Hi, everybody.
How you doing?
That's a little shrill.
[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]
Sorry to be a little shrill.
Good to see you all.
Happy Thursday.
Welcome to the Poetry Center.
We're glad you're here at the end of October.
It's been a really good month for poetry in Tucson.
It's getting even better tonight.
And so welcome to all that awaits us.
My name is Tyler.
I work here as the Director at the Poetry Center.
We could not be more thrilled to have our colleagues
reading with us tonight.
So a big round of applause and welcome for Farid Matuk
and Susan Briante.
[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]
Two heartbeats of what happens in Tucson
with poetry and a real joy to celebrate
two new books from both of them this evening,
including Susan's book, which is just out.
And I think this is the very first event that's
happening with that book.
So we're excited about all of that.
Those books are for sale.
And Susan's books are so exciting.
They're for sale in two places.
So some of them are here, and some of them are here.
And this is where you can find the new one.
And then Farid's books are all for sale over here as well.
So we hope you'll find your way to those tables
after the reading.
And both poets would be really excited to sign those books
and to talk with you.
And so please put your nickels together and visit that place.
If you don't have any money with you,
you're not going to go away empty handed.
And that's because Ander Monson has made
beautiful broadsides for us.
And I think Ander is in the back over here.
Thank you, Ander, so much, and New Michigan Press.
If you've been to readings at the Poetry Center,
this sometimes happens.
And this is one of the moments when it's happening.
They're beautiful.
The first 100 people get them.
So if you don't have them and you're interested,
there are a few extras up here you can find after the reading,
and some more that are on the table in the breezeway.
I hope you'll grab those.
They have been scented with a scent.
And so enjoy the scent of your broadsides.
I want to tell you about a couple
of things that are coming up at the Poetry Center,
and then invite up some folks to help introduce Farid and Susan.
So the first thing is that how many of you
went on the Dream History tour last Saturday?
[CHEERING]
A lot of you did.
Good work.
There's another this weekend, and this is the last.
It's on this Saturday, the first, at 11 AM.
It's at MOCA Tucson.
So it'll be meeting at the front entryway to MOCA,
and then departing from there for a walk
through that part of Tucson and for the imagined history
of those places in that area.
And this is done by our great friend Mathias
Svalina, who's been delivering dreams around Tucson--
[APPLAUSE]
--and spending the past month with us.
And this is also our last time to really
hang out with Mathias before he departs for his next stop.
So if you haven't been to those before, please come.
About a mile and a half walk.
It's a great time for a good hat, a water bottle,
and some good shoes.
But you'll have a delightful time.
And I hope you'll come and join us for that.
That's Saturday, the first, 11 AM at MOCA Tucson,
which, of course, is an amazing place in its own right,
but you should plan on visiting after the walk.
On the sixth of November, we'll have our next reading
back here at the Poetry Center.
And that's with Karen Emmerich, who
will be in town as the keynote for the American Literary
Translators Association Conference.
So Karen will do a reading from her translation work
that Thursday night here at the Poetry Center later in the week.
And she'll give the keynote for the conference.
The ALTA Conference brings hundreds of translators
to Tucson when it happens here.
It's an amazing collection of all the people
doing the work of literature, going between languages,
becoming much more possible across all these different ways
of speaking and knowing.
And so we're thrilled that ALTA is happening in Tucson again.
Her keynote is also open to the public,
along with some other events.
And you can learn about those at literarytranslators.org.
Some of those are evening events.
Some of those are conference happenings
that are open to the public.
Literarytranslators.org is the way to know about that.
And most of those are on site at the Marriott Hotel
that's in the campus area.
Some of the other events are in places
around town in the evenings.
Lots going on.
November 15 at 1 o'clock, we're really
excited to have a performance from the poet and musician Brian
Laidlaw.
So that's a Saturday at 1 o'clock
back here at the Poetry Center.
Brian works with a group called Unrestricted Interest,
and that is a group that's dedicated
to neurodivergent listening, learning, and languaging.
And Brian collaborates with poets and non-speaking poets,
many of whom are here in Tucson.
And then he works with them to take their lyrics, their words,
and creates music, co-creates music with them.
So it'll be a performance of those pieces.
That's here November 15 at 1 o'clock.
We're really excited to have those poets with us,
and we're really excited to have Brian's presence here with us.
It was a very beautiful performance
last time Brian was here.
And we're really thrilled that he's
coming back down from Moab, Utah to do another show here
at the Poetry Center.
November 20 at 7 o'clock, we'll be back here
at the Poetry Center with the poets Vievee Francis and Matthew
Olzmann.
And then we finish out the semester
with two events, December 3 and 4, Wednesday and Thursday, both
at 7 o'clock here at the Poetry Center
with the poet Anselm Berrigan.
He'll be giving a lecture on the Wednesday
and then reading from his poetry on Thursday.
And that will finish us out for the season.
It's been a good season.
A big round of applause to my colleagues
at the Poetry Center that put a lot of energy and work
into this.
I will also say, one thing that will also
be happening this winter, the Poetry Center
has had some upgrades to its HVAC system.
So we are promising a warmer library for you
in the colder parts of Tucson, the colder months.
But the second half of that work will
happen over the winter break.
We'll be close to the public starting--
December 13 is a Saturday.
Once we have our normal hours that day,
we're going to be closed.
We'll reopen on January 6, and that'll give the pipefitters
a lot of time to do the work they need to do in our ceilings
during that stretch.
When you come back in January, expect greatness.
So we're looking forward to it.
And we're excited to open up again for you all at that time
as well.
But there will be a little stretch there.
We will be closed to the public so that we can be a job site.
Farid going to read first tonight.
And Susan will read second.
To welcome them, Farid will be introduced by Mathias,
I mentioned.
So he's been delivering dreams to many of us
in Tucson for the past month.
Most recently the author of the book
Thank You, Terror, and a forthcoming story collection
that will come out in December.
And then Susan will be introduced
by Raquel Gutiérrez, who's the author of the essay collection
Brown Neon and the forthcoming poetry
collection in early December from Noemi Press, Southwest
Reconstruction.
Please help me welcome first, Mathias, to tell us
more about Farid.
[APPLAUSE]