A crowd of students gathered on Thursday, Nov. 10for a live poetry and short story reading at the Lancer Café in Lankford Student Union. This event encourages students to come forward and read their own work from classes or simply from their own inspiration, such as poetry and short stories, as well as other famous works if they so choose. It has taken place for the past six years or so and was originally organized by the Creative Writing Department as a way to showcase their students work in writing workshops. The event was started up by Mary Carroll-Hackett, head of the Creative Writing Department.
This year was different from past years, though, in that students picked up the reigns in order for it to continue. This year the department had no plans for hosting the event so Creative Writing students Ashley Maser, Amy Ellis, Samantha Drake and Chloe Joseph took the wheel, organizing and hosting the entire event themselves. The event is hosted each year to raise money and can donations for FACES. "It's been great this year. There have been lots of monetary donations, where usually there are more can donations," said Ashley Maser, a senior and one of the coordinators of the event.
Around twenty students were slated to perform in the two hours the event lasted.Sign-up lists went around to all writing workshops, but others outside of the department were also encouraged to participate, as well as faculty and staff in all departments. "It's a nice event because it benefits the food pantries," said Dr. Craig Challender, a professor and poet himself within the Creative Writing Department. "It's also a good way to prep students and get them used to poetry readings. It's kind of scary, but kind of fun for those that have never attended a poetry reading before."
The night was an overall success for both students, faculty and in terms as a fundraiser as well. Many students who had never before performed or shared their work were given and seized the opportunity, giving them a great first time experience to grow on. "I think it was a success. There are more people here than I thought would be and I'm impressed with the students so far," said Challender when asked about what he thought so far in terms of the organization. "I'm glad that they kept it going, I was afraid it would implode. I'm actually glad it's being taken over by the students, I think it should be a student run thing."
In the end it is a great way to support both FACES and the charity programs around Longwood as well as the art of writing. "We really appreciate the support of Longwood and the students- it's awesome," said Maser.
