Hello, everybody.
Welcome.
How's everybody doing?
Good.
All right.
We can applaud our well-being.
I appreciate this.
It's hard to be well.
It's a busy time.
There's many things happening in the world.
But this is a sign of good things,
a sign of order in the world.
And I'm grateful for that.
So I appreciate you helping to contribute
to that side of the ledger.
I want to start with a huge thanks
to John Hudak, who's sponsoring the reading tonight.
[AUDIENCE CLAPPING] And this is in memory
of his parents, John A. Hudak Jr. and Dorothy M. Hudak.
And so, huge gratitude to John.
Thank you so much.
We're really grateful for all you do for poetry
and all you've done for poetry for many, many years.
We have big news.
And that is that Alicia is not here in person,
but is here in presence, and will be on a giant screen
soon behind us.
And was unable to make it here because
of the weather in the Northeast, which
both stymied travel but also contributed to, I think,
a burst pipe in her apartment complex.
So she's been dealing with many things.
She's very eager to participate in the poetry reading.
And so we'll have her online on Zoom in that format.
And then she's still-- just so you know,
she's committed to coming to Tucson, but next week.
And so she's going to come partake
in some sunshine which we'll allow her
to shovel instead of snow.
And she'll be with us then.
So please know that.
And she'll read first tonight.
And Eleanor will read second.
And we'll get on to that soon.
I wanted to just give a couple of quick announcements.
My name is Tyler.
I work as the director at the Poetry Center, which
is very much a team sport with many people
who are operating the levers to make the Poetry Center go.
Some of them are setting up chairs in the back right now.
Paola Valenzuela, Julie Johnson is back there too, I think.
Bruno is helping make the sound work.
Sarah Kortemeier is here.
She runs our library, many other staff.
It's a big team effort and gratitude to everybody
who participates in all of it and puts up with me.
We have been working with the downtown Tucson partnerships
on the annual haiku contest.
It's become-- this is the seventh iteration of it.
It's free to submit.
If you're interested in adding your voice to the mix,
the theme this year is connections.
Thinking about what connects us to each other,
what connects us to places, what connects us
to ideas that we care about.
All of that's fair game.
And so maybe what connects the plant to the ground, et cetera.
You can imagine broadly that deadline is looming.
It's on February 2nd.
So if you're feeling haiku-ish, operate quickly, and participate
soon before it closes, we'd love to have your voice included
in the mix there.
It's always great.
The 20 winning poems are then presented on
and featured in plaques throughout downtown Tucson
throughout the spring.
And we would be thrilled to have more submissions.
If you're a student at the U of A, raise your hand.
Anybody students?
Some of you are.
Very good.
OK.
I want to quickly announce for you guys especially,
you may have heard this, others in the room.
There's a Palo Verde Bloom Festival happening this year
with the Hispanic Metro Chamber that's launching that.
And they are sponsoring a contest for U of A students
to submit a poem to become the poet laureate of the festival.
And if you're interested in doing that,
I encourage you to submit.
Those details are on the Poetry Center's website.
And the deadline for that is February 20th.
You have a little bit of extra time.
That does not mean delay.
If you're like me, move early.
Don't wait for the deadline.
But we would love to have you submitting in that
and participating in that contest as well.
The Poetry Center is again partnering
with the College of Science on their lecture series, which
is their major event that happens at the Centennial
Hall for lectures every spring.
This spring, their theme is Today's Science,
Tomorrow's World.
The topics roam between each of the lectures.
They've invited us to have a poet
as a kind of opener for those readings and those lectures.
The first one will be on February 4th.
The topic of the talk is on aging science,
and what we know about aging, and what science is teaching us.
The poem is by the ever youthful Peggy Shumaker.
And so I hope you'll come to those.
Those are free on various nights throughout February.
You can learn more at the College of science website.
That's their big lecture series.
Again, all throughout February.
And the first poet launching that off with us
is Peggy Shumaker.
We have interpretation tonight from two signers.
And we're really pleased that they're here.
Please, a big round of applause for Leanne and Sydney.
[AUDIENCE CLAPPING] Who we are incredibly grateful
for their work with interpretation and with signing.
Three upcoming things at the Poetry Center.
Just to quickly reference, in addition to all the other things
happening there on February 12th,
there's a collaboration with the creative writing program,
a prose reading with two prose writers that will be in town
that night.
That's a Thursday, February 12th, here at the Poetry Center.
Fernando Flores and Rodrigo Restrepo Montoya.
We're so excited that they're both here.
Rodrigo is here in Tucson.
Fernando is traveling in.
That will be a prose reading here, again,
in collaboration with the creative writing program
on February 12th.
February 19th is a poetry reading with Annie Wenstrup
and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha.
And we're so excited about this.
Tuffaha was the 2024 National Book Award winner.
And so thrilled to have.
Annie's got a terrific first book.
That's back here, February 19th, 7 o'clock at the Poetry Center.
And then on February 26th, we have our annual Morgan Lucas
Schuldt reading that will feature the poets Susan Nguyen
and Andrew Grace.
And we're really excited about that as well.
Lots of things happening.
We're flooding the zone.
We're really excited about it.
So hope you'll come back and come enjoy some poetry
throughout the upcoming weeks.
You might be asking yourself, as I talk about all these things,
what can I do to help the Poetry Center?
Maybe you're not.
Part of my duty is to tell you a little bit
about how you might help.
And so one of the great ways that this can happen
is through contributions to what we call the Whitman Circle here
at the Poetry Center.
And that supporters that choose to make a $250 annual commitment
and get access to a series of benefits through that support.
And this is really an engine of how
the Poetry Center is able to do all the things that it does.
Some of those perks are receptions with poets
before they visit and more-- broadsides, et cetera.
The Whitman Circle, again, a big part of the Poetry Center.
Whitman famously said, I am large and contain multitudes.
We're hoping that the Whitman Circle can also
be large and contain multitudes.
And so if you think that's right for you,
there's some information about giving on the side over here.
I'm happy to talk to you.
And we would love to have your support of the center.
Thanks so much for that.
And if you are in the Whitman Circle,
thank you so much for your support and a round of applause
for you and for all that you do.
[AUDIENCE CLAPPING]
My job is done now.
But I'm excited to welcome up the poet, editor, translator,
and Emerita Professor Cynthia Hogue, who's going
to introduce Alicia Ostriker.
Hogue is the author of more than 20 titles,
most recently the wonderful poetry collection, "instead,
it is dark."
Please help us welcome our good friend, Cynthia Hogue.