Chicago Politics

Celebration of Chicago's 2nd Poet Laureate 1.14.25

Description

Mayor Brandon Johnson attends the celebratory announcement of Chicago's 2nd Poet Laureate.

Transcript

1:18 Thank you. Thanks, Avery. Thanks, Mayor. Good evening. I am Kenya Merritt, Acting Commissioner for the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Thank you. And I am so honored to be here with you as we celebrate and welcome our new Chicago Poet Laureate, Maida Alexandra Del Valle here at DK's and the City of Chicago.

1:55 We are so grateful to our partners at the Chicago Public Library. Thank you, Chris Brown, Commissioner Brown, and the Poetry Foundation for your continued support for the Chicago Poet Laureate Program and for helping us elevate the power of poetry across our great city. Thank you. So this moment feels especially significant at a time when history, culture, and truth are being challenged, being questioned, and in some cases, at the risk of being erased.

2:40 Literary arts matter more now than ever. That is why we are so excited for MITA to step into this role right now. This is a moment that calls for courage, it calls for clarity, and it calls for creativity. It is a moment where our words carry power, where storytelling becomes an act of preservation, and where poetry becomes a form of resistance, healing, and hope.

3:12 As Maida begins her tenure as an ambassador for Chicago's vibrant literary community, We are excited for the ways her work will honor our city's rich cultural legacy while boldly shaping the future. And so launched in 2021, the Chicago Poet Laureate Program places Chicago among just 16 cities in the nation with an official designation that elevates poetry and ensures literary arts are accessible, visible, and celebrated.

3:52 And so tonight's program is a beautiful reflection of MITA's heritage, her lifelong connection to Chicago, and her profound contributions to our literary and cultural landscape. I'd like to also thank Nate Marshall, who will be joining MIDA tonight, for what we know will be a thoughtful, powerful, and inspiring conversation. And thank you to La Escalita Bombera de Closon, forgive me, but y'all know who they are.

4:31 Can't wait. who will be performing with Maida later tonight and bringing yet another layer of cultural richness to this celebration. Thank you to everyone in this room for being here, but most importantly for believing in the power of art, culture, and storytelling. Give yourselves a hand. And so with that, I'd like, please join me in welcoming Idalmi Noriega,

5:02 Vice President of Programs and Engagement at the Poetry Foundation, an amazing partner. Wow, this is a packed room. Chicago came out to celebrate a poet, and that is really special. Good evening.

5:35 Like Commissioner Merritt said, my name is Idalmi Noriega, and I'm Vice President of Programs and Engagement at the Poetry Foundation. And it is a deep joy and a true honor to welcome Maida Alexandra del Valle into her term as Chicago Poet Laureate. I first encountered Maida's work many, many years ago on deaf poetry. That was long enough that I don't want to do the math.

6:06 We don't need to think about that. But one of the things that I still remember very, very clearly is that feeling that her poetry opened something in me. There was an uplift and an immediate recognition. And of course, as I learned more about her art and got to know her work in Chicago, that deepened here in this city where I have had the privilege of witnessing Maida celebrate our shared Boricua heritage through poetry, through movement,

6:38 and through the living rhythms of Bomba. She is a gatherer, she is a teacher, and she is a bridge builder. And I am so excited to see her take on this role, calling in the city's many voices and bringing us together through her art and through teaching for the next two years. Before I go any further, I want to pause and take a look around this room because there are so many poets here. So thank you all for coming out.

7:09 um as we know chicago is a city where the poetic muscle is strong and it is beautiful to see it flexed here with all of these poets coming out to show love for maida tonight of course special cariño to avery r young who's passing the baton and to mark turcotte illinois poet laureate who

7:42 is also in the room thank you both and thank you to all the poets in the room for being here and for continuing to shape and hold this city through your poetry. I would be remiss if I don't also acknowledge my boss, Michelle T. Boone, who unfortunately could not be here tonight, but she was the missionary leader who a few years ago called our partners and said, why don't we have a poet laureate? This is an important city for poetry, and we should have one. So thank you so much to our partners at the mayor's office,

8:16 at DK's, and at the Chicago Public Library. Your teams have been amazing in creating a model that very, very quickly has become a model for the whole nation. So thank you all. Chicago, in this city, commitment matters, and so do poets. Tonight, we celebrate Maida del Valle, but we also celebrate a city that understands that poetry and the people who create it are vital and are alive. So thank you so much for being here tonight for your celebration.

8:55 Thank you, Adomi. I'm Library Commissioner Chris Brown, and I'm so thrilled that our city library could be a supporter and partner for this work. I also want to thank Adolmi and Michelle Boone and the Poetry Foundation for not only championing poetry in Chicago, but across the globe. Let's give them a round of applause. And it's an honor to be celebrating MIDA. It's an exciting night for our city.

9:26 It's an exciting night for our creative community. Chicago is a home to a world-class poetry community it's also home to a world-class civic community we've touched on some of Midas background we touched on some of how this program came to be and I just also want to recognize the civic community that has made this program possible Collaboration, of course, with the Poetry Foundation, with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Thank you, Deputy Mayor Kenia Merritt.

9:57 I also want to thank Amanda Carlson and all the work that the DK's team does. I also want to thank our library team for bringing poetry into our neighborhoods, into our neighborhood libraries, especially Jen Lezak and Mattiella Colon. Thank you so much for supporting this initiative. And, of course, our mayor, Brandon Johnson, and our city leadership, who understand the importance of our world-class creative community in a city like Chicago.

10:41 Chicago is most definitely a remarkable literary city. Libraries have been a long part of that tradition. We're spaces across Chicago where neighborhoods connect to stories, ideas, to media, murals, history, and poetry. Through our libraries, poets have connected directly to Chicagoans for generation after generation, from Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes at the Hall Branch in Bronzeville, to readings with U.S. Poet Laureates Ada Limone and Joy Harjo,

11:14 and of course through workshops with Avery R. Young. Thank you all so much. We're excited to work with MITA to continue bringing poetry directly to Chicago neighborhoods, And as Deputy Mayor Keenan Merritt mentioned, this program reminds us in this moment that culture and creativity are essential to our freedom of expression, to our civil liberties, and to democracy. I know Mayor Brandon Johnson shares that conviction and the conviction that a world-class city of creatives and culture are essential to the greatest frequent city in the world.

11:53 And that's now my cue to invite and bring up our Mayor, Brandon Johnson. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Commissioner Brown, for that introduction and your leadership. Good evening, everyone. It is great to be here with you all as we celebrate and welcome Chicago's, one of the most dynamic creatives in not just the city of Chicago,

12:25 but throughout this country, our new Poet Laureate, Maida DeValle. And I do want to thank, again, our Commissioner, Chris Brown, of course, Deputy Mayor and Acting Decase, Commissioner Kenya Merritt, the Vice President, Programs, Poetry Foundation. Thank you, Ms. Noriega, for your leadership, all the poets and literary partners that are here today. And we do have a special guest, though, that's with us tonight. It's Myda's nephew who's here.

12:58 And Myda's nephew, you want to just wave and say hello to everybody? Come on, y'all. Y'all give it up for Midas' nephew. My guy. You've got to give honor to who honors do. But we're all gathered here this evening at a critical time in our nation's history. Quite frankly, our world's history, where the humanity of all of us is being threatened. And I'm thinking about the words of William Wordsworth,

13:32 who once said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. It takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility. As we think about the power that this room possesses, full of creatives, poets, who use their talents to uplift people, inspire change, and to drive movements. If there was ever a time for a poet to speak not only into our today but into our tomorrow, that time certainly is now.

14:14 And that is why having a Poet Laureate here in Chicago is so important. They not only create and share poetry that captures the feel of the city and the mood and the temperature of this moment, but they make what is possible more accessible. You do that through workshops, readings, and your projects. But more importantly, you all show us how vital poetry plays in the development of our society.

14:46 How it connects us through our shared traumas and challenges and our victories and how it bridges the gap between the multiple fields and disciplines. I remember as a public school teacher, one who taught social studies, I had to get real creative. I know none of you nodded off in social studies ever. But it is through poetry and through art of how we connect our past and how we dream of a better tomorrow. And today we are certainly proud to welcome Maida into this incredible role in her tenure as the next Poet Laureate.

15:23 And she is taking the baton from a proud Westsider, the Chicago's inaugural Poet Laureate, Mr. Avery Young. Now you all know how I feel about the entire city, but, you know, we had to get the inaugural process started on the best side of town.

15:54 I only got one or two witnesses there, but that's all good, because, you know, joining the ranks of Illinois Poet Laureate, you know, from Mark Turcotte and Chicago Youth Poet Laureate, Isla Kitty Camaron-Mora, I do want to take a real moment seriously to thank our brother Avery for your services as the first Poet Laureate,

16:24 for seeding and setting the foundation for future laureates. You know, our work goes way back before either one of us, you know, had to put on decent outfits. You know, we go back to the days when we only had a pair of jeans and a hoodie. But I'm so proud, though, that we are passing and shifting this moment to MITA. You know, someone who is part of an incredible culture, Puerto Rican parents who molded and shaped her through the rich heritage and tradition of Puerto Rico and the grit and drive of the south side of Chicago.

17:15 You know, it was at a young age that might have discovered the strength of her voice and learned how to use her words to empower others and to contribute to something greater than herself. I would imagine her parents probably had some challenges every now and then with that powerful voice that she had. I'm sure they may have to remind her a couple of times. But they clearly reared her in a way that not only gave her the confidence to be the person that she is today, but then able to find her talent being invested in by our public schools

17:51 and a teacher that introduced her to poetry and she never looked back. Rooted in hip-hop culture, she developed her talent in creative spaces, drawing inspiration from the people, places, and experiences that surrounded her. And throughout her career, Maida has won awards, including the 2001 Grand Slam Championship and the National Poetry Slam, wrote two books of poetry, performed around the world on Russell Simmons Presents Deaf Poetry, and develop projects focusing on her heritage as a Puerto Rican and as a Chicagoan.

18:26 Take a deep breath. She is carrying forward what her teacher set in motion years ago, using her work as an art educator to teach poetry in schools, colleges, and youth detention facilities. In addition, Maida served as the program director of Street Poets Incorporated and Poet-in-Residence with the Chicago Poetry Center,

18:58 A recipient of the Dark Matter Residency from Elastic Arts and was awarded a fellowship from the Flamboyant Arts Fund and the Mellon Foundation. And she still somehow found the energy and time to become our next Poet Laureate. That truly shows her dedication and love for poetry and all that it represents. You know, in closing, often during times of incredible distress and upheaval,

19:37 let's just call it for what it is, pure evil. The abnormality that is coming from the White House is venomous, and quite frankly, it is working overtime to metastasize throughout our society. And that's why in this moment we look to the arts, to language, to poetry, to empower us, to uplift us, to inspire us to not just make the change, but to ensure that when we come out on the other side of this,

20:10 that we are better than what we were when we went through it. And right now, with the state of things in our country and around the world, we are truly blessed to have a poet laureate who has shown us the importance of coming together, fighting back and being unapologetic about who she is and using words to transform and to heal. A poet to a courageous leadership, reminded of Library Congress, Rita Dove once said that poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.

20:52 I have no doubt that Maida will use her poetry to elevate the unheard voices, inspire the next generation of writers, and show the world once again that everything dope about America truly comes from the greatest freaking city in the world, the city of Chicago. I look forward to her work, and now I'm truly honored to welcome to the stage the 2026 Chicago Poet Laureate, Ms. Maida Alexandria Del Valle.

22:11 The best way for me to say hello to all of you and to introduce myself is with some poems. So that's what I'm going to do right now. So I'm going to be accompanied by two of my favorite people. I'm going to be presenting some pretty new work that I've been working on over the last year about my family, about Chicago. Everything I write about is about my family in Chicago. But I want to dedicate this performance to my mom and dad who can't be here tonight.

22:44 My mom is with my dad at home. And, yeah, we'll talk about that a little bit more later. Okay. I need my reading glasses. Because...

24:15 So the story goes, by the time she was five years old, my maternal grandmother, Segunda Martinez Rivera, had lost her mother and a baby brother that she adored. Ibaia, my great-grandmother, named Teresa Rivera, date of birth unknown, place of birth unknown, date of death unknown, resting place unknown. Bye-bye. I am my granduncle, name unknown, date of birth unknown, place of birth unknown, date of death unknown, resting place unknown.

24:50 For days or nights or weeks or months or some undisclosed unknown stretch of time, my grandmother said she would cry herself to sleep. Inconsolable weeping for her mother and her little brother until one night, in her tear-soaked bed, she finally drifted off to sleep and in that in-between place she was visited. The veil dissolved, and there was her little brother. I call him Tasio, short for Anastasio, his father's name, Teresa's common-law partner, Anastasio Martinez,

25:22 my maternal great-grandfather, date of birth, unknown, place of birth, Atillo Puerto Rico, date of death, unknown, resting place, Atillo Puerto Rico. In the in-between of sleep and consciousness, of death and life, there stood little Tasio. Maybe he was waving in the distance And maybe Segunda ran to him Seeing him just as she remembered Until she reached him And stopped still noticing he was, in fact Just as she remembered Except that his hair, his clothes

25:53 And his entire body were dripping wet with water Water pooling at his feet Water falling from his tiny body Water reaching where Segunda stood And Tasio spoke Segunda, por favor, no llores más Mira lo que me estás haciendo Segunda, please stop crying Look at what you're doing to me Imagine a grief so tidal it could drown the dead in tears A grief so deep only the ocean could rival it Imagine the ghost of a child coming back to console you

26:26 I imagine my grandmother drowning I imagine my grandmother reaching the bottom of the ocean floor I imagine my grandmother breathing underwater And walking on a bed of seashells I imagine the sea weeping with her I imagine this might be the origin of the sorrow That lives in the heavy-chested women of my mother's family I imagine that Tasio and Teresa Birth date, birthplace, death date and resting place unknown Are somewhere swimming in a salty palace of pearls and starfish

26:56 And iridescent fish that fractal the water into a prism I say spirit and mean the living I say living and mean ghosts. I say water and wonder what its language is. I say water and mean somewhere across divide of spirit or land or grief. I say water and mean the place I come from. From that day forward, Segunda stopped crying for her little brother.

27:41 City of big wind. City on the edge of the great water. City of fire and ash twice burned and built. you were a village resting at the confluence of prairie and aqueous body settlement at the mouth of a river that emptied its song on the shores of Lake Mishigami. We call it a lake, but let's call it what it is. An inland freshwater sea filled with seashells and boulders carved with the history of mastodons still sleeping in its sandy bottom. I watch how your winds and waters

28:12 meet to summon the memory of ocean city that sings of marshlands and swamps covered in prairies of tall grass and still taller skies, land where wolf and bison once roamed, your first people said you smelled like wild onion and skunk, Chicaqua, and at the right time on a sweltering summer day when the wind blows a certain way off the stockyards on the south side, you still do. City of steel mills, scenting your air with smoke, birthplace of the skyscraper, streets crooked as your politicians, a prohibition playground for corruption and Capone. New York

28:47 might have invented gangs, but you invented infamy, Chicago. City of neighborhoods and barrios surgically sliced and scalpel'd with red lines, shrapnel shards of history buried under your cobblestone asphalt and pavement, arrowheads and underground railroad stops, Chicago. Nucleus of the railroads, metal wrought, wrangled and tied to train tracks, Chicago. Stable to the iron horses and locomotives that carry America's commerce on the freight lines that trickle out from you like veins across the country. A poet I once loved said,

29:18 you are the heart of the country. I say you are a heart. Beating a song so untamable they tried to tame your river instead, a song so loud it called your children north, a song that traveled south to the red dirt of Arkansas and Alabama, through the waterways of the Mississippi Delta and Louisiana's bayous, past the gulf, to the turquoise waters of the Caribe where my people heard you, like the call of an ancient cockshell singing, come to this promised land of spoiled milk and sorrow, leave all that you know and come to live the dream of being underpaid domestics.

29:52 and steel pipe workers, to be lavaplatos at the Conrad Hilton and bend your fingers crocheting piecework for pennies a week. Come to open businesses whose windows the gringos will shatter with bricks or burn down completely. Come to solder engine pieces for helicopters bound to Vietnam that will carry your brothers and sons. Come and bring your music, bring your own song, and sing with me. And we did, Chicago. We brought all the music we could hold in our hands. We brought our barriles and cuatros, our lelolais and piquetes, our salsa, boleros and boogaloo, our guiros and guitarras. We brought our own pain and laughter

30:26 and a song. We brought the strum of teeth chattering during a first winter snowstorm. We brought the rumble of plane engines revving on the last flight out before the hurricane. We brought the click of beads on the silver rosary our mother sent for the wedding she couldn't attend. We brought the rustle of el vocero's pages and the classified ad announcing work in a strange place called Indiana. We brought the dissonance of being completely surrounded by our own language for the last time. We brought the sound of a great migration that never ended

30:59 and wrote a new song with you, Chicago, city of my birth, city of my childhood, city of my broken heart, city of my lost children and love, city of all I love. You have never questioned while my heart lives burst open and split between two places instead you've always given me the music to mend it. Décima para papi. Mi papa nació en la loma rodeado de un platanal y en esa tierra

31:57 ancestral el cielo fue su corona un palmar le daba sombra y la quebrada su canción así el me dio la bendición y un legado que es mi dicha de poder llamarme hija de un jíbaro de corazón

32:28 de poder llamarme hija tuya papi un jíbaro de corazón de decir que tú me hiciste también jíbaras de corazón en el monte están los jíbaros de verdad En el monte adentro están los jíbaros de verdad, en el barrio de Cerro Gordo están los jíbaros de verdad.

33:59 How's your dad doing? Dying, I want to say. But not right away, so don't worry. It won't be a sudden or unexpected passing. Instead, every day is another small death. Yesterday, we buried raising his arms to put on a sweatshirt and brushing his own teeth. Today, we're having a memorial for forgetting how to sit on the toilet. Last week, we had a novena for how to use a napkin instead of wiping your mouth on your shirt.

34:30 Currently, we are mourning how to eat a sandwich using both hands. A couple of years ago, we said goodbye to remembering his parents are dead. Today, we're going to see Mama y Papa because today he's living in Puerto Rico again. Yesterday, he wondered whose house this was. Last week, he was working in Indiana with his brother. This morning, there was a group of people sitting in the empty living room. Tomorrow, he'll look at my mother and ask her where his wife is. He likes her cooking. Later today, his brother, who passed 10 years ago, will be here to take him to work.

35:03 This morning, he looked at me, and in the English, he rarely ever spoke, said, Good morning! I haven't seen you in a long time. Yesterday is today. Today is tomorrow is the day before yesterday is last year. It's tomorrow, today, and there is no now anymore, and every sunrise is really just another one of my father's memories setting into a long night. It is another story disappearing into some neural pathway gone extinct. No more lightning flashes of recognition or remembering.

35:41 We just worked on that today, y'all. This is Jonathan Pacheco and Anissa Vega and Cuatro and Guitar from La Escuelita Bombera de Corazon.

36:15 This is Puerto Rico's national instrument right here. They are part of my artistic community. I guess we're going to the next part. Okay. How about this new Poet Laureate, huh? All right. It is now my pleasure to welcome onto the stage our moderator for tonight. Another wonderful Chicagoan.

36:46 And Nate Marshall is an award-winning writer, rapper, educator, and editor. He's the author and editor of numerous works, including Wild Hundreds and the Breakbeat Poets New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. We got a few fans in the room, huh? He teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he is from the south side of Chicago. Please join me in welcoming Nate Marshall.

37:25 oh yes all right this is so fancy nate i know right this is crazy we were like last time i saw you we were like in my mama's basement i know i got your whole family yeah like that's wild just add a party cool super chicago basement wow this is incredible thank you all for coming this this is like such a beautiful room i'm like just now getting to see give yourselves a hand you look good so maida again congratulations thank you this is awesome i want i have i have a lot of

37:56 questions um let's go but first i just want to you know i know that your journey your sort of artistic journey in many ways is starts in chicago and is rooted in chicago but really took you all over the country and all over the world right to both coasts yeah and then you sort of made your way back here a couple years ago. So just how has it been back, been to be back in this sort of re-engage and reconnect with, with the city in this way and now in this new and much

38:27 bigger way? Yeah, it was a, I mean, it was an interesting transition period coming back home because I was gone for so long, you know, like I left in the late nineties to go to college and then I went to New York and poetry took off and I stayed in New York for four years and I went to LA looking for greener pastures and I ended up staying there for 12 and then I came back home almost 10 years ago. Um, my father had gotten diagnosed with Alzheimer's, um, who that piece that I wrote is for. Um, and so I, and LA was done like, like, you know, the universe was like,

39:03 it's time for you to go. go like I just kept getting it was really loud and clear that it was it was time to leave and and I decided to come back home because this is where family is and it felt like the right place to be at that time so there's definitely like a transition period because everything was so different you know it was just different coming being away and coming to visit or you know spending a couple weeks here even like a month or you know or something at a time to then come back and be living here again it was like oh wow I'm really I'm really back home I'm really back back like

39:37 for real for real I'm back so it's been a it took a couple years to kind of find my footing again and you know I left a lot of friends and a lot of really cool things that I was doing but I would say one of one of the most important things that kind of helped me get my footing and my grounding back here was my cultural community my cultural home La Cuelita Bombera de corazón you know um i've known evie since i started my bomba journey 15 years ago and so in

40:08 those periods of my life when i felt like i don't even know if i'm a writer anymore i don't even know if poetry is what i'm supposed to be doing like bomba um kept me fed and kept me rooted and kept me creative you know at times when i i didn't feel that creative anymore so that's why they're all here tonight with me you're gonna get to hear them beautiful so maybe cycling back a little bit could just tell the people a little bit about where you're from about sort of how you came

40:41 to poetry and and just the the the genesis of that journey oh my gosh okay born and raised on the south side um you know and even that is a that is a kind of interesting story in itself because everyone thinks about puerto ricans in chicago and they think about humble park right um but in the 50s and 60s there was a really bustling thriving significant community of puerto ricans based in woodlawn and inglewood which was where my parents came to when when they came here in the early 60s so the first place my mom got an apartment was on 63rd and woodlawn

41:15 um i was born on 54th and wood um and you know it was a it was a lot of puerto ricans in the neighborhood my brother and my sister are here um they can they can attest to that as well you know um there's 13 brothers and sisters on my father's side of the family 10 of those 13 came to live in chicago at one point right um so there were businesses restaurants civic organizations like Los Caballeros de San Juan. So it was really, we were really rooted, our community was really rooted on the South Side. A lot of people don't know that story. So I was born on 54th and Wood,

41:49 and then we moved west to Chicago Lawn. And that's where I grew up. And my mother's devoutly Catholic and was really adamant that we had to go to Catholic school. So we ended up going to Catholic, all three of us survived Catholic school. And so my freshman year, I was always a bookworm. Like, I was always a bookworm. I always loved to read. But my freshman year, I had an English teacher named Mrs. Kelly at Maria High School. And Mrs. Kelly would have us do all these

42:20 creative writing exercises, and she made us keep a journal. And then there were, like, other kind of bits and pieces that came in around that time. I started doing theater. I got involved with the organization called the Southwest Youth Collaborative. Two of my old mentors are here. Yeah, There's some people here who participated in some of the incredible programming that that organization launched, including the University of Hip Hop. And one of the really unique things about that organization is that there was a board of directors for the organization.

42:51 There were adults, but for every adult position, there was also a corresponding youth position, and we had equal voting rights for board of directors meetings. the youth got to vote on on where funds would get spent for programming and so the youth were the ones that were like we want hip-hop programming we want to like we want to have breakdancing classes graffiti classes DJing classes rapping classes right so my earliest experiences as an artist as a young writer we're in multidisciplinary multicultural spaces of community social

43:27 justice and empowerment for young people so that's beautiful and so so you were doing like all the elements of hip-hop i did yeah and i told my mom she might still have a heart attack i used to run out the house at midnight and go do graffiti oh you did graffiti what what did you write i can either confirm nor deny those allegations but um my name was sleek okay

43:59 Yeah, very good. Very good. I like that. My alter ego. Let's go. so she might have put up some stickers or something but yeah very good and so how do you how do you i used to break the answer i tried i tried to break the answer yeah i mean you know hey we're not all so so limber yeah no so how did you how do you go from from there to to being on broadway to touring all over the world like like what is that path it sounds crazy but

44:29 there is a thread. So I started writing, you know, started writing in high school. I got really interested in performing what I wrote. I make my way to Williams College in Massachusetts and ended up going to get a degree in studio art, which was really wild and kind of out there as well. That was interesting. But I find my way back into writing poetry, you know, after also like dabbling in visual art and dance and all these things. And I find my way back into doing

45:02 poetry. And so my senior year, I do this independent study on poetry and performance. I'm thinking I'm just going to like write a 20 page paper and present the paper like, you know, some, I don't know, kind of discussion type of thing. Right. What ended up happening is that my dance teacher, Sandy Burton, I'm going to shout her out because she'll watch this later. And she said hi earlier from Massachusetts. So my dance teacher was like, oh, no, no, no, no, Miss Thing, you have to like, you know, this is what you do. You need to write some poems too. So I started writing again.

45:34 I started making some of my poems into videos because, you know, I had access to the camera and editing equipment in the studio. So I made poetry videos. And then that ended up turning into like an hour long multimedia show with poems and videos and movement and music. And out of that one person show I took a couple of those poems and I went to the New Yorican Poets Cafe in New York when I moved to New York and I started performing some of those poems at New Yorican and I started winning the slams

46:04 at the New Yorican sort of winning all the slams at the New Yorican all right now all right now the really funny part about that is I always run into people that I beat in the slams as I was always the only woman on the slam they'd be like, oh, you're the girl who beat me. I'd be like, mm-hmm. So some of those poems I ended up doing at the New Yorican, and eventually one of those poems I ended up, you know, at that time, they were filming the first couple of episodes for Deaf Poetry Jam in New York, so now we're

46:37 like in 2000. I'm competing at the New Yorican. I win at the New Yorican. I make it to the National Poetry Slam, which I just devastated her to hear today. It's not even in existence anymore, my God. I go to the National Poetry Slam I wish I win at the National Poetry Slam and that's when they're like Filming tapes for people to be on the show and somebody saw me and they tape me and they sent it in and I made it in And then that show eventually got picked up and turned into deaf poetry jam on Broadway

47:07 Which ended up touring and won a Tony Award so yeah So it's like Yeah. Just these little these moments that these moments that you're just like, oh, it doesn't matter. You know, how am I doing this anymore? And, you know, it's just like you just got to you just got to keep putting in the work. There's going to be periods of drought and seasons of abundance. Right. But you have to keep you have to keep working through those cycles. Yeah. So so I want to turn now to the thing that has brought us all into this room, this this laureateship. Right.

47:46 So I guess where how did you feel when you found out that you had this opportunity and what what are your hopes? What are your dreams for for this platform? Oh, man, I'm trying to think where I was the day that Amanda called me. She's like, well, it's you. i was like what there's a whole process you know there's like you send in this application and then there's like an interview process and then there's a vetting process that was really

48:18 nerve-wracking right it's like like a vetting process that they put like any kind of political appointment in in the city through so they go through everything had to pay all my parking tickets you get them like wave now though right it's great now you're good i mean you know moving into the poet's mansion and stuff so you know a guy that's good i'll have my poet i'll have my poetry chauffeur um i wish that would be really amazing housing health insurance and a chauffeur

48:49 for poets um no so you had to go through this whole vetting process and then i was and then you know it's just like hurry up wait hurry up And then you just got to wait. And, you know, for and then there was, you know, there was it just took time. So I was like, ah, you know, you know, it was way to go. It might have pat yourself on the back. You finish the application. You sent it in. And then I got the phone call and I was just like, oh, my God, is really going to happen.

49:20 So I'm still kind of having like deja vu, like weird moments right now tonight. I was like, oh, snap, that's that one dream I had. And what are you hoping to do with the role? Well, I mean, you know, I'm getting past the baton from, like, somebody really phenomenal. So, you know, it's big shoes to fill. I think one of the most important parts for me is to, like, continue the work of just bringing poetry out into the city,

49:56 into the libraries, into different communities, teaching, creating spaces for people to meet each other, to write together, to meet each other's poetry, to write about the city, to write about themselves, to write about their own experiences. Would love to, you know, focus some workshops working with young people, but also maybe with some elderly populations in the city. That's really near and dear to my heart, because I live with two 80-year-olds. So that's one.

50:28 And then, you know, a civic project, which will probably be tying in some kind of really cool hip-hop graffiti-inspired public art. So, you know, combining those things that I love to do, and that inspired me as a young person, and just kind of putting poetry out into a really visual way in the city and reminding people how dope Chicago is, how dope we are as Chicagoans, you know, celebrating our creativity, celebrating our talent.

50:59 You know, I think sometimes we look outward, right, to like set a standard sometimes. Like, no, everything we need is like right here in our city. We got so much here that we just need to nurture and take care of, you know. So that's what I'm really hoping to do, yeah. Beautiful, beautiful. Thank you so much, Myra. Thank you, Nate. So I believe we're going to have another bit of performance.

51:34 Yes, so we're going to – so I have been a student and practitioner of Bomba for 15 years, and I met one of the dopest bomberas ever, like, when I started my journey, Y Beliz Diaz, Bombera de Corazon And Yeah, you know, Bombay is one of those things That's like part of my artist practice As well, I write songs, I sing And I dance with La Cuelita

52:04 And Evie was trying to like When she found out I moved back to Chicago She was like, come here Come here, come to this thing Come sing with us, come dance over here Come do this She tried to reel me in for a long time And so I'm part of Las Bonpleneras, which is the oldest all-women's Bomba and Plena group in the diaspora. For those who might not be familiar with Bomba, it is the oldest musical genre from Puerto

52:37 Rico. It is over 500 years old. It is like our direct telephone line to our ancestors and to our African ancestry. it's music of resistance it's music of celebration it's music of joy we write songs about heartbreak we write songs about struggle, we write songs about you know como se dice, tirandole puya just taking little stabs at people just talking smack

53:08 we talk smack and bomba songs too it's all of those things so I had to have my here with me tonight this is my people, this is my community so we're going to do some bomba for you tonight but y'all got to stand up you can't sit and watch so vamos well you did the introduction I was going to do so thanks to Nate Marshall and as we bring up our performers we're just getting them set up behind me

53:38 but I want to say that I heard a little rumor out there in the reception I'm probably going to embarrass this person But was there a librarian in the room who maybe worked with a young teen in their library branch? And maybe that young teen is the Chicago Poet Laureate right now? Is that librarian here? Raise your hand. Oh, they're being shy. Ah, there you go. Let's give

54:10 a round of applause. So thanks to all the educators and the librarians and community members and the poets, the people inspiring people every day. You never know, maybe somebody who you're inspiring will end up being the Chicago Poet Laureate someday on this stage too, right? I think we are almost ready, so without further ado, La Escolita Bombera de Corazon. Good evening,

54:45 everyone. We are La Escolita Bombera de Corazon, and we are so honored to celebrate our amazing sister, Maida Del Valle. Round of applause for Maida Del Valle. And anytime we're celebrating, honoring representing we always like to bring our cultura directamente de Puerto Rico Humboldt Park so we hope you guys enjoy it

55:18 Damos gracias A la cultura A la bomba A los ancestros Y dice Damos gracias Damos gracias

56:35 A la salud A los ancestros Las escuelitas Damos gracias The bomb

57:09 That They say they're going to take me

57:45 But with my barrel I'm going to resist and overcome Baila the bomb They say they're going to take me With my barrel and overcome The wind that comes to break I bring my barrel, my maraca and the cuas

58:16 Vamos a sentir y superar Quiero bailar la voz con mi barrio

59:02 Guys, I'm having a good time.

1:00:05 and bring flowers to the second. Draw the floral second, draw the floral second. Use the cream of gold and bring flowers to the second. No give a perfume or a capullo with espina or seek a reflexive لذلك. Draw the floral second, draw the floral second. Use the cream of gold and bring flowers to the second.

1:00:35 Busca rosas y galdenias, y un gramo de azucena, pa' bailar en la perfume, busca florea segunda. Traile flora segunda, traile flora segunda, busca ramo de lirio blanco, traile flora segunda. Traile rosas y jazmines, y un gramo de azucena, busca un ramo de lirio blanco, y traile flora segunda. Trayle flora segunda, busca un ramo de lirio blanco y trayle flora segunda.

1:02:28 Lirio Blanco Primer perfume, un espina, tríneos flor a segunda Tréneos rosas y jazmines, tríneos flor a segunda Tréneos flor y galdenias, tríneos flor a segunda Tréneos flor a segunda, tríneos flor a segunda Lirio blanco, tramo de lirio blanco

1:03:06 Tréneos flor a segunda, tráneos rosas y jazmines Trayle flora segunda Trayle flora segunda Ay, trayle flora segunda Trayle flora segunda

1:03:38 Dios blanco Trayle flora segunda

1:07:47 Have a great night, get home safe.

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