How is everybody?
How are we doing?
[CHEERING]
OK?
[CLAPPING]
Hooray.
That's all it takes.
You say, how are you doing, and people start clapping.
[LAUGHS]
It's great.
This is the only time that'll happen in my life.
[LAUGHS]
I just want to start.
We found a phone, so if anyone is missing a phone,
it looks like this, it's red in the back.
Is that yours, Pam?
OK, great.
Let me rehome this phone.
[INAUDIBLE]
Thanks, everybody, for being here.
I want to say one exciting thing.
It's so new, the ink still smells fresh.
This is our calendar for the spring
season at the Poetry Center, which
should have been here days ago.
And you're all here without maybe
getting this calendar in the mail, which is a miracle.
And I'm so proud of you for finding your way to the Poetry
Center before the calendar has found its way to you.
Take this home with you.
This will tell you about everything else that's
going to happen at the Poetry Center this spring,
including upcoming readings, and I'll
touch on a couple of those in a second.
But it's very attractive.
It will fit very nicely on your fridge, or in your living room,
or in other places.
And there's a lot of great poets who
are going to come visit us this season at the Poetry Center,
and we're really excited about it.
It is also, of course, an incredibly challenging time.
And I don't want to gloss the gravity of this moment,
but I am thinking about all of us.
And if you're like me, you're probably
thinking about what you might do,
or what your relationship is to this moment.
And I think among all of the options for what
those relationships might be.
I reflect back on the poet, Aracelis Girmay,
and her poem The Black Maria.
And in that poem, there's a line that says,
"and so to tenderness I add my action."
And I think one thing that poetry
can do for us is hold us to tenderness, the tenderness
of seeing how one mind moves in a way in the world that is sung
to us in language, and that is often then placed before you
as a reader or as a listener.
And that relationship between a poet and a listener,
or a poet and a reader is an astonishing thing.
And I want to commend all of you for choosing
the tenderness that poems make possible tonight.
And I hope you take that with you into this new year,
and then you think about maybe what action you might add to it.
In this calendar, the next reading that's coming up
is with Alicia Ostriker and Eleanor Wilner.
And that's on the 29th of January,
and that'll be back here in this space at the Poetry Center at 7
o'clock.
And again, many great readings to follow after that.
And I won't spend time going through all of it
because we have lots of good things to talk about.
But know that it's all there, and you
can find it in this piece of paper that you'll take with you.
And this reading tonight is something new for us,
and we're so thrilled about this.
And if you follow the Poetry Center online,
that you may have seen that we've
announced the completion of fundraising
for three new endowed readings in our series.
That's pretty awesome.
[APPLAUSE]
Really awesome.
And this work is part of the strategic plan at the Poetry
Center that's called The Belonging Initiative.
Two of these readings are going to come in the future.
And so one will be the Ofelia Zepeda
Reading for Indigenous Poets, which we're so excited about.
And another will be The Alison Hawthorne Deming Residency
for Environmental Writers.
Lest there is any confusion, Alison and Ofelia
are doing great.
And Alison's here.
Where is Alison?
Hooray.
[LAUGHS]
[APPLAUSE]
But we're really excited to secure
the legacy of these amazing women and these poets
through these programs, and affirm our commitment
at the Poetry Center to these communities of writers,
these ways of thinking, and newly visible ways building
on our work that's happened over the last 65 years.
Another of those readings is happening tonight.
And we're thrilled to be launching
the third endowed program, which is called the H.D and Bryher
Residency for LGBTQ Poets.
Could not be happier to have Cameron Awkward-Rich and Franny
Choi here with us in Tucson to bring this to life.
The dream of these programs is to make space for artists
to undertake new work, to rest and recharge
in the Sonoran Desert, and to share work
with audiences in Tucson.
And in doing so, we want to celebrate
the enormous, the life-giving, the ongoing contributions
of queer practitioners to the landscape of American poetry
and poetics.
We're likewise excited to carve space for new ways
to make the poetry's values legible in this moment.
And in a moment, we'll hear from Tim Schaffner, who
along with his wife, Anne Maley-Schaffner,
have made this new program possible.
I hope as I welcome Tim up to the stage
to say a couple of remarks, you will join me in raucous applause
for their work to do this tonight,
but also into the future.
[APPLAUSE]
Please welcome Tim Schaffner to tell us a little bit about this.