Hello, everybody.
Welcome how are you all.
Good.
All right.
Let's applaud your well-being.
I like it, I'm stowing everyone as I do this.
There'll be about 10 readers tonight.
And this is how this microphone works best when you're
about this far away from it.
So one example.
Welcome to the Poetry Center.
If you've not been here before, my name is Tyler Meier.
We have a very special night tonight
and you've made an excellent choice
with your Thursday evening.
And the most exciting news about that
is that you have a chance to do it again
tomorrow night on Friday.
And so this is the first half of the 2026 readings
from the In-Na-Po retreat.
And it will feature Fellows and faculty from the retreat.
And those that weren't reading tonight
will be reading tomorrow night back here at the Poetry
Center at 7 o'clock.
So an amazing sequence of opportunities awaits you.
But thanks for being here tonight.
How many of you were in Dragoon, Arizona
last night at about 7 o'clock.
Oh, good work.
Hooray.
Good work.
There was a wonderful reading that happened out there.
There was a poetry bus that left the Poetry Center
and magically returned.
[LAUGHTER]
It made it.
And a great reading that happened out there.
And we're really excited for the readings
that are going to happen here.
That was perhaps our last chance to be cold in Tucson
for five months.
And so if you opted into that good work, remember it.
So again, a big thrill to have the In-Na-Po retreat
here with us in Tucson.
This is the fifth iteration of the retreat.
It's moved to many different places.
This is the first time it's been in Southern Arizona,
and it's just been incredible and really meaningful
for the Poetry Center.
And I hope really exciting for the participants as well.
In-Na-Po is piloted by an incredible team.
And that includes people like Andrew Blue Sky.
Maybe round of applause.
[APPLAUSE]
Jodi Vander Molen.
Jodi.
Yeah.
Angie Trudell Vasquez with really able
assists in the planning this year
from Chris Hoshnic and Max Early.
[APPLAUSE]
And of course, the founding director
and presiding spirit in many ways of In-Na-Po,
the poet Kimberly Blaeser.
So Paola and I from the Poetry Center
have been working with this group for the last many months,
thinking about the retreat, organizing details.
We mostly knew these people as rectangles on a computer screen,
and it's been really exciting to know them in our corporeal forms
together.
So a real joy.
And it's been a delight to see the fruits of all this good work
that's happened together.
I want to have you please put your hands also together again
for pose partners.
And for the first part of the--
I'm sorry-- for the partners that
have been part of the collaboration
to help make this happen.
And that is the Amerind museum, which
is the destination in Dragoon, Arizona, where
the group has been for the first four days of the retreat.
They've been both host and backdrop for all the things
that have happened.
And we want to give a special shout out and welcome
to their executive director, Eric Kaldahl, who's here,
and their development director, Kelly Holt, who's here as well.
So hooray, Kelly.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
And then last thing, I'll just say some quick thanks
to folks that have helped put some wind in the sails.
So these efforts always cost a little bit of money
as we organize, as we make them happen.
And we've had great support from this community.
And we're so grateful for it.
And I especially want to acknowledge the support of Chuck
Hudson from the MHA Nation.
And Sarah Chisholm please.
Round of applause.
Chuck is here.
[APPLAUSE]
There he is.
Thank you.
Chuck.
Sarah is here as well.
Thanks for support from Mark Batty who's here as well,
I think.
Mark.
Thank you, Mark.
We want to thank the office on campus,
the Office of Native American Advancement and Tribal
Engagement for their support as well of what's been happening.
[APPLAUSE]
So without further ado, I'm going
to turn things over to Kimberly Blaeser
to tell you a bit more about In-Na-Po.
And then she'll introduce Andrew and we'll
be off to the readings.
10 readers tonight.
Thanks for being here.
Hope to see you again tomorrow.
Please welcome Kimberly Blaeser.