WEBVTT

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Thank you so much, Kim.

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It's really wonderful to
hear your beautiful words

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of gratitude.

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I want to continue that note
of gratitude to all of you

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for being here this evening.

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Last night, I was up
here reading poetry,

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and I talked about
tenderness because I

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do believe that poetry
is an act of tenderness.

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I think that poetry is a gift.

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And one of the things that I
talked about with one of my--

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oops, I did the thing.

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One of the things I talked
about with one of my classes

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or workshops was how
poetry is put on a page,

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and it leaves the body
when it's put on the page.

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This is the little
workshop packet

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we all looked at with
poems on the page.

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And then when it's
spoken, when it's read,

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it leaves the body, when
it goes onto the page

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and when it's read, it
comes back into the body.

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And Kim mentioned the
idea of sacred spaces.

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And I do think that there's a
sacred space between the reader

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and the audience.

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And so I want to
thank you for offering

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that sacredness to the space.

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Another thing that we
did this week is we

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made pinch pots with
one of our readers

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tonight, the amazing poet
and potter Max Early.

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And I was looking at this.

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This is mine.

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My little humble bowl.

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And I was noticing how it
is in the shape of my palm

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because we made
them in the hand.

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And it reminded
me that all art is

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in the shape of the
human who made it.

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So we're going to see many
different shapes of art tonight.

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We're going to see
poetry being tender.

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We're going to see poetry doing
the thing that poetry does,

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which is make a connection
between one person and another,

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inviting a shared
humanity in that.

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And we're going to see pure,
unadulterated Indigenous

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excellence tonight.

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So let's give it up
for all the readers

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that are going to read tonight.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Let's give it up
for all the readers

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who read last
night, including me,

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and give it up for everybody
who's offered that tenderness.

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So I think we're going
to just get things going.

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And also, I will say that last
year, I emceed one of the events

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at Poets House, and I
invited the audience

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to get a little rowdy.

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And I would love to make
that invitation of you.

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I know that I talked
about tenderness,

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but this is a celebratory,
celebratory space,

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and I would love to celebrate
these amazing writers that are

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going to be reading tonight.