WEBVTT

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[APPLAUSE]

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Welcome back.

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[LAUGHS]

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It's awesome to be back.

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Thank you, Tyler.

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I just want to acknowledge
the moment that we're in.

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I prepared this talk or sort
of introduction to the book,

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but I want to acknowledge that
much of what I would like to say

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will go unsaid, and
the hope is that we

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can continue to lean into how we
can best say the things that we

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need to, in this particular
moment that we all know--

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is, again, I'm going to
use the word unprecedented,

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but unprecedented
and also dangerous.

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Good evening, everyone.

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Thank you so much for
joining us tonight.

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It's an honor to
share space with you

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and the three remarkable poets
who have traveled to Tucson,

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Arizona to help us celebrate
the first of many launch events

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for Like a Hammer: Poets
on Mass Incarceration.

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It's important to recognize
the special community that

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made this anthology possible
through resources, attention,

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support, and guidance.

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My heartfelt gratitude
goes to Haymarket Books

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and the entire team there,
especially poet and editor

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at large Maya Marshall, Kima
Jones at Triangle Literary,

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Kathie Klarreich from
Exchange for Change,

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who provides writing and
communication-based learning

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to students incarcerated
in South Florida, prisons

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and jails.

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Tyler Meier.

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Tyler Meier and the
entire Poetry Center team,

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including with the highlight
to Paola Valenzuela, who

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sat with me valiantly in the
Poetry Center library one

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day as we both asked our
ancestors to guide us.

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The Art for Justice Fund
and the Community Openers

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for the Art for Justice
Ambassador Readings, Joe Watson,

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Reginald Dwayne Betts, founder
and director of Freedom Reads.

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And lastly, all of the
poets who generously

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contributed their time, hearts,
and minds to this anthology.

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Where I'm from, the town of
La Puente in the San Gabriel

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Valley, we don't
talk about trauma.

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We talk about the gloves
the neighbor put on her son

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during his wake to conceal
marks left by a rival gang.

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We talk about money,
and whether there's

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enough to allow my dad
to attend his mother's

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funeral in shackles.

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We listen as brothers, one
of whom entered prison at 15

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and served more than a
decade in the California

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Department of Corrections,
wonder from one end of a phone

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line about an upcoming
release and whether Home Depot

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hires felons.

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This anthology is
deeply personal to me,

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not just as its editor, but as
someone whose life and poetry

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has been profoundly shaped by
the criminal justice system.

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My first book,
Tracing the Horse,

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delves into the
San Gabriel Valley

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of my youth, a place where
many people I grew up

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with went to prison,
spent time in prison,

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visited someone in prison,
or might never leave prison.

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At eight years old,
maybe even younger,

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I found myself sitting in a
holding cell alongside my mother

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and brother, arrested after
my mother did something very

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benign, like sell weed
or something like that,

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to undercover officers.

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And whether I realized
it then or not,

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that moment, marked by
uncertainty and fear,

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shaped my lifelong exploration
of writing about power,

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resilience, and survival.

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This anthology emerges
from that same urgency.

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The necessity to speak openly
about our collective trauma,

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to acknowledge the
realities of Black

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and brown communities
disproportionately impacted

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by mass incarceration, and
to use poetry as a means

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of amplifying our survival
and our resistance.

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Tonight, we are honored to hear
from three key poets featured

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in this anthology,
part of the 36 poets

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whose works appear in
the book, 15 of whom

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are still behind bars.

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Roque Raquel Salas
Rivera's work is

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critical in tracing the
origins of the carceral system,

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illuminating our
increasing desensitization

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to ongoing injustices.

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Vanessa Angélica
Villarreal's poetry

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profoundly future-oriented
confronts detention centers

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that remain active
and threaten to expand

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unless we understand and act
upon their interconnectedness.

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Sin à Tes Souhaits'
poetry vividly

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portrays the
day-to-day realities

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faced by individuals navigating
life outside incarceration,

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societal stigmas reflected in
how we speak, dress, and fear,

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and fundamentally, how we
move through this world.

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The poems you'll hear tonight
interrogate our flawed justice

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system.

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Challenge us to envision
a life beyond prisons

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and affirm our shared
humanity in profound ways.

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Through these poet's
words we're reminded

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that art isn't merely
reflective, it's transformative.

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Poetry can and will shift
perspectives, build empathy,

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and mobilize us toward
more meaningful reform.

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This anthology, when I began
it, was so confusing to me

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that I had no idea what to
do with the hundreds of poems

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that I had to look through.

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And there was a moment when
I could not figure it out

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because I had been reviewing
all of these other anthologies,

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and, of course,
in a style that is

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I think, just specifically
mine, I said well

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I'm not gonna do it that way.

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And the publisher
said at some point,

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well, that's how the
anthologies work.

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And I said no,
this is going to be

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a book that I'm
going to ask everyone

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to read from beginning to end.

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You're going to read
it like a story,

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and it's a story about the
America's carceral system.

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The anthology
intentionally structured

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to be read from front
to back, mirrors

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the cyclical and perpetual
nature of the carceral system.

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I organized it this way as I
envisioned our circumstances

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coming full circle,
culminating with one

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of the earliest and most painful
historical abuses of the justice

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system--

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the execution of a
young George Stinney Jr.

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The anthology also
includes a study guide

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to encourage deeper
exploration and conversation

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around these critical issues.

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And additionally,
as Tyler mentioned,

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I co-produce films with the
Brinkerhoff Foundation Films

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that are currently available to
support and extend the dialogue

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surrounding mass incarceration.

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Tonight, I invite you not just
to listen, but to allow yourself

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to imagine a future
in which we replace

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bars and shackles with
understanding, healing,

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and critical justice.

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Through stories and
actions, we have the power

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to change our future.

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I want to remind everyone that
we do not need to be experts,

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we do not need to have all
of the answers at the outset,

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but we must allow ourselves
to feel deeply for one

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another, which I believe
is the true purpose of art.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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