[applause] >> last but not least, frank wilkerson iii. >> can you hear me ok? i am laudable? came out, he memoir on apartheid i was going around the country on a book tour and it wasn't always clear to me what kind of impact or how the book was being received. it was thought of as a controversial. i felt myself -- you know how it is when you publish something that you think will never get published and you are hoping it will never get published because it reveals so much about yourself and how you feel about the world and you go out and represent it and take all the hits and pot shots from people and i wasn't ready for that. when i came here in november of 2008 i had the most sustained and engaged response and dialogue about my work i ever had. i am happy to be here and that my publisher came in to collaborate and relocated to make efforts. thanks for putting us all together. in the 1980s i was teaching creative writing in minneapolis, minnesota. as you can imagine i was struggling with how to be as a writer and a black writer in that place in this time and what my relationsh