WEBVTT

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Hello, everybody.

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How we doing?

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Good.

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Bienvenidos a todos.

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Glad everybody's here.

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Happy Thursday.

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You've chosen a great Thursday
to be at the Poetry Center.

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None of you blew away on
the way here, which is good.

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And if it happens to
make water from the sky,

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I'll stop and
explain what that is,

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since we're not used to that
happening ever in Tucson.

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But maybe it'll happen.

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It seems like it could
happen out there.

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So my name is Tyler.

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I work here as the director
at the Poetry Center.

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We are so thrilled about
what's happening tonight

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at the Poetry Center.

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This is our last reading
in this series this year

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from a visiting poet.

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And we could not be more excited
to have the poet Balam Rodrigo

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with us.

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A round of applause for
Balam, who's right here.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Yeah.

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Who you'll get to
hear from shortly.

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It's been a really big
year at the Poetry Center.

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And so if you've been
with us since the fall,

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you've caught
readings from folks

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like Jennifer Chang
or Tracy K. Smith,

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or maybe got some dream history
touring with Mathias Svalina

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or got to see Vievee
Francis or Matthew Olzmann.

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And then later in this spring,
we had visits from people

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like Eleanor Wilner and Alicia
Ostriker, from Natalie Diaz,

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from Kim Blaeser, and from
Laura Tohe, from Julia Alvarez.

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So if you've caught
some of these things,

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it's been a big, beautiful year.

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And so a round of
applause to you

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for choosing poetry and joining
us here at the Poetry Center

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to help celebrate.

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And Balam has perhaps
traveled as much as anyone

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to come be here with us.

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So he's here all the way
from Chiapas, Mexico,

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and we're so excited that he's
here in Tucson with us tonight.

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These reading series happen
with a lot of support

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from a lot of people.

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And so I do want to
thank very quickly

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the College of Humanities, which
provides incredible support.

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That's our institutional home
here at the Poetry Center

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within the university.

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And we're grateful
for all the things

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that the College does to
make the Poetry Center's

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work possible.

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We also want to celebrate and
thank the WA Franke Honors

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College here at the
University of Arizona

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for their collaboration and
support of the reading series.

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And then the Friends
and the Whitman Circle

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are donors that
choose to support

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what happens at the Center,
and so we're grateful for that

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always.

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Thanks for being a part of that.

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And a round of applause
for all these folks

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who are helping us as well.

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[APPLAUSE]

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For this reading
tonight, I especially

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want to thank Michael Spurgeon,
who leads the Borchard

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Center on Literary Arts
for their support of some

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of these events that have been
happening at the Poetry Center.

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The Borchard Center
on Literary Arts

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does incredibly beautiful
work building bridges

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between North American
writers in a range of ways

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but especially with an encuentro
that brings them all together

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in Mexico and Oaxaca.

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It's a total delight to have
Michael's support and backing.

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And we're really
grateful for the things

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that the Borchard
Center on Literary Arts

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have made happen here
at the Poetry Center.

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Michael's here in the front.

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I'll have him raise his hand.

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Please a round of applause
for what you guys do.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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So, in addition to
Balam's reading tonight,

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I also want to mention he'll
be giving a short lecture

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on Tuesday, the 5th of May Back
HERE in this space at noon.

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It's a free talk.

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You're all invited.

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And the title of that
talk is A Brief Journey

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Through the Labyrinth
of Mexican Southernness.

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And he might say a little
bit more about that.

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But it's an incredible topic
that I'm really excited about

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and delighted to have Balam's
thinking with us for that

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on the 5th of May back here
at noon at the Poetry Center

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in this space.

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A couple of events that
are coming up before we

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get out of our season entirely.

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This Saturday at the
Poetry Center at noon,

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we have a reading from
participants in the Classes

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and Workshops Program
at the Poetry Center.

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So if you were interested
in the work that's

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happening by writers that are
writing in your community,

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taking classes at
the Poetry Center

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and want to hear
some of that, that's

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at noon here at the Poetry
Center this Saturday.

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And then next
Saturday on May 9, we

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have a reading from the
graduates of the MFA

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Program in Creative Writing.

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And so these are the writers
that will be coming next.

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And so if you're
interested in what's

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happening with the
creative writing program

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and hearing the work of the
writers whose books we'll

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be reading imminently, that's
a great event to opt into.

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And that's the 9th,
the Saturday back here,

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noon at the Poetry Center.

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And usually, there's
snacks with that one.

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So just saying out loud.

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Unless you think we're
completely winding down,

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our summer season will
soon be announced.

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And so our calendars will
be in the mail shortly.

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Our classes will come first.

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And so the financial aid
window for our summer classes,

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there's five of them in total,
that will open on Tuesday,

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May 5 at 10:00 AM.

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Classes involve topics such
as writing with archives,

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working and writing with
trees, thinking and writing

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through grief, or thinking
more like a poem thinks.

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These are all
topics that you can

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explore with writers and poets
who'll be visiting this summer,

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or living here in Tucson
and teaching for us.

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And again, financial aid opens
on Tuesday, May 5 at 10:00 AM.

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And then general registration
opens the week after Tuesday,

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May 12 at 10:00 AM.

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Those classes are
open until filled.

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They're first
come, first served.

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There's a brief nominal
cost that comes with them.

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We try to keep it as
affordable as possible.

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We don't want that
to be a barrier.

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So if financial aid
might help and you

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can take a class, if you
had some support, please,

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That's enough reason to
sign up for financial aid.

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And we would be happy to.

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We do that by lottery and
we choose four folks that

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can have a free registration.

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So please don't let
cost be a barrier

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and come join us in classes this
summer at the Poetry Center.

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It's going to be really
hot no matter what,

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so you might as well try
to write some good poems.

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And join us in making art
which we would delight in.

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Books are for sale.

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Mark is happy to sell them
to you after the reading.

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I think it's especially by
Venmo but potentially by cash,

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especially if you
have exact change.

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So come make sure you buy
some books afterwards.

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I know Balam would be
happy to sign those

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and to talk with you
after the reading tonight.

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And then the last
thing that I will say

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is that we are delighted to have
Alison Hawthorne Deming here

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with us.

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A Regents Professor Emerita
at the University of Arizona,

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former director of
the Poetry Center,

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a person on whose shoulders
that I have stood and stand

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and learned from.

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I'm really grateful that she
sticks out a wing like this

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and says, get underneath here.

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Let me show you how to
handle some of these things.

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She's been an incredible friend
and mentor to many of us,

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and to me included, her
most recent book of poems

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is Blue Flax and
Yellow Mustard Flower.

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And she's going to
introduce Balam and be

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the English reader of the
translations of his poems

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this evening.

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Please help me welcome
Alison Hawthorne Deming.

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[APPLAUSE]

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