join this hardy crew that
is participating and feel a lot of grace and a permission
to not necessarily have to do the full every book every day.
So you can take a break.
The only person who's in charge of it is you.
But we hope you'll join us and maybe consider reading books
with us in August.
There's a great place that I happen to know about
that's right across the breezeway,
which has 60,000 or so books.
And so I hope you'll come visit us and take advantage of our air
conditioning and read books at the Poetry Center as well.
We have a terrific library staff, some of whom
are in the back, who can also make suggestions.
If you have suggestions, you might
be interested in getting some advice on what to read.
And you can see a lot online from people
who are participating.
We have two events that are in support of that,
and they're mostly celebratory.
And they're both happy hours, and they're
to celebrate milestones as we go.
So on the 14th and on the 28th, there's happy hours
at the Tucson hop shop.
You can bring your book and read with us.
Lift a glass if you're so inclined,
and celebrate reading poetry together in the month of August.
Why August?
August is hard.
I don't know why August, but we're doing it.
Secondly, I want to tell you that
our terrific current exhibit, The Place Where
Clouds are Formed, will be coming down
at the end of this month.
So if you haven't had a chance to spend time with that exhibit,
this is the time to do it.
It's a tremendous exhibit, it tells a story
of borderland spaces and lives that
is entirely different than the fodder, that
is part of the political talking points at this moment.
And so if you're interested in another side of that narrative,
many of us know that who live here.
This exhibit tells a really incredible version of that.
And so I hope you'll come over and spend time
with us while you're reading Sealey Challenge books
and check out that exhibit before it comes down
at the end of the month.
Speaking of incredible things, we've
just announced our fall season at the Poetry Center.
It is so fresh that the announcement precedes our print
calendar by a week or so.
But you can find all of those details on our website
and in our social media spaces or in our newsletter.
And it's a really thrilling season of visiting poets who are
coming, including we launched on the 29th with that season
as school starts back up with the novelist from Mexico,
Brenda Lozano, poets Mark Wunderlich, CAConrad,
and Mary Ruefle come in September.
Poets Tilsa Otta and Farid Matuk, and Pulitzer Prize winner
Brandon Som are here in October.
Roger Reeves and Hala Alyan are here in November,
and then we end with a reading from the US Poet Laureate Ada
Limón in December.
So lots to happen there.
And if you're interested in details, dates, locations,
those are all easy to find on the website
and will soon be in your mailboxes with our calendar.
If you want to get the calendar and you're not
on our mailing list, you can do so and sign up at the library.
We're happy to get you on it or just come see me afterwards,
I'll make sure you get the info.
Many of those same poets are teaching classes,
and so our scholarship financial aid process for classes
is open right now.
We want to make sure cost is not a barrier to participate.
And so the Arnold Greenfield Financial Aid Program is open.
Now we have four spots to gift to classes that are happening,
and they're entirely free.
The application is very simple, and the award
is by lottery after you apply.
So we'll give away spots.
After that, general registration will start
and each of the classes is first come,
first served until they're full.
General registration starts on the 13th,
it's a Tuesday at 10:00 AM.
So if you're really excited about one of the classes,
that is a really good day to be at your computer
and ready to sign up because some of them
will go really quickly.
And again, those are open until they're filled.
That's a lot that's happening in the fall,
we're very excited about it, excited to tell you more
about it.
And their materials will be coming to you in your mailboxes
soon.
I also want to note that books are for sale, so make sure
that if you have any dollars in your pockets,
that's what you're spending them on.
And I'm sure Dana will be excited to sign them
after the reading tonight.
We'll skip a Q & A and just go straight to a signing line.
So if you're interested in books,
go buy those and come talk to Dana
and wish her well as she ends her time in Tucson and heads
back to all that comes next in Saint Louis.
To introduce Dana, we're very excited to have
a great friend of the Poetry Center and a poet
here in Tucson, Richard Siken.
Richard Siken is the author of the books Crush,
of which there will be a special 20th anniversary edition coming
out in 2025.
And I learned while Dana was here
that Dana has written the foreword for that book, which
we're really thrilled about.
And Richard has a new afterword that
will accompany the new edition, as well as
the book the War of the Foxes and the forthcoming collection
I Do Know Some Things which will be coming from Copper Canyon
Press in 2025.
He's also the author of one of the most amazing Twitter/X
feeds that I know, and it's a reason
not to abandon that platform entirely.
So please help me welcome Richard Siken.
[APPLAUSE]