Carleton Spoken Word Society, a poetry club at Carleton, hosted a workshop earlier this month.
Entitled “A Workshop of Words,” the event was held on July 4 via Zoom. Participants were asked to write short poems based on one of two themes: the United States or nostalgia.
The poems were written on the spot with no forethought, according to the club’s Instagram post about the event. Therefore, the themes were not released publicly prior to the event.
Tarini Jayaprakash, club president and second-year health sciences student, said participants had 10 to 15 minutes to write a short poem about their chosen theme. She said the US theme was chosen because the workshop took place on the fourth of July and the nostalgia theme was chosen randomly.
According to Jayaprakash, the meeting quickly turned into a conversation revolving around the United States and Independence Day.
“We got into such a good discussion that went on for almost an hour about the U.S. and how the country has been regressing the last couple years. There were even a few Americans [there] who were able to share their stories and memories which made the discussions even better,” Jayaprakash said.
According to Jayaprakash, having these discussions exemplified to her how the United States’ golden image, where it was often a leader of other countries, has deteriorated over the last few years. Topics such as racism and hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community were also part of the discussion.
For other members, such as second-year student Andres Reyes, discussing the U.S. and its issues goes a lot deeper than observing these events from an outside perspective. Reyes said he comes from a Latino background and has family in Texas, which means issues in the U.S. have hit close to home.
“Speaking about the U.S. was perfect because Independence Day was so recent and we all took turns putting our ideas out there and sharing. It was an amazing experience discussing with everyone,” Reyes said. “The best part is that we have a diverse range of people, not just culturally but also academically, as well as people tuning in from different areas [of the world.]”
Despite the slow easing of COVID-19 restrictions in Ottawa, Carleton Spoken Word Society will continue to host events virtually over the summer, Jayaprakash said. She added that they’re optimistic about in-person options during the academic year and the club hopes to expand the variety of their events to keep people engaged.
“If things need to be continued virtually, we plan on having famous poets from around the world as guest speakers. For now, we host mainly poetry workshops, which is what happened Saturday, and open mic nights,” she said.
Moving forward, Jayaprakash said the club wants to make sure that all of its events are safe and inclusive. Eventually, she added the club aims to be open for all of Ottawa, not just Carleton students.
The club’s next events include a blackout poetry night, where participants choose a random book page and write a poem using words from that page while “blacking out” the rest, which Jayaprakash said is scheduled to be held at the end of July. She said the club also plans to host an open mic in mid-August.
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
