WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.960 align:middle line:84% So without further ado, I'm going 00:00:01.960 --> 00:00:03.688 align:middle line:90% to bring up our first reader. 00:00:03.688 --> 00:00:05.480 align:middle line:84% And I'm going to read the bio, and I'm also 00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:08.280 align:middle line:84% going to talk a little bit about my experience of their work. 00:00:08.280 --> 00:00:12.240 align:middle line:84% So for Kentaro, our first reader, 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:14.440 align:middle line:84% language was a barrier between Kentaro Herder 00:00:14.440 --> 00:00:16.079 align:middle line:90% and his grandmother, Lily. 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:19.480 align:middle line:84% In quiet afternoons, they held knife-sharpened pencils 00:00:19.480 --> 00:00:22.840 align:middle line:84% while he wrote the ABCs, and she drew spirals 00:00:22.840 --> 00:00:25.320 align:middle line:90% for her next wool rug design. 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:26.840 align:middle line:90% Spiraled tongue. 00:00:26.840 --> 00:00:28.260 align:middle line:90% This is how he met poetry. 00:00:28.260 --> 00:00:31.840 align:middle line:90% Now, that's his bio. 00:00:31.840 --> 00:00:33.220 align:middle line:90% Imagine his poetry. 00:00:33.220 --> 00:00:35.560 align:middle line:84% I think-- when I think about Kentaro, 00:00:35.560 --> 00:00:39.880 align:middle line:90% I think about wingbeats. 00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:41.840 align:middle line:84% We had an exercise this afternoon, 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:44.920 align:middle line:84% and we heard the wingbeats in his poetry. 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:48.617 align:middle line:84% I think about the generosity and fluidity of thought and language 00:00:48.617 --> 00:00:49.700 align:middle line:90% that you feel in his work. 00:00:49.700 --> 00:00:52.120 align:middle line:84% And I think about the way that he thinks around, 00:00:52.120 --> 00:00:54.760 align:middle line:84% and through, and under, and over any obstacle 00:00:54.760 --> 00:00:59.760 align:middle line:84% to bring us a true, authentic, original, and humane 00:00:59.760 --> 00:01:00.920 align:middle line:90% body of work. 00:01:00.920 --> 00:01:02.060 align:middle line:90% Kentaro Herder. 00:01:02.060 --> 00:01:05.500 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:01:05.500 --> 00:01:12.370 align:middle line:90% 00:01:12.370 --> 00:01:15.450 align:middle line:84% So In-Na-Po had me feeling like Joy Harjo brushing 00:01:15.450 --> 00:01:18.210 align:middle line:84% my hair over the hotel sink this morning. 00:01:18.210 --> 00:01:22.410 align:middle line:90% If you know you know. 00:01:22.410 --> 00:01:23.330 align:middle line:90% Yá'át'ééh. 00:01:23.330 --> 00:01:24.622 align:middle line:90% Shí éí Kentaro Herder yinishyé. 00:01:24.622 --> 00:01:27.750 align:middle line:84% I am from Kayenta, Arizona, the northern region-- 00:01:27.750 --> 00:01:30.010 align:middle line:84% the northern region of the Navajo Rez. 00:01:30.010 --> 00:01:32.250 align:middle line:84% It is a great honor to be the next poet reading 00:01:32.250 --> 00:01:37.290 align:middle line:84% at this podium, just after Ofelia's yesterday. 00:01:37.290 --> 00:01:39.490 align:middle line:90% I feel woven and blessed. 00:01:39.490 --> 00:01:44.450 align:middle line:84% And this is the poetic statement of a writer I once met. 00:01:44.450 --> 00:01:48.410 align:middle line:84% Dream 1, God takes a sip of wine and puts 00:01:48.410 --> 00:01:50.730 align:middle line:90% a needle on Saturn's ring. 00:01:50.730 --> 00:01:55.930 align:middle line:84% Dream 2, she will and will wake from a sun heavy nap 00:01:55.930 --> 00:01:57.770 align:middle line:90% in a millennia. 00:01:57.770 --> 00:02:02.110 align:middle line:84% Dream 3, Georgia O'Keeffe caused so much grief. 00:02:02.110 --> 00:02:05.570 align:middle line:84% Sky above clouds has Priscilla Presley dancing. 00:02:05.570 --> 00:02:08.090 align:middle line:84% Aesthetic pelvis with an opening as wide 00:02:08.090 --> 00:02:09.750 align:middle line:90% as one of Jupiter's moons. 00:02:09.750 --> 00:02:13.490 align:middle line:84% An aesthetic lily has a sun in the center, obnoxious 00:02:13.490 --> 00:02:16.130 align:middle line:90% as the spread of a man's legs. 00:02:16.130 --> 00:02:20.530 align:middle line:84% A lizard lost a tail in New Mexico and prays in Arizona. 00:02:20.530 --> 00:02:24.650 align:middle line:84% And then body lies in purgatory in aesthetic sleep. 00:02:24.650 --> 00:02:29.450 align:middle line:84% Dream 4, the boy has a buzz cut, cage-free, brown chicken egg, 00:02:29.450 --> 00:02:33.330 align:middle line:84% head, and eyes puddled with the reflection of tadpole questions. 00:02:33.330 --> 00:02:36.730 align:middle line:84% He is Martian to a land copper bars. 00:02:36.730 --> 00:02:39.090 align:middle line:84% The boy stares into the water and focuses 00:02:39.090 --> 00:02:42.450 align:middle line:84% on the being between the tadpole and the clouds. 00:02:42.450 --> 00:02:47.410 align:middle line:84% Stares at his long hair, pierced ears, and dough-shaped body, 00:02:47.410 --> 00:02:51.610 align:middle line:90% interlude, sleep paralysis. 00:02:51.610 --> 00:02:57.030 align:middle line:84% Dream 4 part 2, Martian boy learns L slash, and Ł, 00:02:57.030 --> 00:03:01.290 align:middle line:84% [? łigaii ?], and ampersand, and Virgil, and eats it all up. 00:03:01.290 --> 00:03:03.130 align:middle line:84% Tadpoles, commas, and brain mush, 00:03:03.130 --> 00:03:05.230 align:middle line:84% eats it all up like blue corn mush. 00:03:05.230 --> 00:03:08.570 align:middle line:84% Martian boy goes back to the pond to ask the man, 00:03:08.570 --> 00:03:11.560 align:middle line:84% why does your belly have L slash, Ł, 00:03:11.560 --> 00:03:13.970 align:middle line:84% [? łigaii ?] and Virgil, and so much blood? 00:03:13.970 --> 00:03:16.990 align:middle line:84% He knows the truth, I know the truth, 00:03:16.990 --> 00:03:20.030 align:middle line:90% I write to sharpen ourselves. 00:03:20.030 --> 00:03:23.380 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE AND CHEERING] 00:03:23.380 --> 00:03:27.000 align:middle line:90%