WEBVTT

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What if we want to
clap between each poem?

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[LAUGHTER]

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It's Kimberly.

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We can applaud without
even a bio so far.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Yes.

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I wrote a bunch of things
down for everybody,

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but I didn't for
Kimberly because I

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have gotten to know Kimberly
over the last couple of years

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and consider her a dear friend.

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And I sometimes see
Kimberly in New York City.

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I see her more in New York
City, in fact, than I see her

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anywhere else because she
keeps winning too many awards

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and keeps coming to
New York City, which

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I think is delightful.

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So do keep winning awards and
do keep coming to New York City

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so that I can see you.

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I have the great pleasure of
having read a few of Kim's poems

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before they were published.

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And she'll say, this is a mess.

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She'll say this is
really, really rough.

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And then it's the perfect
crystalline, beautiful sliver

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of nature and heart
hearts and humanity

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that you've ever read
and needs no work.

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So that's Kimberly.

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This is Kimberly's actual bio.

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Kimberly is the
founding director

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of Indigenous Nations Poets
and the past Wisconsin poet

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laureate.

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Yes, Indigenous Nations Poets,
Wisconsin poet laureate.

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The author of six
poetry collections,

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most recently Ancient Light,
which you'll hear in a minute,

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Blaeser's honors include a 2026
Science and Literature Award

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from the National
Book Foundation

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that was for Ancient Lights.

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The 2025 Poets and Writers
Writer for Writers Award also,

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yes.

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Masters Review Short Story Award
and a Lifetime Achievement Award

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from the Native Writers
Circle of the Americas.

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Anishinaabe enrolled
in White Earth,

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Blaeser is a Professor
Emerita at UW Milwaukee.

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University of
Wisconsin Milwaukee,

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can you tell that
I'm from Seattle?

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Yes.

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[LAUGHS] We say UDaB.

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There is no other word for the
U and a W next to each other.

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University of Wisconsin,
Milwaukee and an MFA faculty

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member at the Institute
of American Indian Arts.

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Her debut collection
of fiction, Red Ants,

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is forthcoming from
Counterpoint Press this October,

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so preorder now.

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Give it up for Kim Blaeser.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Now, what if I were
to read from here?

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[LAUGHS] Sorry, I didn't
mean to laugh in the mic.

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I kind of did.

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So I've already greeted you.

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I have four poems and I
wanted to, for the Fellows,

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show a little bit of the
different kinds of work

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that I do.

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And we've been focusing
on spirituality.

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We thought about water.

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We were in Mission Gardens
and thought about food.

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And we had a full moon.

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So they're all in
here somewhere.

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And we built community.

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The first poem: I was
built by inherited hungers.

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This is not a poem
that names them.

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One, as a body politic, we
take up space in their ledgers.

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Yes, my relatives are the
salvaged bodies of history.

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We have ways they do not approve
of how we feed ourselves,

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for one.

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I have been taught where to find
the winter cache of squirrels

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and how to walk away.

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As we walk, my
brother quiets me.

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You cannot tell stories until
you visit the places where they

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make their homes.

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Father said the garden
song calls the pollinators.

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And we must sing in tune.

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Nimaamaa said leave some for the
spirits and the little people.

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And what she meant was we are
small in the green, frayed body

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of belonging.

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We learn from makwa,
from Mohegan, sometimes

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even from Nanaboozhoo.

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By this, I mean not
everything tattered is ruined.

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Two, they believe I was
built of equations for gain.

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This poem is not an anthem.

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We still follow picto- spirits,
animal tracks and seed paths.

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Not all of our tools
have price tags.

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Not all of our
safeguards are weapons.

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You will not find wild
game in our lexicon.

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Ask yourself, are we
the meat they covet?

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[APPLAUSE]

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