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[APPLAUSE]

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Not sure about the microphone.

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Does that sound OK?

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Yeah.

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Wow I am so honored to
introduce Kimberly Blaeser,

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acclaimed poet, artist,
activist, and scholar here

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tonight with her new collection
of poems, Ancient Light,

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published by the University
of Arizona Press.

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I worked with Kim as
an editor on this book,

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but I first came to
her work as an admirer

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of what I think of as her
distinctively exquisite poetics,

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that is, the
capacity of her poems

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to hold together
both pain and beauty.

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The acuity of her vision that
never loses sight of what

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sustains in particular
here, the guiding

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lights of Anishinaabe
land and lifeways.

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Many of the poems
in ancient light

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come from the time of pandemic
lockdowns, that double helix

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period of stillness
and political uprising.

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Sometimes quiet but never shy.

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These poems open an aperture
onto long histories of violence,

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but also bring into
focus incandescent

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personal memories that take
wing like the waterbirds

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Kim photographs from her canoe.

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When we are suffocating
under the dome

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of a crass and
degrading public polity,

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we turn to books
like this for relief.

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All of which is to say
that in Ancient Light,

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we meet a formidable
poet working

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at the height of her powers.

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And lest that sound
admirable, but off putting,

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I hasten to add that
both on and off the page,

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Kim Blaeser stands
out for her warmth,

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unparalleled graciousness,
and energetic and energizing

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interest in our
featured third world.

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Dr. Blaeser is former
Wisconsin Poet Laureate

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and founding director of
In-Na-Po, Indigenous Nations

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Poets.

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She is a leader shaping
the literary scene today

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through In-Na-Po's work
supporting the next generations

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of Native poets.

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An Anishinaabe writer
enrolled at White Earth Nation

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in Minnesota, she is Professor
Emerita at University

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of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

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Author of six
poetry collections,

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including Apprenticed to
Justice, Copper Yearning,

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and Ancient Light.

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And a recipient of a
Lifetime Achievement

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Award from Native Writers
Circle of the Americas.

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What a gift to have Kimberly
Blaeser here with us tonight.

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Kim, I'll end with a plea
to you in your own words:

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Across the silence, send songs.

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[APPLAUSE]

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