Hey, everybody.
How are we doing?
Good?
Everybody warm enough?
Yeah.
Good.
We're going to warm it up really soon with some poems.
So glad you're here.
Thanks for choosing the Poetry Center on a Thursday night.
My name is Tyler.
I work here as the director at the Poetry Center.
I just have some quick announcements
to get through really quickly and then
we're going to turn right to poems.
We're really, really thrilled that Roger Reeves
is visiting us here in Tucson.
A round of applause for Roger.
[APPLAUSE]
And we're lucky.
So we're going to celebrate and be excited about it.
First, tonight I especially want to welcome
some poets who are part of the Poetry Center family.
That's Aulton, Joshua, and Niko and maybe a few others.
And so these are three amazing poets
that we've collaborated with in the past on different programs
at the Poetry Center, and I want you
to join me in welcoming them.
All three have autism or apraxia,
which affects modes of communication,
and they each work very hard with their supporters
to write poems.
They're amazing poets, and they do this by spelling or sometimes
with other tools.
And Aulton has written this little note
that I want to read to you all as we get started tonight.
And so it says, I would like you to know
that we understand everything regardless of speed, pitch,
or length.
We have autism and apraxia, which
means our brains are intact but don't communicate well
with our bodies.
My body is often unresponsive to my brain's commands.
I may vocalize, laugh, yell, move awkwardly,
or cover my ears.
I'm not in any distress or discomfort or having a problem.
Please just ignore these body issues.
Apraxia also prohibits speaking with my mouth.
It is helpful to know this is a motor problem
and has nothing to do with my cognitive abilities.
Above all, we value, give and accept kindness.
So thank you guys for the care that you all put on kindness--
[APPLAUSE]
--which I'm really grateful for, and I want you all
to join me in mirroring that kindness back tonight
and into the coming weeks and into the coming months
and beyond.
Up next at the Poetry Center, we have an event
that's happening on November 21 with the poet Hala Alyan, who'll
be traveling here to read with us.
And that's a visit that's in collaboration with the Center
for Middle Eastern Studies.
And we are very thrilled to have Hala
be coming to Tucson to join us.
So we'll hope to see you back here for that.
That's Thursday the 21, back here at 7:00
0'clock at the Poetry Center.
And then our final reading of the season
will happen on a Wednesday.
So this is important.
Different from our normal mode.
It will be on a Wednesday, December 4.
And that's going to feature the US poet laureate Ada
Limón, who'll be coming back to Tucson.
She'll be in town finishing her laureateship project,
"You Are Here," which is a collaboration with the National
Park Service, and she'll be installing a new picnic table
that features the words of the poet Ofilia Zepeda at Saguaro
National Park East.
That part of her visit happens on December 3
and is being handled by the Park Service.
The reading is going to happen on December 4
and that's going to be handled by us.
If you want to be a part of the unveiling of the picnic table,
you'll need to RSVP for that part on December 3,
and you can find details for that in the Poetry Center's
newsletter this weekend, or on the Saguaro National Park East
website.
So our National Park website.
So those are the two places you can do that,
but an RSVP is required because they
don't have enough space for everyone who
might come at the park.
So they're just trying to make sure
that they can accommodate as many people as possible.
For the event on the fourth, there's
no RSVP required for the reading.
First come, first served for seats.
We welcome you all.
It will be slightly-- it's not at the Poetry Center,
it's going to be a short five minute walk over in the Health
Science Innovation Building.
It's a space that's been used in the past for some other visitors
if you've been to any of those readings
with Sandra Cisneros or Luis Alberto Urrea, Carolyn
Forché, that's right.
So we'll just be right about five minute walk
from the Poetry Center that night.
And a slightly bigger space to accommodate the crowd
that night.
So again, that's Wednesday, December 4, 7:00 with Ada Limón.
That's when that reading is happening.
We hope you'll come and join us.
Books are for sale.
They're great things to buy.
They're warm if you hold them.
They're like little heaters.
They're going to feel real good in your hands,
so it's a great thing to spend money on.
There's people in your life that need presents.
Take care of them this season.
It's a great thrill to welcome Roger, as I said, to Tucson,
and it's been a great joy to have
Roger in our presence the last couple of days.
It's been a great gift.
And I want to welcome up a great friend of the Poetry Center
who's going to introduce him.
And that's my colleague Manuel Muñoz,
who's a fiction writer here at The University of Arizona
and the creative writing program.
Most recently, the author of the terrific short story collection,
"The Consequences," which is just past two years old,
if I think.
Yeah So it had a birthday recently.
Please help me welcome my colleague Manuel Muñoz
to introduce Roger Reeves.
[APPLAUSE]