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>>> Coming up next on "Arizona
Horizon," we'll speak with
Alberto Rios about his new role
as Arizona's first ever poet
laureate.
And we'll find out about an
upcoming Arizona science and
technology festival, next on
"Arizona Horizon."
"Arizona Horizon" is made
possible by contributions from
the Friends of Eight, members of
your Arizona PBS station.
Thank you.
>>> Good evening, and welcome to
"Arizona Horizon," I'm Ted
Simons.
State lawmakers passed
legislation last year honoring
Arizona's centennial by creating
the position of State Poet
Laureate.
Last week ASU regent's professor
Alberto Rios was named Arizona's
inaugural poet laureate.
Rios is a native of Nogales and
the award-winning author of
numerous books of poetry and
short stories.
Welcome to "Arizona Horizon."
>> This is the place to be!
>> And congratulations, right?
This is a good thing.
>> Work, work, work.
>> What does a poet laureate do?
>> That's an excellent question.
It is yet to be invented.
Everybody seems to think it
means more work.
>> Then congratulations in
quotations there.
I think we're the 43rd state
to have one?
>> That's about right.
>> Have you heard anything?
Gotten anything?
>> If you're in the field you
meet people who do these sorts
of things.
I know most of the poets
laureate out there.
I'm getting a little advice,
mostly don't do everything.
>> The Governor's office, the
quote was you represent
Arizona's values, independence,
and uniquely western culture.
>> What are your thoughts when
you hear something like that?
>> I believe it.
I believe it to the extent that
is what my life's been.
I grew up on the border.
I have an intrinsic really
important Arizona story I think
I've lived.
My father was born in Mexico, my
mother was born in England.
It was a mix of ideas,
languages, foods, different
things in the refrigerator.
Sorting that all out is part of
what I think made me a writer,
and part of what made me an
Arizonan and that independence
and Western sensibility comes
out of that.
>> When did you start writing
poetry?
>> When did I start writing
something?
It has very little to do with
putting pen to paper, it had to
do with getting in trouble.
It was second grade and I was
busted for the egregious crime
of day-dreaming.
This was the 1950s, that was a
big deal, my parents were hauled
into school.
Yet I know now, I think that was
the beginning of it.
As a second grader you can't
write a novel really, but you
can think one.
If you're taught about being --
let's say you're being taught
about explorers, what do you
think you want to do as a second
grader?
You want to go out and be an
explorer, but you can't even
walk across the street without
somebody holding your hand,
which puts a crimp in your
explorer style.
But you have to put that big
thing, that excitement
somewhere.
I think too often we think kids,
second graders, first graders,
they are all bouncing around on
sugar or bad manners or whatever
it is.
We don't think they may be
excited because they just
learned something.
>> When were you able to put
that excitement into the form
of, be it short stories, but
especially poetry?
Poetry is very different.
I think kids kind of think of
poetry as song lyrics and rap
lyrics these days.
But when did you say, this makes
sense to me, I can express
myself with this.
>> Well, it was a dangerous
route.
It was the back of my notebook
starting in maybe junior high,
high school.
You're supposed to be doing what
you're supposed to be doing at
the front of your notebook.
When you go to the back, you're
looking for trouble, no getting
around it.
You're going make a spit ***,
write a note to somebody.
Well, I started writing things
and I don't have wording for it.
It didn't have a word in the
back of my notebook.
And it was because in the front
of my notebook -- we think of
poetry today as kind of a staid,
homework oriented thing, things
that we memorize and that are
kind of dead in the water.
It's totally uninvented yet, not
what I've written or what others
have written.
I started to write things in the
back of my notebooks, words,
phrases, I don't know why I did
that.
I couldn't show it to anybody.
And therefore it was mine.
I couldn't show it to a teacher
because I wasn't doing it for
homework, it would have been in
the front.
I couldn't show it to my parents
because that's the lead-off
being a kid.
I couldn't show it to my friends
because I was pretty sure they
weren't doing that.
They grew into things that later
became poems.
>> When did you start to show
them to people?
When did you realize when people
saw these things they thought
you were pretty good?
>> I don't know that anybody
makes that leap immediately.
People don't know what to make
of poems.
You get a poem shared with you.
I'm not sure we're trained, or
we know how to respond.
We listen to a great song,
that's great.
You listen to a great poem and
go, huh.
You don't have a vocabulary for
sharing intimate things with
each other in that way, in
periods, start the sharing it a
little bit.
High school writing was high
school writing, no getting
around it, mine was no
different.
I think I was in college and I
knew my formal training came my
junior year.
I went to U. of A. after coming
out of Nogales.
Nogales was not a college prep
experience.
I just really went to 13th
grade and that saved me.
I got through my first two years
at U. of A.
Those years were set, you didn't
really have any choices.
Junior year, that was the year
computers came to universities.
It meant for the first time you
could preregister.
So me and the other two people
that had gone to college were in
my bedroom that summer, reading
the college catalog looking for
what everybody else that summer
was looking here, the mythical
courses we could find.
We knew how to do this.
I'd been through freshman
English and hated it.
Then I got English 9,
introduction to poetry writing.
Blah, blah, blah, didn't really
mean anything to me at the
moment.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, at the
end it said no final.
>> Oh, man, sign me up.
>> A winner.
I tricked myself I think that
way.
English 10, introduction to
fiction writing, I signed up for
that, too, no final.
But it's the great trick of
academia, of learning, whatever
the time.
It's just come and try it, and I
did.
>> With that in mind give us a
definition, what is poetry and,
for you, has that definition
changed over the years?
>> Yeah, I think it's tough for
a good definition.
If I'm in the classroom trying
to talk to a student about a
poem, I'm forced to reinvent it
and say it all over again in my
own words each time.
So whatever definition I give
you now -- and I think it's
anything worth remembering, for
example.
And the imlse is when you're
walking down the street and you
say, hey, did you see that?
I want to remember that.
It was worth you seeing it, not
just me, and I wish you had.
>> In that respect I was reading
some things you have written
about poetry.
You emphasize the note.
Is poetry a series of moments
that work together or don't work
together?
>> Both.
>> It depends on the kind of
poem you're trying to write if
every line is good.
They point to a single line of
the Bible and take instruction
from that for the day, or
whatever.
Before the Bible it began with
the works of Virgil, where
people would open up a book of
poems and put their finger on a
line, not a poem, and that was
the test.
If it isn't good wherever I
point, it's not a good poem.
When students asked me,
professor said it's got to be
the hook line, the first line
No, it's got to be the last
line.
No, the best line in the poem
better be the line I'm reading.
It's an impossible standard and
why would we want any other?
>> With that in mind, how do you
write a poem?
Do you emphasize rhyme?
Do you emphasize meter?
Syllables?
When you write a poem do you
write, this one's going to be
about this and about that long?
Or do you wait for the muse?
What happens?
>> I get led.
I get led by some words, some
incitement, whatever it might
be.
All those things, meter and
rhyme which people think are not
in use today, writers are using
those things all the time
including personal ways.
I think I'm at a point where
it's not what I think about.
I don't think about the tools
I'm going use to make a poem.
I just start to be led and I can
bring to feared testify all the
things I worked on.
I'm not exaggerating, it's
different every time.
If it weren't, I'd be scared.
>> There's a visual election.
We think of story line, how long
is a novel?
You see a novel and you're
looking at it and the container,
the book is official, you get to
the wall, you fall down one,
you're -- that's a terrible way
to read prose, to read a story.
A storyline is probably two
miles long, half an inch high
and fits straight into the ear.
It's really an elegant idea.
And the book is an occasional
box to judge it from.
I think too often that's how we
end up writing things, it looks
like a poem.
But I think there is something
to the idea that a regular liner
is about 10 syllables long.
Different languages work
differently, the cadence.
There's something different
about, how long does it take to
say one thing or one thing about
one thing, and a poetic line is
a good marry of where poets see
the brilliance in the poem.
But most people don't see the
brilliance there.
Is that a good poem?
>> That's an excellent question.
There's a failure to
communicate.
We're not talking about what it
is that matters, what makes
something great.
Very often critics will see the
juxtaposition of things never
together before.
But those two I'd have nothing,
never gone before.
I think the conversation needs
to be opened up.
>> And yet, a couple of things.
>> The the second one is if you
have to tell your reader just
keep reading, it'll make sense
in the future, you're not
writing poetry, you're writing
prose.
>> Right.
>> They are juxtapositioning all
over the page and I'm not
getting it.
I'm being required to do
something there, aren't I?
We have a very generic
sensibility about poetry.
It's like food, you like some
foods and don't like other foods
and it's okay.
>> How best do you approach a
poem?
>> With an open mind.
I want to be taught by the poem
how to read it.
A poem will often be able to
show me what's important about
it.
So when I read it, I often put
it in the nose and I read it and
a try to listen to it, I try to
divine what it's trying to share
with me.
>> If it wants you to take it to
Avenue A and read it aloud, and
internally you find yourself on
Avenue B, so be it?
>> Sometimes you take a wrong
turn but that's also used as a
responsibility.
>> It's going to make me write
another poem.
Sometimes it's a trigger for
that.
>> The last question here,
you're the poet laureate now.
>> You're charged to expose
people to poetry and things they
may not be familiar with?
>> To the best parts of
language.
Language in this part of the
state or been the best of
language has something to offer
simply and innately because of
that.
It's going to say something to
someone else.
If someone else can hear that,
if it's a kitchen table
conversation, we'll going to be
better off.
>> Well, good, we can't wait to
hear you say more.
Good to have you here, thank you
so much for joining us.
>> I appreciate it.
Hundreds of the state's
business, science and education
leaders will gather next week in
Scottsdale for the second annual
Arizona SciTech festival kickoff
conference.
It's designed to help plan for
the festival set for next
spring.
Joining me now is Jeremy
Babendure, executive director of
the Arizona SciTech festival,
and Jeanine Jerkovic, economic
administrator for the City of
Glendale.
Good to have you here, thank you
for joining us.
>> Thank you.
>> Before we get to the planning
thing, what's the conference all
about?
>> The idea is the gathering, we
have hundreds that put this all
together.
What's the opportunity for them
to share their best practices,
what they have done.
This correction is a way to
bring them together and get them
to communicate what they did the
prior year, but talk about what
they might do for the future, as
well.
>> Talk about the festival
itself.
>> It's a statewide celebration
of science and technology, over
400 events that occur at 250
venues statewide.
Collaborators really work
science and technology into
everything they do.
>> Sounds like cities are
getting more involved.
Why?
>> It's important to cities from
so many perspectives.
Our committee found it's a great
way to engage with businesses.
It's a great way to reach out to
citizens and wonderful way to
consider ways to build a
workforce pipeline, which is
extremely important to us.
>> I would think it would help
brand a city or a region,
correct?
>> That is correct.
We want to be known as
communities that are innovative
and welcoming and communities
showing their objectives.
From that perspective it's been
very positive for Glendale and
for the State of Arizona.
>> As far as the festival
itself, last go-around, how many
events were there, where were
they held?
And give us an example of what
was going on.
>> For example, take Glendale,
there was a site at their
chocolate affair, we had groups
from Midwestern University doing
experiments on white chocolate,
dark chocolate, what's best for
you.
There was the night of the open
door, they had about 15,000
people.
U. of A. had science city, part
of the festival that drew over
100,000 people for a couple of
days.
>> I think we talked about a
baseball exhibit, as well.
>> That's been done in
Scottsdale a couple of times, a
professor did a talk on the
relationship between pitchers
and batters.
He was able to compare to it
biological curves, as well.
When the city sees the festival,
I'd like to do that, or I've got
a great new idea, what do you
think?
>> Well, obviously we want to do
what works.
We want to reflect the character
of our community.
So for example, we did a
chocolate, science of chocolate
event.
We also did a science of hockey
event.
So these were things we thought
really reflected key industries
in our community, aviation,
health care, efforts.
I think a lot of communities are
doing that.
>> What kind of input are you
getting from the businesses in
your community?
>> From the businesses'
perspective, it is very exciting
for them.
They are able to reach the
community and let people know
that education is important and
there are choice incidents
community for them.
Midwestern has the most
important medical school in
Arizona.
For companies and citizens alike
it's a great way to bring all of
the educational choices out
there.
>> And talk more about that.
You have to have cooperation
from businesses.
ASU and U. of A. cooperate, as
well.
>> I think the festival is
almost a representation of the
community itself.
So you know, there's economic
development, it's basically like
a continuum from education all
the way to the economy.
You've got community colleges,
Universities, businesses,
nonprofits.
Everybody has a role.
You can say to a bank, let's do
the mathematics of, you know,
finance.
You could do mathematics of
insurance.
There's almost a link of science
and technology everywhere.
Everyone could have a role just
to get the word out and promote
it.
>> As far as the events are
concerned, what is the goal of
the event?
Say I want to do my
plate-spinning analogy.
I want to do plate-spinning, the
theater of it, whatever.
Do I go to you?
>> We've been trying to connect
with local cities and towns.
We say, how does this link to
the character of that community.
Usually it ties in with their
business relative to the
community.
We've had a business that's been
a science of the community in
downtown.
In Tucson they had about 20
small businesses showcase the
science of what they do.
Anywhere from the science of ice
cream to the science of music in
a music shop.
It helps to draw people to
downtown and get people into the
shops.
>> From the city's perspective,
do you have to parse some ideas?
How do you figure out that A
works and B doesn't?
>> You know, it's a fun trial
and error.
As a community we designed our
values.
We wanted to make the festival
as accessible as possible to the
public.
We timed it very strategically.
We were careful to have free of
cost events, which is something
the festival itself likes to do.
We did a no excuses approach.
Every community does it
differently.
We all figure out what way works
best.
>> With that in mind, what are
some of the challenges here?
I'm hearing a lot of gung ho
things, but there have to be
some challenges out there, as
well.
>> I think the only challenge is
really finding a way to channel
all of the excitement.
Ultimately there are ideas that
come up at the last minute that
you're not going to be able to
execute so you put them on the
table for next year.
For us, even the challenges are
great opportunities.
>> What do you see as challenges
you were part of starting a
similar festival in San Diego.
You guys have passed San Diego
by here, correct?
>> Yes.
>> Kind of alert for mistakes,
you've got some ideas here,
challenge us.
>> I think one place we've taken
a different approach is to not
be the event planners but
partner with organizations and
groups.
For the purpose.
A lot of people loved the event
but then they expected to us
plan and do the event.
The win went to the festival
organization as opposed to the
groups that might want to do
their own events.
It really helps to solve many
challenges, and one of which is
sustainability.
A lot of communities are
creating their own events
connected with the broader
umbrella of the SciTech fast
value, but they are doing it for
their own community and sharing
that risk and win in terms of
the successful event.
>> What are you looking forward
to at the planning conference?
What do you want to get out of
this?
>> It's always an opportunity to
network.
I've met the greatest contacts
at this kick-off conference.
Last year was no exception, so
it was a matter of finding
resources, figure out what over
people were putting their events
together and collaborating
together.
>> That is what you're looking
for, as well?
>> We love people and we would
them to consider coming to this
conference, it's free.
If you don't know about the
festival, this is the best way
to learn about it and get
engaged.
It was quite the to-do last
time, the event itself.
I'm getting even more this time,
huh?
>> At this point over 800 people
have registered on the site.
And there are 16 panels, totally
diverse as to what the
conversations will be.
>> Well, good luck to you both.
That is it for now.
I'm Ted Simons, thank you so
much for joining us.
You have a great evening.
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