WEBVTT

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Let me see.

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So, yeah.

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So I'm reading tonight from this
brand-new book, 13 Questions

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for the Next Economy.

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And this book
exists, in a sense,

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because the small press that
published my first three books

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is no longer in business.

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My whole career and my home
in poetry is in small presses.

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Small presses.

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This small press, the press I
was working with, Ahsahta Press,

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took a chance on me
when I was a poet who

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didn't have a book out and then
published three books of mine.

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And then Noemi Press
took a chance on me

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with Defacing the Monument.

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And they let me create a book
that, as Raquel was saying,

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it's kind of poetry,
it's kind of essay,

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and it's kind of criticism.

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It's kind of cultural criticism.

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Small presses let us
take risks, and they're

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vital to the art ecology that
I think we're all a part of.

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There are so many
places that need

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our attention and our love
and our need right now,

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and it's easy to
feel overwhelmed.

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But if you do have a chance
to support a small press,

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support a small press.

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You can do it by buying my book.

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That'd be lovely.

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But you can also do it
just by donating to them.

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And if you're
worried about trying

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to make sure your
money goes someplace,

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at least in the
case of this book,

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I'll donate 50% of my royalties
to the Florence Immigration

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and Refugee Rights Project
and Mariposas Sin Fronteras.

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But, look, support everybody.

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Support the food banks.

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Don't forget the small presses.

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They let me take risks.

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When I was going back
to these old poems,

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I wanted to look at
them in a new way.

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And I've thought a lot in my
writing about the archive,

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about documents.

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So I started collaging
under some of these poems.

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You'll see some of
the source texts

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that inspired the
poems appeared there.

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And this small press said, sure,
we can publish those collages,

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and we can make it
look like a zine

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because that's the
aesthetic you want.

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And you want to do a hard-bound,
limited-cover edition?

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OK, we won't make money,
but, sure, we'll do it.

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It's a beautiful thing
and it's a lot of work,

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so please consider
supporting arts

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institutions whenever you can,
especially the small ones.