Special Supplemental Letter from the Editor
Two years ago this month, in October of 2014, the Texas World Cultural Festival and Poetry Recitation Competition was held in Corsicana, Texas. Unbeknownst to the participants, it was the very last time the competition would ever be held. Common decency prevents me from further discussing the well-publicized events that led to the end of the competition’s long and glorious run. Rather than tarnish the memory of those involved and sadden those who witnessed the unfolding of the tragic conclusion of “the incident,” we have chosen to celebrate the Texas World Cultural Festival and Poetry Recitation Competition—which inarguably reached its poetic apex during its final outing.
Fortunately for all of us, Radio Highbrow Culture Correspondent Damian Grammatical was there to document the competition, and his audio report—made possible through the financial support of the Journal of Second-Language Phonology Acquisition Studies—was broadcast on SpecGram Radio and made available throughout the internet via the SpecGram podcast. For those who missed it, and for those with a Luddite’s aversion to modern digital media technology, a transcript of the event is provided in this special monograph.
Let us never forget.
