Hanif Abdurraqib

The entry point to kind of raise that neighborhood and make it something else.

And she refuses to leave.

And her refusal, I think, is an action that my work is pointing towards.

My very presence is stopping the worst designs of a city that has no idea who its population actually is.

And my staying here means I'm actually keeping a history that existed before me and a history that I want to exist after me.

Because what's the point of staying in a neighborhood if the neighborhood no longer feels like it's a place where you're welcome?

Or if you cannot be translated through the new population of that neighborhood?

I love the Park of Roses because it is exactly what it sounds like.

And Park of Roses were like where you took, if you had no money, but you wanted to go on a date.

And if it was like spring, that's where you would go on a date.

Cause it's like, we could just look at these pretty flowers and don't worry about the fact that we're both broke.

Poetry?

For me, it doesn't work that way.

Like I don't look at that bush of flowers and say, I'm going to write a poem about that bush of flowers.

I think that's maybe not my brand of brain function.

I think what is more useful to me is to like find out the history of the flower and what it might tell me about life.

the land it originally came from or there's something beyond the surface thing that my brain is consuming and i think just because something is beautiful doesn't mean that it has to be reworked into something else beyond what it's already offering us i tend to just kind of think that this is a cool place to sit in gratitude like we're here we're here in late july to the middle of the heat wave and yet these flowers have survived a little bit longer than they normally would you know

Thank y'all for coming out tonight.

It's great to be in here and not be expected to do anything other than introduce poets that I want to hear.

Yesterday, Sarah got into Columbus and we were driving around and she was looking up at the sky and she was like, look at how round and beautiful the clouds are.