Library hosts poetry reading outside library for first time

Greg Gancarz

Editor

Parkland’s halls echoed with the words of poets this Poetry Month thanks to a reading put on by Sarah Meilike of Parkland’s library.

On Tuesday, April 10, Parkland’s library hosted a poetry reading event in the X-wing’s Flag Lounge. Beginning at 3 p.m. the event saw five different individuals, mostly Parkland faculty members, read poetry to a gathered crowd.

Readers delivered poetry of their own as well as poems written by others. The event came to its conclusion at 3:45 p.m. after everyone who had wanted to read had done so.

Every April for Poetry Month, the library tries to coordinate poetry events. The week of April 8  was also National Library Week.

One of the faculty members who read poetry was Amy Penne, who is a professor of English.

“The Academy of American Poets has this sort of national month pretty much everywhere,” Penne said. “This week is also National Library Week so the library is sponsoring this poetry reading along with several other events in the library. They wanted to have it out here in the Flag Lounge to give it a little bit more prominence…This always sparks more of an interest in poetry every year at this time.”

The first reader to take the podium was Rochelle Harden, a professor of English at Parkland, who read poetry from a prominent black author. Harden delivered several such poems, which largely focused on the black experience in the U.S..

Penne was the next faculty member to read. She read some of her own poems. Some of her poems’ themes included the strife that comes with motherhood and the unique characteristics and traits that mark rural, southern Illinois.

The next poet, who also read his own work, was William Reger, a part time faculty member in Parkland’s humanities department. He is also one of the founders of the CU Poetry Group, a local organization of poets and poetry enthusiasts. One of Reger’s poems focused on his anger and frustration surrounding the current U.S. immigration policy, while some others focused on wildlife.

“I was thinking I would focus on some of the poems I’d written about animals because I think a lot about the little animals that I see around town. There’s a hawk that lives in the park where I live, so I wrote a little poem about the hawk and what he thinks about while the crows are harassing him,” Reger said. “I’m going to read a poem that I wrote about mutant finches that actually eat us, eat me, in the poem. So I will die for my poetry. I will die in my poetry.”

Reger was also the only poet who presented a limerick, one of his own making. The brief piece was received with laughter.

Lori Williams, a Parkland professor of English composition, took the podium after Reger and also shared some of her own work. One poem’s inspirations were derived from playing a game of softball. Another was about the experiences accumulates as a woman throughout life, as well as where a woman finds herself in the present moments of her life.

The final reader was Chaya Sandler, Parkland academic success coach and student engagement specialist, who shared poetry by Ted Kooser, who served as Poet Laureate Consultant to the Library of Congress from 2004 until 2006. Sandler said she discovered the specific texts she shared while taking a gap year in Israel following high school and that they spoke to her greatly during her time abroad.

“I read from his text ‘Delights and Shadows’…The poems I chose had to do with expectations for students, adults, and humanity in general,” Sandler said.

Following the conclusion of the poem readings, Penne took a moment to speak about the other events being put forward by the library and other poetry groups and outlets in the area, including Reger’s CU Poetry Group.

“They are a phenomenal group of poets,” Penne said.

The CU Poetry Group meets every Tuesday in the Champaign Public Library, which is located near Champaign’s downtown.

“We do workshop poems. Everybody reads, everybody comments,” Reger said.

Penne is also active in poetry events in her hometown of Tuscola, Ill.. She runs her own author website, ThePensivePenne.com as well.

The poems, poets, and readers at the Flag Lounge event were received with applause. The crowd filled most of the provided seating that had been set up in the lounge.

“I loved that people read their own poetry. I was expecting it to all be second-hand, so I’m impressed by the scope of the talent here at Parkland College,” said Raeann Dossett, a Parkland librarian. “The poems were great.”

Sarah Meilike, the library technical assistant acquisitions, who coordinated the event, said that it was the first time in her five years at Parkland that a library poetry reading had been held outside of library.

“We thought it would entice more people to come in if we had it actually out in the college. We thought we might get some passersbys actually stopping in. Also, just the space,” Meilike said. “The library is more of a study space, so I wanted something where people would feel like they could really open up and express themselves, loudly, if necessary.”

Meilike hopes that future events of such nature will only continue to grow in size.

“This is certainly more successful than the last time that we tried to do it. I think that asking faculty to be involved and get people to commit to reading helped. I would love to try to do this again,” Meilike said.