Hello, everybody.
How are you doing?
Good.
All right.
Well done.
Choosing wisely on a Thursday night.
Glad to see folks here in Tucson joining us
for this reading in particular.
And we're so thrilled to have this reading happening
at the Poetry Center.
And so I want to especially welcome
the poets who are coming here tonight to be with us,
and this includes Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, Roque
Raquel Salas Rivera, and Sin à Tes Souhaits,
all writers who were ambassadors in the Poetry Center's Art
for Justice project and all of whom
had to participate remotely when we were doing this project.
And so we zoomed them in for these original readings,
commissioned work from them, and they read for us,
but through the rectangles of their computers.
And we watched them through the rectangles of our computers.
It's a big deal that they've chosen
to be here, that we've been able to bring them all back
in their corporeal forms.
So round of applause to poets who have
traveled to be here with us.
[APPLAUSE]
We are likewise absolutely thrilled to welcome back
Diana Delgado, who's the former literary director here
at the Poetry Center and who has done incredible work
editing this anthology that, again, collects much
of the work that was created for the Art for Justice Project
and more.
It's just out from Haymarket Books.
This is the second launch event following programs
that happened earlier in March in Chicago at the Poetry
Foundation and at Haymarket House, which
houses Haymarket Books, which is the publisher of the anthology.
Additional launch events are upcoming.
So next week, the show goes on the road to the AWP Conference,
and they'll be launch events that happen there.
And then later, there'll be events
that happen in New York City, at Poets House,
and then likely even more beyond that.
So if you're listening or zooming in from far away
and you're in LA or in New York, please join us
for those programs or the others that will
be coming up down the line.
The topic of this anthology and of the Art for Justice Project,
of Like a Hammer, has never not been more germane
to everyday existence than it is right now,
but it is in bright relief in this moment
with what I will call the spectacle of asylum seeking
and deportation, with a new onslaught of camera-ready scenes
designed for political gain and for media clicks,
and eventually for profit, and beyond any human dimensions that
animate the moments that are buried right before our eyes.
And I'm really grateful to the work of this book
and to these poets in particular,
especially in this moment, and for coming here
to help share it with us.
Before I welcome Diana up to tell us more,
I want to keep everybody in the loop about some things that are
coming up at the Poetry Center.
On September 22, Saturday of this--
two days away.
Two days away.
Saturday.
The Haiku Hike in downtown Tucson
is happening at 9 o'clock, for folks
that might want to do that.
The haikus are judged by TC Tolbert, our Tucson poet
laureate.
For those that want to partake in that,
it'll be walking along the route where those are posted.
There's 20 pieces, a kind of chorus of Tucson voices.
We'll be leaving at 9:00 AM from the Hotel Congress patio
and then exploring those together and reading them
together along the way.
It should be a great way to start a Saturday.
Come join us if you like.
Next up in the reading series, back here
on April 3 at the Poetry Center, we'll
have a reading from Alison Deming and from Sally Ball,
and we're really excited about that event.
That's 7 o'clock back here on Thursday, April 3.
And then on April 10, we'll have former US poet laureate Robert
Pinsky coming back to Tucson to do a reading for us,
also back here at 7 o'clock at the Poetry Center.
Hope we'll see you on those upcoming Thursdays.
One addition to the reading tonight
is a series of films, film shorts that
are based on poems, either in the anthology
or created by folks that are in the anthology.
These have been commissioned by the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry
Foundation, and Diana is one of the co-producers of these films.
The same films are currently featured in a pop-up exhibit
at the Poetry Center that will be up through the 29th of this
month.
And so as you see these tonight, if you're excited and thinking
about what you've seen, want to explore them more,
you can visit them again in the Poetry Center this week.
They're on a continuous loop during our open hours.
Easy to see.
And if you have any questions about any of that,
ask me or check in with one of our librarians.
We're really excited to be hosting
that in the library space.
Books are for sale, including this anthology
that's just in the world.
It's absolutely beautiful.
It's an incredible piece of work.
They're over here on my right.
And so after the reading, if you're
interested in purchasing books, there's also books
by the poets that are here.
Please come purchase those.
I know that folks will be happy to talk to you,
sign books, talk more about the work in this project.
I'm going to welcome up and introduce Diana Delgado, who
is no stranger to this spot.
And so it's exciting to welcome her back to this space.
Diana is a poet and advocate for social justice.
Her work delves into community, resilience,
and the lived experience of marginalized voices.
She's partnered with a range of organizations,
including the Clinton Foundation, the Coalition
for Hispanic Family Services, this Poetry Center and Hugo
House, driving initiatives in each
of those spaces that amplify underrepresented voices
in the arts.
Her terrific first poetry collection
is called Tracing the Horse, and it
was a New York Times notable new and noteworthy book.
Her chapbook, Late-Night Talks with Men I Think I Trust,
won the 2015 Center for Book Arts Award.
I mentioned her work just a moment ago,
producing these films that will soon see this evening.
And perhaps above all these things,
I want you to join me in celebrating with big applause
the many, many years of work that have built this anthology
and brought it to life.
It's been a huge effort.
It's a beautiful book.
It's a massive undertaking.
Please help me celebrate Diana Delgado.
[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]