WEBVTT

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Hello, everybody.

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Hello, hello.

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Can you hear me in the back OK?

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You can.

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Good.

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I can kind of see you.

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There's a lot of you.

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This is great.

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There's a lot of people choosing
to be a little cold for poetry,

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which I think is an
exceptional choice

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to make at any moment
but especially this week.

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So I'm glad you're here.

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Welcome to the Poetry Center.

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Welcome to the Spring 2025
Season at the Poetry Center.

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Could not be more
thrilled to be welcoming

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poets Katie Farris and Ilya
Kaminsky to Tucson, and back

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to Tucson in some cases.

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So a round of applause.

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[APPLAUSE]

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They've worked very
hard to get here.

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And so we're thrilled
that they're here.

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And they'll be reading
tomorrow night in Phoenix

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with the Piper Center at ASU.

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So we're happy to have
them in Arizona right now.

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And again, in a week of all
weeks to have poetry to turn to

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feels especially exciting,
and valuable, and meaningful,

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and earnestly important.

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My name is Tyler.

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I work as the director
at the Poetry Center.

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And I just wanted to
talk about a couple

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of quick things
that are coming up.

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And because it's the
beginning of the season,

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so many things are coming up.

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So I'll talk about
them really quickly.

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But I want to make sure how many
of you have seen this before?

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Many of you?

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Raise your hands.

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Good.

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Everyone who has
not seen this yet,

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this is the calendar of
events that the Poetry

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Center for the Spring Season.

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They're around on the
table that's outside.

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There's some up here at
the book sales table.

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This will tell you everything
that's happening in this season

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through the Poetry Center.

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Our website is
also a great place

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to learn about the
things that are happening

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and also to stay up to
date if there are changes.

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So great to always
check the website.

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But many things are coming up,
including next week back here

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at the Poetry Center
on Thursday night,

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we have our Tom Sanders
Memorial Reading.

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And we'll be hearing from
the poet Kimberly Blaeser who

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we're so excited about.

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She has a tremendous book
out from the U of A Press

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called Ancient Light, along
with many other books.

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And we're thrilled to
have Kimberly Blaeser here

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at the Poetry Center.

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On February 13, we'll be back
here at the Poetry Center

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with the poet Terrance Hayes,
who'll be returning to Tucson.

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And we're really excited
about that visit.

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And then on February
20, back here again,

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these are all Thursday
nights, 7 o'clock, this space,

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with the poet Niki Herd.

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So a really tremendous new book
called The Stuff of Hollywood

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out from Copper Canyon Press.

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All amazing poets.

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We're thrilled that they're
choosing to come and to spend

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time with all of us.

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And I hope to see you back here
for those readings as well.

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There are classes at the
Poetry Center every season.

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And we have some classes that
remain open right now, including

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a class with Niki Herd and
also a class with our spring

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poet in residence Divya Victor.

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And so if you're interested, if
you made a New Year's resolution

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to do more writing, this is
your chance to make good on it.

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So I hope you'll jump
into those classes

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and come enjoy those
experiences that happen here

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at the Poetry Center.

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And you can learn more
at poetry.arizona.edu.

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There's an exhibit
at the Poetry Center

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that's up right now
that's tremendous.

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How many of you have seen
Mary Ruefle's Erasure exhibit?

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Good.

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If you have not, join us.

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It's an amazing exhibit.

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And it's up until February 8.

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So if you've not seen it yet,
I hope you'll spend some time

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and come and enjoy that
before it comes down

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for what comes next.

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Likewise, we have a
collaboration right now

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with MoCA Tucson.

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And there's an exhibit of
lifelike poem sculptures

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from the poet CAConrad.

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And that exhibit will
be up until February 16.

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So if you've not had a
chance to see that exhibit,

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I hope you'll take a
chance to go catch it

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before it comes down.

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CAConrad will be back in
town and doing some workshops

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at MoCA Tucson.

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If you want to
learn about those,

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go to the MoCA Tucson
website to check those out.

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Those are in early February.

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There is a haiku contest in
Downtown Tucson right now.

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And it is accepting
submissions until February 3.

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Our great friend, poet TC
Tolbert, who's in the back,

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is judging this contest
for the city of Tucson

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for the Poetry Center.

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The theme this
year is belonging.

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Hope you might consider
submitting work to that contest.

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Free to submit and
a great way to be

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a part of a
participatory process,

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thinking about ideas
together through poetry.

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I mentioned books were for sale.

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If you have money, it's a great
thing to spend money on, books.

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Always good.

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We're going to skip a Q &
A and forego that and just

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move directly to a kind of
book signing line afterwards.

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So if you're interested in
catching up with either Ilya

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or Katie, come up afterwards,
buy a book, and come meet them,

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and talk to them a little
bit about their work

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and about the reading.

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That's everything I had to say.

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Everybody doing OK?

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Good.

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I'm not going to talk at you
anymore about any of that.

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But I am very excited
to introduce my friend

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and colleague Julie Swarstad
Johnson who's going to tell us

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more about the poets tonight.

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Julie Swarstad Johnson is the
archivist and outreach librarian

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here at the Poetry Center.

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It is a great joy to
work with her every day.

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She's a tremendous poet.

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Her book Pennsylvania
Furnace is wonderful.

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She's also co-editor
of Beyond Earth's Edge:

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The Poetry of Spaceflight.

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Please help me welcome my
colleague Julie Swarstad

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Johnson.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Great.