WEBVTT

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Hello, everybody.

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How are you doing?

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Good.

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Good, great.

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Yay.

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Good.

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Yay, yay.

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Good, I'm glad.

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I want to know that
you're doing well.

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And I hope that
everyone is doing well.

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And I think you're
making a choice tonight

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that points towards
wellness, and that you've

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come to a poetry reading on
a Thursday night in Tucson.

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And so I commend you
for excellent choices.

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And I hope that
you'll consider coming

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back again for more and more.

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And I'll tell you
more about some things

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that are coming up at the
Poetry Center in a second.

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My name is Tyler,
and I work here

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as the director at
the Poetry Center.

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Anyone, is this your first
time to the Poetry Center?

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Good work.

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Yeah, great.

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This is me giving
you all a high five.

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I hope you feel welcome.

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I hope you'll think
of this as a place

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that you can keep returning to.

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There's an amazing spring with
a lot of things coming up.

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And we hope that you'll
be back with us again.

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It won't always be this
cold, if you're cold.

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I realize one of our
readers is from Alaska,

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and she's traveled from Alaska.

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And so we're not
impressing Annie right now

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with our cold tolerance.

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Coming up next week at the
center, there's a reading.

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It's our annual Morgan Lucas
Schuldt Memorial reading.

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And the two poets that are
going to be here for that

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are the poet Susan
Nguyen, who's coming down

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from Phoenix behind
her first book,

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and her work with
Hayden's Ferry Review

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at Arizona State University.

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And then the poet
Andrew Grace, who's

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going to travel here from
Ohio and read from his latest

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book about the Midwest.

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And we're thrilled to have
both of those poets here.

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That's back here in
this space at the Poetry

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Center at 7 o'clock on
Thursday of next week.

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Coming up on
Saturday, March 7, we

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have the state finals for
Arizona for Poetry Out Loud.

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And so this is a contest where
high school students memorize

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poems, and then say them out
loud in a kind but competitive

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format.

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And so there's classroom
winners, and then

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school winners, and
regional winners.

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And so what we're determining
on the 7th is the state winners

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from the Southern, Central
and Northern regions.

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So we'll have students from all
over Arizona here in Tucson.

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If you're worried about
the state of the world,

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hearing young people
say poems that they've

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put in their brains, and can
do without looking at anything

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is a sign of order in the world.

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And so that's at 1 o'clock.

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And if you want to
come cheer them on,

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I know that they would be
excited to see you in the crowd.

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And it's a fun thing
to be a part of.

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After that, there's a little bit
of a break at the Poetry Center.

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But there is this thing in
Tucson called the Tucson

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Festival of Books, which is
coming again, and that is large.

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And there's some
amazing voices who

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are going to be here for that.

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If you've not seen
the list yet, I

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encourage you to go look
at some of the folks who

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are going to come for that.

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Writers like Salman
Rushdie will be here.

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But also, it will be a true
laureate fest this year

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at the book festival,
which is remarkable.

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So Arthur Sze, the current US
poet laureate, will be here.

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Joy Harjo, a former US poet
laureate, will be here.

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Alberto Ríos, the outgoing
Arizona poet laureate,

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will be here, as well as
Arizona's newly named poet

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laureate, Laura Tohe, will be
here reading from her work.

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And then the newly named Tucson
poet laureate, who we don't even

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know who that is yet,
it's still in the process,

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will give one of
their first readings

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at the Festival of books
as they're appointed

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by the mayor of Tucson.

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So lots going on.

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In addition and
beyond those, there's

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more poets, more
writers, and many others.

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That's the 14th and 15th of
March on the main mall of the U

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of A campus, and in
spaces around there.

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And so I encourage you to go
online, and look at those,

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and see what's happening.

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It is my great pleasure
to get out of the way now.

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But before I do
that, I want to thank

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two folks that have helped make
the events tonight possible.

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And so one is the Center
for Middle Eastern Studies

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here on campus.

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We're grateful for
their support of making

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events happen on campus.

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And then a huge kudos to our
great friend Peggy Shumaker,

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who's also helped make events
happen around poetry in Tucson,

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and in other places
in the country.

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And we're incredibly
grateful for that kindness,

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and for that love and that care.

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Peggy is going to introduce
our readers tonight.

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She is the author,
most recently,

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of the wonderful poetry
collection Still Water Carving

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Light.

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Please help me welcome
Peggy Shumaker.

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[APPLAUSE]