WEBVTT

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Hello, everybody.

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Happy Friday.

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How we doing?

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Good.

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[CHEERING]

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Thanks for being here.

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Welcome to the Poetry Center.

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My name is Tyler Meier.

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I work here as the Director
at the Poetry Center.

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It's a big joy to
have folks back

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here for night two of the 2026
In-Na-Po retreat readings.

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How many of you were
here last night?

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Thanks for coming back.

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Good work.

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And what you heard last night,
this is like the awesomeness

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again.

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So it doubles.

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It comes twice.

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And if you missed it
last night, you're

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in luck, because it's going
to be awesome tonight.

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So your Friday is about to
get really, really good.

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It has been a really amazing,
amazing and incredible

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and profoundly
meaningful week, truly.

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And it has been such a
joy to have opportunities

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to share the work that's
been happening back

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with this community.

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And so thanks for being here
to hear about the things

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that have been happening and
what everyone has been up to.

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Very quickly, if
you're here in Tucson,

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there's a couple of events
coming up at the Poetry Center

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later this month.

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So next week, on
Thursday, April 9,

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we have the Belarusian
poet, Volha Hapayeva,

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who's coming to be with us, and
we're really excited about that.

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That's a partnership with an
EU-based poetry group called

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Versopolis that's interested
in broader exchange between EU

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poets and American poets.

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And so we're very excited
to be hosting Volha here.

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She'll be reading in
Belarusian, German, and English

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across the translation.

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So if you speak one language,
come and be jealous,

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like I will be.

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And we're super
excited about that.

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She's amazing and really
a truly prominent voice

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in Eastern European poetry.

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Right after that,
on April 16, we

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have the writer Julia Alvarez,
best known for so much

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of her fiction, but has a
really wonderful new book

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of poems that will come out in
four days called Visitations.

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And so we're thrilled to have
Julia here for part of that book

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launch work and celebrating
that work in Tucson,

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and we hope you'll come
back for that as well.

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So that's a few
things coming up.

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I said some of these
thank yous last night,

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but I want to say
some of them again,

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for folks that are joining us
tonight for the first time.

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So I hope you'll give a big,
loud, sustained applause

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for Sarah Chisholm and Chuck
Hudson of the MHA nation

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for their support of
what's been happening here

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at the In-Na-Po retreat.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Keep it going for Mark Bahti,
who's helped make this happen.

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[APPLAUSE]

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And then I really want to
thank Levi Esquerra, who's

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here with us tonight from
the Office of Native American

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Advancement and Tribal
Engagement here on campus.

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Levi, thank you for your
support, for your leadership.

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We're grateful.

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And this is one
of the reasons why

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we've been able to do all
the things we've been doing.

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Big thanks to the
Amerind Museum,

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which was the host of the
retreat earlier in the week,

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I think I saw Kelly
Holt. Here's Kelly.

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Yeah, thank you so much
to the Amerind, which

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has been a big part of
what's been happening.

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To the Poetry Center
staff, Man, am I lucky.

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I'm so lucky.

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And especially to
Paola Valenzuela.

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Thanks for all your hard
work, for your creativity,

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for your grace.

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It's a real honor to get
to work alongside you

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and to learn from you.

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And I so appreciate you and
thanks for all your hustle.

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There are many more
to thank, and I just

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want to say maybe
I'll do that this way.

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The Poetry Center right now is
in a new strategic direction

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that we call the
belonging initiative,

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and we're trying to think really
hard about how we can use poetry

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and poetry experiences to help
build more of the conditions

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for belonging and how
that might happen.

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So it asks the question,
what is belonging,

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or what does it mean to belong?

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And what does language
have to do with this?

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And I think it often
comes down to being

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in a kind of right relationship.

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I think this is
possible and maybe

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most possible in
the arena of a poem,

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and I think the
best ones teach us

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how to be in relationship with
our boldest, wildest hopes

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and with our most
vexing challenges,

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sometimes at the same time.

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And I think of Ofelia's
poem last night

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that she read at the end of the
reading in the midst of songs,

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and she says in that poem,
if you were here last night,

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bear with me.

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She's better than I am.

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But I'm going to say
some of this language

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again because it's so good.

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"We're in the midst of song,

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A place where
language and landscape

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become maybe one thing,

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The same thing."

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And she goes on to say,

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"our heart is full of joy,

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Our mind is good,

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Our land is good,

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The land is all beautiful,

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Take a look,

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There is a light
rain all around,

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Take a look."

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And this is what I mean by
being in right relationship.

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I think something that
is ultimately felt.

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And when it's felt
want to share it.

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And so to the fellows,
what amazing, amazing work

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you have done this week.

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I have so loved
hearing your words.

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That work, that work is good.

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Take a look.

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To the faculty, to
the visiting writers,

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your generosity is incredible.

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You have been a guiding force.

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It has been awesome to
be in your presence.

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And I say to all of you
that work is good, everyone.

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Please, take a look.

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To the absolutely, outrageously
great In-Na-Po staff

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who worked so hard on the
details for all this beauty that

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has happened this
week to come forward,

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the work is so good guys.

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Take a look.

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And to Kim Blaeser, it means
so much to have your trust,

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to partner with you, to think
with you, to dream with you,

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and to build with you.

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This work is really good.

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You're really good at it.

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Please take a look.

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[APPLAUSE]

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And this is what
I mean about being

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in a right relationship, of
being in a place where something

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is correct and connected.

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And it has been a real
honor for the Poetry Center

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to be in that space.

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It's been an honor
for us, I think,

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to think about how
we might aspire

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to the work we want to do in
this belonging initiative.

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And I'm so grateful
to learn from you.

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So please, help welcome up Kim
Blaeser to take over from here.

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[APPLAUSE]