 Hi everybody, you don't have to sit down if you don't want to. I don't think we have enough chairs anyway, so remain standing Welcome to Tucson. I had I had to look at my notes Feel like a flight attendant So this is the pre-conference Reception for the cool people for the the organized people The people who want to get a head start on the conversations and Also the people who even if they got up at the break of dawn on Thursday Would never make it before 10 o'clock in the evening and they'd miss the whole first day. Thank you very much United Airlines I want to we have a very few things to do. We're not there's no organized programming here We envision this event as a hello Go sort of event and so I want to introduce David Gramling who is the local conference organizer And he's going to thank a few people and give you a few logistical pieces of information And then I have a couple of things to say But right now, please welcome David Gramling This is Tucson so you are in the right city in Arizona. We have three or four Thank you so much for being here. This is lovely to see such a wonderful crowd And we're looking forward to an absolutely exciting weekend I just like to let you know that we have a ground crew here of wonderful smart Translators and volunteers who have been really excited to receive you here in town And you should talk to them and ask them everything that you want to know about where to get good food Where to go out to go dancing where to get really good beer etc So these are our wonderful volunteers. This is So this is Patrick plush Nitsky Tara Taylor Judith Menzel. We also have Martina Schwem. Where's multi Martina Schwem. I'm not sure. Okay. She's at the reg table And let's see we have Christine Lange Stephanie de la cello and one more person Yeah Lee Gage. I'm exactly so all of these students are from the German studies department Which is where I teach here at the University of Arizona and they're a wealth of knowledge about the city and about the university If you want to be taken to a nice place to you know buy a souvenir or something like that They're they'll just tap them on the shoulder. They'll they'll take you somewhere so I have the happy task of Making sure that everybody gets to the off-site events which are at a lovely lovely place called cafe passé So cafe passé is where cafe Latino is taking place Cafe Francais and the long list readings etc. So that place is about 15 minutes away walking And it's a beautiful Outdoor backyard kind of cafe environment for the evening events I would really encourage you to bring an extra layer as it does Occasionally get a little bit chilly here in Tucson. I must admit And I think you'll find it to be a pretty magical space for those of you who are reading You should know that we do have a microphone. We do have a podium So you'll be able to rest your your materials on that One other thing I should say is that there will be for the for the events on Thursday So tomorrow midday and Saturday midday. We will have a food spread out for those of you who arrive on time There will be delicious luscious German food to eat for free So so come in and have some of that. I I have asked I've asked the the proprietor of cafe passé was a wonderful woman named Zabina To have the food out for us tomorrow at 1235 So if you can make it there around then then enjoy the food. Otherwise, I also have Menus for cafe passé in case you are interested in ordering ahead of time. Let's say you want a sandwich It would be great if people could order on on they're leaving the hotel so that when they get there Their food will be ready and you don't have to stand in line where while somebody is reading So that's my suggestion I think let's see what else should I say our wonderful volunteers tears will also lead you there So you'll meet out in the lobby somebody will be carrying a sign that says we're going to cafe passé follow me Or they'll have another poster that says we're going to the poetry center, which is on Friday. I think Friday And so you'll be able to follow our local colleagues They're your local ground crew Please talk to them about anything that comes across your radar and we're so delighted to have you here Please have a lovely lovely weekend in a lovely conference. Welcome to Tucson Thank You David. I also I forgot to write down my own name in my notes. So I didn't say who I am Russell Valentino I'm the president of Walter welcome As So as I as I mentioned we envisioned this event as a Very informal greeting while you're doing your registration The registration table is still open by the way So if you haven't registered you can do that right now and when you do that, you'll be able to look at this You'll be able to take a look at this really wonderful program book that is really a work of art You'll see all the the stuff that's inside. There's a lot of stuff in there Which means we have a very full program and we have Erica may not put on her designers hat to to work on this and Well open letter, but then the layout sorry lay out Open letters designer Nate. What is Nate's last name Nate? Furl did the the concept and then Erica Helped. Yes. I have to get my facts straight I Also while I'm thanking people I have a few other people to thank There's a long list of sponsors there in the program, but I want to Mention a few in particular and please hold your applause until I finish They're just a few of them the University of Arizona Poetry Center the Center for the Art of Translation Amazon crossing phoneme media and many departments and offices at the University of Arizona Have all contributed actual money to this conference. So please thank them all finally, I Would be we don't we haven't done this in the past, but I'm gonna do it this year I would be remiss if I did not remind everybody that Alta is a non-profit arts organization You know what that means it depends it depends and without a I should say without a sugar daddy or a sugar mama or a sugar gender neutral parent Right that means it depends on all of you And there is a very there are very easy ways to support us one you can become a member If you're not a man, you can come to the conference. That's good. You've already done that Second you can become a member if you haven't become a member It's a very easy process you go to the website literary translators org and it says member Or it says donor. It says it says whatever it says says join Yes, it says join and you click on that and then there are various categories that you can Put yourself into in order to become a member. You don't even have to be a translator This is new This is a new thing It didn't used to be possible and thank you membership committee for making this happen It didn't used to be possible. You can just be a friend of translation You're like friends of public television. You can be a friend of translation and some of you have friends and You can ask them to become friends of translation because you know they support the mission And so Yeah, ask them It's in order to make translation possible That's what they're supporting. They're gonna be supporting making translation recognized making it understood and appreciated today as much as The core component of literature in English that it always has been If you support that and you think you know somebody who might support that say hey be a friend of Literary translation join Alta It's not hard Have a great time Go out and enjoy the city a lot of places to eat. Don't forget to register and enjoy yourselves