UA Poetry Center in October

UA Poetry Center October Events

Victoria Chang / Thursday, October 6, 7:00 PM / We are proud to present a reading by Victoria Chang as part of the Reading & Lecture Series. Events will take place at the Poetry Center and be streamed live on our website.

Little Shop of Horrors: Film Screening & Discussion / Tuesday, October 11, 7:00 PM / Free tickets available at noon on Oct. 11 at The Loft Cinema box office. First come, first served. Presented as part of the 2022 Tucson Humanities Festival. Join us for a thought experiment about plants as intelligent beings rather than mere scenery, and explore how science and fiction can work together to change the way we live on this planet.

Poetry Out Loud Information Session / Thursday, October 13, 5:30 PM / The Poetry Center’s K-12 Education team and POL’s Southern Arizona Regional Coordinator, Sophie Daws, will offer a virtual Poetry Out Loud Information Session in support of teachers interested in registering for the 2022-2023 POL season.

Tucson Humanities Festival Reading: Rita Dove / Thursday, October 13, 7:00 PM / This event will take place at the Health Sciences Innovation Building (HSIB), 1670 E Drachman St, Tucson, AZ 85721. We encourage you to sign up for event reminders through the Tucson Humanities Festival here. We are proud to present, as part of the Tucson Humanities Festival and the College of Humanities at the University of Arizona, a reading by Rita Dove. This reading is presented in partnership with the Borchard Foundation Center on Literary Arts, and cosponsored by the University of Arizona Black Faculty Speaker Series and the Office of Faculty Affairs.

Aging and the Arts Poetry Circle: Sandra Cisneros / Saturday, October 15, 1:00 PM / This event will take place in the forum at the Health Services Innovation Building (HSIB) an indoor/outdoor space. HSIB is located at 1670 E Drachman St. Tucson, AZ 85721, a five minute walk from the Poetry Center. Join us for monthly poetry discussions, led by docents from the UA Poetry Center. The event is free, and no preparation or knowledge of poetry is necessary to participate.

Virtual Kids Create: Spooky Poems & Stories / October 18, Online / An online version of our formerly in-person day for children aged infant-12 and their favorite adults, will continue in Fall 2022! These self-guided events will include poetry lesson plans for children in various age groups, helping them stay connected to poetry in our virtual space. View past Virtual Kids Create events on the Poetry Center blog.

Oro Valley Poetry Circle: Ocean Vuong / Thursday, October 20, 2:00 PM / This event will take place at the Oro Valley Public Library, 1305 W. Naranja Dr., Oro Valley, AZ 85737. Join us for monthly poetry discussions, led by docents from the UA Poetry Center. The event is free, and no preparation or knowledge of poetry is necessary to participate.

AZ Poetry Out Loud Information Panel / Saturday, October 22, 10:00 AM / The Poetry Center’s K-12 Education team and POL’s Southern Arizona Regional Coordinator, Sophie Daws, will offer a virtual Poetry Out Loud Professional Development Panel in support of teachers interested in registering for the 2022-2023 POL season.

What We Learned While Alone: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic / Monday, October 24, 3:00 PM / This event is live in person at the National Academy of Sciences (2101 Constitution Avenue NW Fred Kavli Auditorium Washington, DC 20418). The event will be livestreamed; sign up here. You are invited to a unique theatrical event that combines spoken word, music, movement, and digital dialogue to create an innovative interactive experience, culminating in a poem created with performers and audience that celebrates what we have learned from our loss, what we praise, and what we hope for the future.
Fall Exhibits

Eden? Plants Between Science and Fiction / October 4 through December 22 / What would you do if your salad bit you back or started to talk? Eden? Plants between Science and Fiction, a multimedia exhibit about the role of plants in science fiction literature and film, invites you to engage in exactly this thought experiment. Conceptualized by graduate students at the University of Münster in Germany, this exhibit features killer plants from outer space and utopian gardens of the future through poems, (graphic) novels, and films with plant protagonists. Hosted at the Poetry Center and the Tree Ring Laboratory, this exhibit brings together the natural sciences, visual culture, and literature, asking us to pay attention to what we often consider to be mere scenery and examine our thinking about plants. In light of our current ecological crisis, an encounter with plants as intelligent beings who talk back might just enable us to imagine different ways of living together on our shared planet.

Curated by Katharina Scheerer and presented in collaboration with the Literary and Cultural Plant Studies Network.

MOCA Exhibit – Lynn Xu: And Those Ashen Heaps That Cantilevered Vase of Moonlight

We are thrilled to sponsor this upcoming exhibit at MOCA Tucson. Join us for the opening on November 4 at 7 PM. More details in the link above and coming soon!

Translating the Human Experience: On Female Kurdish Poets in Translation

Holly Mason Badra writes, “There is no other collection like it right now, truly, that offers a full book of poems showcasing Kurdish female poetry. Women’s Voices from Kurdistan offers selections by intergenerational women spanning across time and translated from various Kurdish dialects (including, Sorani, Kurmanji, Bahdinani, and Gorani). The book’s introduction offers further insights into the context surrounding Kurdish literature, translation, process, and representations of Kurdish female writers.”
Social Media Highlight

We love seeing little ones enjoying our space (and poetry portraits)! Our children’s corner will get a BRAND NEW mural and design in the coming months, and this little nook under the stairs is always a great place to sit and read for folks of all ages. 😊