>> From the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. >> Pamela Jackson: Greetings. So I'm Pam Jackson, Director for the Center for the Book, which includes the poetry and literature center here at the Library of Congress. And I'd like to welcome you this afternoon, thank you so much for being here. Today is a really, really special day and we're here to celebrate with a series of events that starts with this afternoon's concert. So, today we are here to celebrate the conclusion of the second term of the US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera and what an honor and a privilege it is to be here to be part of this amazing day. Especially because of the remarkable and phenomenal artistry of this man. I just use the word "magical", just magical. That's who you -- I'm talking right now, so just excuse me while I talk directly to him. But you know we're here to celebrate you and honor you for your work and your service to the country and in representation of the poet laureate ship. There have been a remarkable series of activities and events over the last couple of years, so today we celebrate with some more remarkable events culminating with a new concert today and we'll follow by some evening festivities I'll mention just briefly. But I'll start by saying that today's series of events are brought to you by the poetry literature center in partnership with the Library of Congress American Folk Lives Center. And the music and Hispanic divisions of the Library of Congress. And here at the Library it's our mission to really promote ourselves as the first cultural institution and in service of being the first cultural institution we focus on providing American people and globally with a rich diverse and enduring source of knowledge that can be relied upon to stimulate intellectual and creative endeavors. And we especially believe that our poet laureate and the events both today and throughout the two terms he served have done just that, to empower us to expand our thinking, to have us be intellectually and creatively endeavoring on our own and for a purpose. Because it's not just to do it but it's for a purpose and one of the things that we talk about here is to broaden our sense of the world through the arts and the culture that we celebrate at the Library of Congress. So this afternoons event is the first of Speak the People, the Spark el poema event and includes a choral performance by the Fresno State Chamber Singers. These singers hail from Mr. Herrera's hometown and will perform newly commissioned pieces developed in collaboration with our poet laureate. Their performance credits include conventions, festivals and members of the chamber singers have toured Mexico, China and even Europe. So, they're with us today to conclude their own 2016/2017 season with a fabulous presentation of music, lyric and poetry. So we're thankful to several individuals from Fresno State who are making this concert happen including the dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, Saul Jimenez Sandoval. Thank you. Hello. [ Applause ] >> Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities Honoraria Chapman, hello. [ Applause ] >> Composers Benjamin Boone and Kenneth Frolick. [ Applause ] >> And Choral director Cari Earnhart. And she'll be joining us up front just shortly. [ Applause ] >> We'd also like to thank the chair of the music department here at the Library of Congress Mathew Darling who couldn't be with us today, but sends his regards. So, I will note for those of you with us in the room and also those of you online, first of all let me stop and acknowledge. We've got a lot of folks from Fresno State in California with us online, so say hello to the camera. Welcome, welcome to you across the country viewing us. [ Applause ] >> We want to make note that the festivities will continue after today's concert this evening starting at 7:00 p.m. here in the Thomas Jefferson Building, downstairs in the Coolidge Auditorium. There's an event that includes a panel discussion about the continuing emergence of Latino culture and its influence on the nation featuring our own Juan Felipe Herrera and then that's followed by a concert with the Grammy award winning East LA Chicano Rock band Quetzal and they will be closing out the celebration. Now we should also mention there are a couple of displays downstairs, outside the Coolidge Auditorium and the vestibule area from each of the Library of Congress units, the music division, Hispanic division, poetry and literature center and American folk life center. So, just a bit of housekeeping before we get started to avoid unnecessary distraction. If you've not already done so please take a moment to silence your mobile devices. And we are recording today's event besides live streaming, so if you do participate you'll become part of our webcast and you can feel free to look for yourself online in our series of webcast at loc.gov/poetry. Now here to introduce the program and participants for this afternoon's concert is Dr. Cari Earnhart who is the conductor of the Fresno State Chamber singers and also the director of their chorale activities. She's a phenomenal artist in her own right and combines her careers as conductor, teacher and singer. She's in demand as a conductor, clinician and educator and has worked with choirs all over the US and abroad. She holds degrees in vocal performance and pedagogy with advanced degrees in choral conducting and related field studies and vocal pedagogy. Please welcome Cari Earnhart and the Fresno State Chorale. [ Applause ] >> Cari Earnhart: On behalf of California State University, Fresno and the College of Arts and Humanities I would like to thank you all for joining us today and we are so honored to be a part of this event Juan Felipe. I would also like to take a moment to thank our provost Lynette Zalezny, our Dean Saool Himina Sendoval and our associate dean Nora Chapman for joining us today. [ Applause ] >> And for their immense support, thank you so much. I arrived in Fresno about nine months ago and soon after had the opportunity to meet Juan Felipe for the first time as he asked me to put together a choir for this event. And during that time we have had the distinct honor of getting to know Juan Felipe and learn about this extraordinary man, not only through his words but through the generous spirit with which he approaches life every day. Today's program will feature five new compositions by my colleagues, Dr. Ben Boone and Dr. Ken Frolick and you should know that this is the first time Juan Felipe's words have been set to song, and been given a new life beyond the page. These pieces as you will see, tell the story of a man and his journey not just through the last two years as poet laureate, but they also beautifully highlight those that have played a role in who he is today, from his parents to his school teacher Mrs. Sampson, who helped him find his voice, to his student Mia Barraza the fireball of his life. And events from his tenure as poet laureate that have touched his heart. This program will then conclude with a piece called the road, written by Dr. Frolick which reflects a tapestry of sound reflected in this piece which highlights the journey of Juan Felipe's voice and the many voices that have helped him along his road. I would like at this time to express my sincere gratitude to Juan Felipe for asking us to be a part of his journey. Thank you. [ Applause ] [ Music ] >> Juan Felipe Herrera: From sunrise I will walk across the wilderness of desert storms and thorns across the darkness of moonlit storms. I will sow all the lost giving songs. I will gather all the flourishing words. I will remember all the ancestors gone. [ Music ] >> Juan Felipe Herrera: I am your youngest horse bred child and I will say to others for each and every one of you I sing. I am your youngest horse bred child. I will say to the others for each and every one of you I will sing. For each and every one of you, I will sing. [ Music ] [ Applause ] >> Juan Felipe Herrera: And the song, the song began back in third grade. I was in Logan Heights , San Diego and I was always you know speaking in Spanish, that's my language and I had been prohibited from speaking in Spanish. And the day came when Mrs. Sampson, Mrs. Lellia Sampson in Logan Heights in San Diego, California said, "Come on up to the front, come on. Come on up and step to the front and sing". And I said "I don't know if I can do that". To myself I said, "I don't think so, no one has ever said that to me. No one has ever invited me to the front, no one". So what does that mean? So I stepped up to the front as best as I could and I sang, I sang Three Blind Mice, the great opera. And then she turned to me and she said, "You have a beautiful voice". And from that day on to this very day, this very moment that was the key to my life. And I took that key and I took those words and I gave them to everyone I could. That's what she was telling me that the beauty in my voice was the beauty in everyone's voices. Yes. [ Music ] [ Applause ] >> Juan Felipe Herrera: And that voice kept on singing and began to grow. It began to glow, as time went on and then what happened was that at Fresno State recently I opened up the laureate lab, President Costa was so kind. And Provost Lynette Salezny was so kind and the librarian was so kind Peter McDonald. And Saool Himenez, Sandoval our dean of humanities was so kind. And a student came and became my, one of the students that came to be a grad assistant for the lab where we explore and experimented with words and paint and plastic walls and murals and sculptures and paper and plaster and sounds, with poetry, Mia [Spanish] Martinez. She was just so eager and interested and full of intensity and passion for the language and poetry, beautiful talent and amazing woman was coming to class one day. Was coming to the college one day and was a torrential rain at that particular moment and she was getting on freeway 41. So she made it to the freeway and that rain and all that happened at that moment caused her car to flip over into the next lane of the opposite way. And a big truck came and that was the end of her life. So, in one of her poems she -- which is called "I am this United States" shows you the kind of passion she has, she had and continues to have today with this beautiful, amazing choir. And that's the intensity and that's the poem that we are going to sing this beautiful choir is going to present to you. Mia [Spanish] Martinez's words, her poems. In honor of her and all our -- all the women, all the students and all of you and everyone. [ Music ] [ Applause ] >> Juan Felipe Herrera: And that song is based on Mia [Spanish] poem parading down Blackstone Avenue. And that voice, that poem has reached all of us with the voices of our chamber singers and now you have her voice, her encouragement and her energy. And then it makes me ask the question what can a poem do? What can we do when something takes place? Something that leaves us helpless? Something that's far away, maybe it's Boston, maybe it's a terrible incident and maybe it's the massacre that we all know about in South Carolina. So I said what can I do? I think what we can all do is make an offering, maybe just to meditate on it, maybe it's to say hello. Maybe it's to let go of some of the things that keep us from being really intimate and caring and maybe it's also a poem that we can write and send to the people. And this poem, by poem speaks about this and it was actually received in South Carolina and was put on a newsletter throughout that area in particular and the church where all this took place. Poem by poem, we can end the violence. [ Music ] [ Applause ] [ Music ] [ Applause ] [ Music ] >> Juan Felipe Herrera: What are you? What am I? Yes, what are you? What am I? I'm a seventh grader. I come from [Inaudible] I'm an only son, I come from the fields. What are you? I am not a place. I do not know where, I'm not a street. I'm here. Invisible. What are you? I do not know, I must be something, maybe from the islands. Maybe I'm Hawaiian. I want to say Mexican. Mexican, but I cannot say it. The fire inside is all I have. You know if I had a saxophone I would blow it on all the streets and I would open its bell shaped golden mouth if I could blow. If I could make the streets come alive. I could make every boy and girl dance. I could blow on pawn shop row like a prince. Play then. Dance then. The golden light of your voice. Voice? Voice? Voice? If only I had a voice, I would sing. I would ring all the bells, I would -- I could tell you about things that I've not been told from fields, from the mountains and valleys, the yards and the migrant fields. I would say we are one. Play then. Dance then in the golden light of your voice. No saxophone for me. No spoon band chants for me. I will hide behind the sax; I will peak from every key of the sax, from the front to the back. I want to break free from all the lies, I want to break free from all the shame of being so alone with words that are alone too, with a melody or a tone speaking the words like "Buenos Dias", "Buenos Dias Luna". I want to break free from me, my voice alone sometimes like a cry. My voice, alone under the trees, up so high. And the voice came in the 60's, yes. It came, it came. Liberation saying, [Spanish] they called power, power they called, power black power, they called brown power, they called women's power. Power, power, power gay, power red, power yellow, power, power, power, power for the people. Power, power, power, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez [Spanish] for you and maybe me? On the road. Where do I go? But how to make my voice fly? How do you make your voice know why? How do you bring your voice to the people? Do you stand on a hill? A steeple or just take a step on the road near and far, [Spanish] far, far, far. Take a step. On the road. Come up to the front. But where? How far? The road of the people. Do they have a voice? Who stole it? You? Me? Why aren't they heard? Did you stop them? You have a voice, don't you see? You can tell their stories, they can speak them, can you write them, can you see them? Now is the time be a poet. Be a poet, a new sign. Don't forget now is the time. all the voices, made of life. Made of love, now is the time. All the voices, made of life, of love, of strife. Do you dare? I do not know. What if no one understands? What if there is no choice? What if no one cares? And what if I have no voice? The road is long. The road is made of flowers and songs. The road is lost, no one knows, the road is you. The road is new. When do I act? What do I do? Ask the pot and the pans. Ask the spoons, hear them croons. Ask the tortilla roller, rolling along. Ask the griddle, the [Inaudible] in the middle of it all. Ask the [Inaudible] black and deep, round and funky red where things burn. Where things churn. I am the [Spanish], be like me. I'm [Spanish] smasher, be like me. [Spanish] The one that dips into the stew. The one the witches turn and spin and brew. The one that feeds the child, the creative you. The one that tickles the wild, the soul. The one that tastes like lizards [Spanish], the one that turns you into a wizard. The one that carries water for you to grow. I am [Spanish] the one that holds everything, the table that brings la familia together, yeah. Give me a word, not absurd. Give me another word. Give me a spicy word. Give me a wisdom word. Give me a word for others. Give me a word for peace. Give me a word to teach. Give me a word for love. [ Music ] [ Applause ] >>Rob Casper: Wow that was amazing. Thanks so much to all of you and thank you Cari for an incredible performance. Thanks to everyone at Fresno State who helped to make this possible and of course thank you to our dear wonderful 21st poet laureate consultant in poetry Juan Felipe Herrera. [ Applause ] >> Rob Casper: I just have two quick things to tell you and then you can go out and enjoy the day. One you should have gotten surveys with your programs. If you don't mind filling them out and you can leave them on your chairs or put them in the back, hand them to me. They're really helpful for us when we work on the future programs. Two, as we talked about -- Pam talked about a little before there are events going on this evening a 7:00 performance downstairs in the Coolidge. And outside in the foyer of the Coolidge there are amazing displays of materials from our collections from the four co-sponsoring library divisions who are helping make this possible, so go down and check out the foyer. Make sure to come back early, it's going to be a packed performance tonight and we hope to see you there. Thank so much. [ Applause ] >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov.