The Skyline College Library hosted two events for National Poetry Month, a poetry reading from Jazz & Other Hot Subjects on Thursday, April 21, 2016 and Poetry as Practice: Spoken Word and Spine Poems on Tuesday, April 26, 2016. Students, faculty, and staff were in attendance for both programs, and gained a greater appreciation of the written word.
Poet and Skyline College English Instructor Katharine Harer shared her work from her latest book of poetry, Jazz & Other Hot Subjects reading selected poems including, “Love Note To San Francisco,” “No One Listens To Poetry,” and “The Sacred.” Professor Harer shared the origin of her poem “The Sacred,” and writing it with her class. Inspired by a poem by Stephen Dunn of the same name, “The Sacred” depicts identifying what you find sacred in the world. Students were then welcomed to a Q&A where they inquired about what inspires her to write a poetry, when she knows a poem is finished, and other aspects of her writing.
The workshop Poetry as Practice: Spoken Word and Spine Poems with Skyline College English Instructor, Janice Sapigao, featuring Eddy M. Gana, Jr. and Stephanie Sajor, balanced the aspects of creating poetry using the titles of library books to express your creativity and perspective, with the performance art form of spoken word. Workshop attendees learned the significance of taking poetry “from the page to the stage” by emulating different personas and speaking their poems through different voices to identify what suited them best.
View more information regarding Katharine Harer’s work on Harer’s website. Also, April’s National Poetry Month is coming to a close. The Library’s Books Spine Poetry Contest will conclude April 30, 2016. Submit your entries to skylibrary@smccd.edu for a chance to win up to a $25 gift card to the Book Store!
Article by Kristen Lee and Photo by Dr. Pearl Ly
