WSU’s English Department and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art celebrated the National Day of Racial Healing by hosting a reading and open mic on Tuesday. The event began at 1:45 p.m. at the museum’s Pavilion Gallery.
Kristin Becker, museum education and programs curator, commenced this event by greeting the crowd and inviting Cameron McGill, scholarly assistant professor in the English department to host the event.
McGill started by introducing Ally Pang and Joel Kemegue, former Campus Civic Poet Award winners who sent video recordings of themselves reading their poems. The next portion was handed to some faculty members and creative writing students to read their poetry.
“When I heard about “Keep on Pushing: Building Bridges to Sustainability,” I [thought] ‘how am I going to do that, what am I supposed to write because I want the words to speak to me, I want the words to speak to you,’ but my professor said ultimately you have to write what you feel [and] say what you feel,” said Jada Rome, former Campus Civic Poet Award winner.
Sienna Guadagnoli, creative writing major, read “And Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou.
Janai Johnson, animal science major decided to read a poem from her thesis project.
No matter who you are I hope that you find some level of human in it,” said Johnson.
“Racial healing is very special to me because it is something that hasn’t happened,” Allison Hilliker, English literature major, said. She continued by reading “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo. Maya McCabe, sports management graduate student, a poem written by herself titled “Notes App”.
The event continued with an open mic session where any student, faculty, staff or community member had the opportunity to read. This included Linda Russo, Brused Books open mic organizer, Bryan Fry, Blood Orange Review editor and English instructor and Colin Criss, Palouse Review editor and assistant professor. The works of the late American poet Nikki Giovanni were often read during the event.
In Terrell Library, the Manuscripts, Archives & Special Collections provided a letterpress for printing any relevant poems at this event. Physical copies of “How the Other Half Eats” by Priya Fielding-Singh were also available for the attendees at no cost.
