Hey, everybody.
How are you doing?
Good.
So my name is Tyler.
I work as the director at the Poetry Center,
and I just want to shine some of that bright light
back on Laura and the MOCA staff.
It's amazing to have a museum of contemporary art
that's so interested in poets and poetry
and what we can do with textual forms that can become visual,
that can become experiences.
And it's a great gift to be able to collaborate around
these kinds of things in Tucson.
So it's a richness that we share.
And thanks for celebrating that richness
by coming out tonight and seeing--
hopefully becoming a member or coming
to join us and hang out and see what's going on at the Poetry
Center or do both because you're alive
and you should do as much as you can.
This calendar tells you a little bit
about what's going on at the Poetry Center.
If you're interested in other events or other readings
that are happening, and there's some on the table.
Where books are for sale on the far side over here.
So we have colleagues from the U of A bookstore,
and this calendar is there too, so you
can grab some of CA's work and then
also pick up events that are happening at the Poetry Center.
We have an event next week with the poet Mary Ruefle at 7:00
at the Poetry Center.
I hope some of you might want to come for that.
So a huge thanks again to all the people
who have worked on this.
I will also point out, in addition
to the books that are for sale on the far side,
there's another station of books for sale
here with a magical book that has just
arrived from Europe, which is the chapbook that's
associated with the exhibit that's installed here at MOCA.
It's made by an artist named Jason Dodge.
The book is called First Light.
It's CA's work.
And they're for sale here for $10 each.
And that is Venmo or exact change appreciated.
So come see us.
And there's only so many of them.
So if you're interested in that, you
can come check those out while you're also
buying the other books too.
I want to introduce a friend and a colleague
and a great collaborator and partner,
TC Tolbert, who's going to come introduce CAConrad.
How many know TC Tolbert?
[CHEERING]
Yeah.
Good work.
If you don't, tonight's your night.
And how lucky are you.
You get to know this amazing person.
TC Tolbert's the author most recently
of the chapbook, The Quiet Practices, which was this--
or the 2023 title for the Chad Walsh Chapbook Series
from Beloit Poetry Journal.
TC is a trans and gender queer monkey goat,
for real, who never ceases to experience
a simultaneous grief and deep love anytime she/he
pays attention to the world.
She/he writes poems, works with wood,
learns, teaches and wanders.
Sometimes that involves snorkeling.
I've worked wood with TC.
They're an amazing woodworker.
In 2019, TC was awarded an Academy of American Poets
Laureate Fellowship for the work with trans, non-binary,
non-binary and queer folks.
Publications include Gephyromania
from Ahsahta Press in 2014 that's
been rereleased by Nightboat Books more recently
and five additional chapbooks.
TC is also co-editor along with Trace Peterson
of Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics
from Nightboat Books.
Amazing texts, all of these.
TC lives in Tucson with us.
We're very lucky.
Please help me welcome TC Tolbert.
[CHEERING]