SMC celebrated National Poetry Month throughout April with workshops and a showcase organized by the college's English and Library departments.

In observance of National Poetry Month, Santa Monica College (SMC) held three poetry workshops instructing students on developing poetry writing skills and featured award-winning poets as guest speakers. The program, hosted by English professors Bridgette Robinson and Diane Arieff, was a collaboration between the Library and English departments and culminated in a showcase where students and faculty were able to share and perform original work.

“Our campus is filled with talented and skilled individuals,” said Librarian Roxana Cruz, responsible for devising and producing the three events. “Programs such as these create a safe space for the campus community to share and explore a new interest.”

The “Poetry Writing Workshop” kicked off the month-long program on April 6. Robinson suggested a few prompts for attendees to follow and they were given time to write an original piece to be shared subsequently during class. She focused on three types of poems to be worked on: definition, list and “Golden Shovel.”

Langston Hughes’ “Harlem” and Patricia Smith’s “Don’t You Wanna” were analyzed as examples of list and “Golden Shovel” poems respectively. The latter kind is a poetic form devised by American poet Terrance Hayes where one borrows a phrase from an existing poem as a foundation for their original work.

English Professor Carol Davis was featured as a guest speaker. Davis is a celebrated author whose work has been read at the Library of Congress and won her a T.S. Elliot Prize in 2007. She read her poem titled “An Answer for Everything” from her recently published poetry collection “Below Zero.”

The second workshop of the month on April 20, titled “Find your voice: Poetry Read Out Loud Workshop,” focused on developing poetry reading and performance skills with English Professor Regis Peeples as a guest speaker.

“Listen to yourself. Sit in the words you are saying and let it wash over you,” said Robinson as attendees prepared to perform their work.

The instructors concentrated on topics such as tone, rhythm, pacing and attention to the audience as some of the ways to approach preparation for a poetry performance. Robinson shared how reading poems out loud “taught her what her voice could do.”

“The shorter the poem, the slower you read it,” said Peeples as he analyzed pieces by American poets Douglas Kearney and Danez Smith. “Silence makes people uncomfortable. Don’t fight it, use it.”

Concluding the month’s program on April 27 was the “Drop the Mic: Spoken Word Event,” allowing students to showcase their original work, including other creative writing examples beyond poetry. Guest speaker James Coats kicked off the event by performing “Scarecrows Watch,” an original poem from his 2018 book “Midnight and Mad Dreams,” and three other never-before-shared pieces. Coats is a nationally featured poet with three poetry collections published as of 2023.

“Poetry is one of the easier entry levels into creative writing because you can break rules and experiment,” he said. “Performing can be challenging, but it gets easier over time if you persevere.”

During the hour-long event, students and faculty shared the stage performing pieces that discussed personal experiences, metaphysical and existential musings, and one’s approach to poetry itself. Attendees gave feedback and cheered each other on as they performed, with some taking the stage more than once.

Closing the event, Cruz and Robinson performed original pieces of their own. Robinson’s poem, titled “Remember the Fire,” was commissioned by the literary magazine sin cesar for their special edition covering the 30th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

“We’re hoping to host this event again next year,” said Cruz. “We’re also excited about our upcoming events such as the Challenged and Banned Books display in collaboration with the Ethnic Studies Task Force and the Summer Reading Challenge, among many others.”

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