UHCL celebrates National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world.
The celebration is a registered trademark established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets.
Readers from all over the world, students, teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary event coordinators, publishers, bloggers and poets celebrate poetry’s paramount role in literacy and culture.
“Writing poetry is a way to encourage self expression and strengthen one’s voice,” said Jennifer Benka, executive director of the Academy of American Poets. “It’s also an opportunity to study vocabulary and the innate qualities that make language a powerful tool, including the rhythm and musicality of words.”
The goals for National Poetry Month is to empower the reading of poems, encourage the support for poets and poetry, assist teachers in bringing poetry into their classrooms, increase local and national media attention toward poetry, maximize publication and distribution of poetry books and highlight the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets.
Benka explains that April was chosen due to the heighten number of poetry books being published and the numerous amount of events taking place in cities across the country.
“It’s a special time of year to celebrate and remember that poetry is an important art form essential to our cultural landscape,” Benka said.
Whitney Vandiver, program coordinator for the Writing Center, agrees that poetry encourages self expression.
“Poetry offers an outlet for creative writing that no other form of writing can achieve; it offers a freedom with expression that many readers crave,” Vandiver said. “This unique expression should be studied and recognized to open students’ and all readers’ minds to the possibilities of communicating through poetry.”
UHCL students and faculty join together to create special events around campus in commemoration of National Poetry Month.
SPINE BOOK POETRY
UHCL’s Alfred R. Neumann Library will be displaying spine poetry to celebrate National Poetry Month.
Spine poetry is a poem composed using the spines of books stacked on one another to create a witty, free-verse poem from their titles.
“A friend of mine sent a book spine poem to me a couple of years ago,” said Darlene Woodbury, library associate and coordinator of the project. “As National Poetry Month approached I thought it would be fun to get the library staff involved by challenging them to create a book spine poetry.”
Martha Steele, associate director of public services for Neumann Library, believes participants will develop an appreciation for the skill of poets, who create stories and emotions with modicum of works.
Spine Poem Guidelines:
- Compose spine poem by using books available at Alfred R. Neumann Library.
- Bring book spine poem to circulation desk; library associates will change the location of the books and make a sign identifying the poem.
- Students can also snap a picture of their spine poem and post it on the library’s Facebook page located at https://www.facebook.com/UHCLNeumannLibrary. The best entries will be created and displayed on book shelves.
- Display deadline is March 30.
POEM IN POCKET DAY AND OPEN MIC
The Office of Student Life and the School of Human Sciences and Humanities (HSH) have joined efforts to promote national Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 30.
People across the United States celebrate by selecting a poem, carrying it with them, and sharing it with friends and colleagues throughout that day.
Shreerekha Subramanian, associate professor of humanities, will be writing a short poem inspired out of a Japanese medieval form called waka, which will be printed and available around campus.
“I started with the waka thinking about our campus because our campus strikes as stunning each time we come to it with fresh eyes,” Subramanian said. “I wanted to take some time to reflect on the gift of beauty that we are given each time we arrive to learn, teach and engage with one another at UHCL.”
Andrew Reitberger, acting director of student life, is excited about Subramanian’s poem and believes student and faculty involvement will give poetry the attention it deserves.
“It’s [poetry] a part of our lives and we don’t always realize it,” Reitberger said. “Aside from books of poetry, we have poems all around us in songs, greeting cards, etc.”
In conjunction with Poem in Your Pocket Day, HSH faculty encourages students to attend open mic poetry readings on the second Wednesday of each month from 5-6 p.m. at the Hawk’s Overlook in Neumann Library.
“Open mic is something that I initiated and ran for all these seasons,” Subramanian said. “It is an HSH-faculty driven effort to run a regular cultural-poetry event on our campus. The library kindly invited us into their space and has thus been part of sponsoring our event each month.”
TWITTER HAIKU CONTEST
The Signal newspaper will have a Twitter haiku contest that will also promote its new Literary Arts section located on the Life and Arts page.
Participants are asked to tweet an original haiku using #UHaikuCL during April 2-30. The winner will win a t-shirt with his or her original haiku printed on it.
Haikus originated from Japan and are usually short, three-line poems with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count.
“The Signal decided to develop a haiku contest because haikus are an easy and fun way to make an expression,” said Sam Savell, managing editor for The Signal. “We hope this contest to be an exciting opportunity for anyone related to the university to be able to express themselves and get feedback from not just the staff of The Signal, but their fellow peers who may be following the hashtag #UHaikuCL as well.
John Gorman, retired professor of literature and UHCL’s former poet laureate, encourages the UHCL community to participate in all three events pointing out that poetry is meant to be shared.
“Poetry events at UHCL break poems out of the classroom and show that anyone anywhere can join the fun, profiting from the sense of community, the satisfaction of accomplishment, and clarified sense of the life we share,” Gorman said. “When I’m writing, the reward is in getting something right; if a poem surprises me as it develops, all the better. I think about audience. A poem exists most fully when it’s shared and responded to.”
Correction: April 16, 2015
This article has been updated to correctly identify Whitney Vandiver as program coordinator for the Writing Center and to correct attribution for Vandiver’s quote.
Great job, Leena!