[APPLAUSE]
Boozhoo, everyone.
Kim Blaeser nindizhinikaaz.
Anishinaabekwe ndaaw.
Gaa-waabaabiganikaag nindonjibaa.
Mgizi
nindoodem.
So I'm Kim Blaeser.
I'm Anishinaabe from the White Earth Nation
of Northwestern Minnesota.
I'm founding director of In-Na-Po,
and Indigenous Nations Poets was launched in 2020.
We are a national Indigenous poetry community
committed to mentoring emerging writers,
nurturing the growth of Indigenous poetic practices,
and raising the visibility of all native writers.
Past, present, and future.
In-Na-Po recognizes the role of poetry
in sustaining tribal, sovereign nations and indigenous
languages.
Ask us about this.
We'd be happy to tell you more.
Visit our website, which is indigenousnationspoets.org.
So Boozhoo, nwiijkiwenhak, boozhoo, indinawemaaganidog.
Hello my friends.
Hello my relatives.
We're delighted to have you and delighted
to be here in this space.
We're incredibly blessed to have our fifth annual mentoring
retreat for emerging indigenous poets,
in partnership with the Amerind Museum
and the University of Arizona Poetry Center.
And Tyler thanked a lot of the people, I would think,
but I want you to join me in thanking Tyler.
[APPLAUSE]
And Paola, both of them--
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They won't tell you this, but they've done everything
from driving vans, to raising money to support the retreat,
and they've done it with joy and warmth.
So we're really delighted to have this partnership.
We've had a beautiful run of days at Amerind.
And again, ask us about it.
And if you were there last night for the moon ceremony,
you know what I'm talking about.
So I also want to just say that the places that Tyler mentioned,
the several, we counted them up.
7 Arizona organizations, including Arizona Humanities.
I'm not sure if that was on your list,
but we have a lot of Arizona support,
so give yourselves around of applause.
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And then I hope you will allow me to name publicly
some of our other funders, and one
of our supporters for this retreat was Trio House Press.
We have been funded and continue to be funded by the Henry Luce
Foundation, Academy of American Poets, Mellon Foundation,
Hawthornden Foundation, Amazon Literary Partnership, The Poetry
Foundation, and many individual donors
who sponsor fellows to attend the retreat
or make small or large contributions
to our organization that helps us continue.
And if you would like to be one of those funders,
we would welcome you.
And again, it's indigenousnationspoets.org.
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So In-Na-Po is really delighted to host and share this space
tonight.
And as Tyler said, we have a group of dynamite readers.
We have both our fellows, the emerging fellows.
We have a new group of fellows, and then we
have returning fellows.
And our returning fellows help to mentor the newest fellows.
And then we also have a core faculty and visiting writers.
So we bring together a really wonderful group of people.
And this year has seemed particularly special.
And I don't want to say goodbye to any of these people,
but tonight we don't have to.
You get to meet them.
So we have one of our own, Andrew Blue Sky,
who is our communications director.
He is a member of the Oneida Nation.
He is an artist, a writer, and a filmmaker,
and he will serve as tonight's emcee.
So please help us welcome the indispensable Andrew Blue Sky.
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