In honor of National Poetry Month, San Francisco State University students and faculty huddled in Room 121 of the J. Paul Leonard Library to participate in the “Poetry Without Borders: Writing + Reading” on Thursday.
The event consisted of a writing activity session and an open mic section. Participants were given small flyers with examples of different forms of poetry, such as haikus, cinquains and micropoetry. If writers needed inspiration, the event offered different poetry prompts to help them get started.
During the open mic sessions, partakers were encouraged to read the poems they worked on throughout the event. There were a few readers, mainly faculty.
The poems ranged from a serious, monolithic tone to a more funny, joking tone. One reader read their poem “Peer Pressure.” The poem was about how the rest of the group pressured him to present the poem they were working on.
While the turnout wasn’t as high as the organizers had hoped, participants were more than satisfied with the sense of community. Librarian Talía Guzmán Gonzáles, one of the event organizers, hopes that events like this allow students to reflect and decompress from their studies.
“You want to see people find a little piece of quiet but also community,” Guzmán said. “Also, get to see the library is their place, right? Because this is their library, this is our student’s library and they should see it as a place where they can come and be themselves.”
Interlibrary Services Lead Leah Joy has written poetry since she was a teenager. She was excited when she learned the library would host an event related to her interests.
Joy currently works on the library’s second floor, disconnected from the students who wander in.
Events like these allow Joy to connect with her colleagues and students.
“It’s nice to have things that aren’t as formalized to chat with people and learn about their interests and have the loose structure of something like poetry, writing and reading something creative,” Joy said.
Joy believes that poetry can be intimidating to others, so the event’s more casual than formal atmosphere allowed participants to be more open to conversation.
The Multilingual Library Services Group, which specializes in providing language services to campus students, hosted the event. The group aims to organize events that celebrate the campus’ linguistic diversity.
Julia Toscano, a fourth-year political science student, decided to attend the event despite not being a writer or poet. The event flyer encouraging poets to write in their preferred language prompted Toscano’s attendance.
“I thought, ‘What a great way to have an outlet where people can speak on it in an artistic way,” Toscano said.
Toscano believes that political science and the arts go hand in hand, citing that City Hall is across the street from major art theaters, such as the San Francisco Symphony.
Students interested in attending events hosted by the Multilingual Library Services Group can find their events on the SFSU library’s Instagram page.
