The Electrifying Power of Poetry
SMC students Jassmena Petrosian and Marie Del Rosario perform original poetry at the Greenway Court Theatre and talk about their own relationship with the practice of creative writing.
Even before the show began, Jassmena Petrosian felt like she was on fire.
“Really nervous, but at the same time, exhilarated,” she said with a laugh. “We'll probably get a lot more strength up there, and confidence when we feel the energy in the room.”
Petrosian and her fellow SMC classmate Marie Del Rosario huddled together and recited lines of poetry under their breath as they eagerly anticipated their performances for Women and Femme’s Night at the Greenway Court Theatre. The two-hour event is held every fifth Tuesday of the month and spotlights women and femme-identifying poets and artists.
“I think it’s going to be really interesting, and hopefully the beginning of a lot more reading here,” said Del Rosario.
Located at 544 N. Fairfax Ave., the Court Theatre is one part of the three-pronged organization called Greenway Arts Alliance, which includes the Greenway Institute for the Arts (GIA) and the Melrose Trading Post (MTP). GIA is an educational program that works within the neighboring Fairfax High School and provides its students with workshops and classes in the arts, and MTP is the open-air market that sees hundreds of vendors set up shop in the school parking lot every Sunday.
“We’re in the heart of Hollywood,” said Greenway producing director Mohammed Ali Ojarigi. Women and Femme’s Night is organized by Da Poetry Lounge, a nonprofit partnered with Greenway that regularly hosts events and workshops.
“Where can you go on a Tuesday night, and you get about 200 people every night?” Ojarigi said. “It's dedicated people that love this craft, that know the importance of being able to express themselves and be themselves truly.”
Performers sign up and are randomly selected through a raffle system, and given three minutes to perform their original works in any genre of their choosing. This ranges from spoken word to songs and ballads.
The audience filed into the main room, taking seats in the rows of chairs overlooking the stage or on the stage itself, covered in an assortment of colorful bean bags, cushions, and patterned rugs.
Performers were selected in batches of three, and one-by-one made their way to the stage — some experienced and others for the very first time. The audience oohed, snapped, and aahed in affirmation as the artists opened themselves through their words, tackling topics on love, loss, violence, and overcoming adversity.
Under the stage name Antoinette, Del Rosario performed “Queen of Violets,” an impassioned love poem that played with the senses to illustrate newfound affection and the longing for more.
“Before long I was tainted with vermillion lips that stole velvet lined kisses, and hands that presented me with a violet laced crown,” she said. “Her mouth burned bruises onto my skin that I hoped would never heal over.”
Petrosian’s voice swelled throughout “Silent Children Everywhere at the Bottoms of Their Own Pools,” a heart-rending poem using vivid imagery and unorthodox phrasing to draw contrast between a lifeless opossum floating in a backyard pool and the struggle for self worth.
“When I drank screams two-tongued and mouthless, when I buried lungs, water-wilted, lazy, when I left myself at the bottom of a pool,” she said. “Looking up at a wavy sky with nothing in it, bending into beggar with no hands, no one came to find me.”
When the show ended late into the night, the students felt elated, blood pumping and invigorated. “I poured my heart out on the floor and watched it beat outside of my body,” Petrosian said.
English professor Mario Padilla attended in support, lauding both their performances as fantastic and exclaiming how proud he was. Padilla teaches creative writing classes at SMC, which both students are enrolled in.
“I saw the growth throughout the semester,” Padilla said. “Sometimes in the classroom it’s not quite the same energy, but you fed off the crowd.”
Both students have developed their own personal relationship with poetry. For Del Rosario, creative writing is a release from stress and hardship. She journals regularly, and those words and thoughts often become lines in her work.
“It’s just a way to have what I'm thinking out into the world and out of my brain so that it doesn't stay there,” she said. “I can turn something I thought into something beautiful.”
Del Rosario began writing poetry in middle school and continued throughout high school, and is in the process of writing a chapbook, a collection of work with an overarching theme. She plans to center it on all things love, whether it be familial, platonic, or romantic.
“I would love to reach into my own experiences and other people's experiences, and show what that other side of love is,” she said.
Petrosian didn’t think much about poetry before high school, but assignments in her 10th grade English class led her to a “eureka moment.” She took a particular interest in slam poetry, a form of performance where poets compete and are judged by a panel of audience members.
After having to switch schools at a later period, she joined a slam poetry team, where the sense of family and camaraderie solidified the need for poetry in her life.
“Everything about me goes back to poetry … it's just so integral to every move I make, whether it's through my education or just in my personal life,” she said. “I feel like it's something that encompasses every part of the life experience, the human experience.”
When she enrolled at Santa Monica College, the first thing she did was look for a creative writing class.
“I've never been so excited for a class since those high school poetry classes,” Petrosian said, adding that the energy in the classroom is “electric.”
Del Rosario also looked for the class, describing her first impression as pure giddiness. “I had never been in a room with people who loved writing, and so passionate about writing as much as I was.”
The class is divided into two categories: 30A for beginners and 30B for advanced writers, both of which are held simultaneously on Monday and Wednesday mornings. An online class through Zoom is held in the evenings.
Students learn and experiment with different forms of creative writing, and have the opportunity to present their works to their peers and receive feedback. 30A students develop at least 10 creative writing pieces over the course of the semester, and 30B students create their own chapbook.
Both students take a unique approach in how they write poetry. Del Rosario uses colorful imagery and descriptors to allure the senses of smell, touch, and sight and evoke complicated feelings.
“She has a very good grasp on using language just to really draw you in and paint this vibrant picture, it's inspiring,” Petrosian said. “Her vulnerability alone really inspires me.”
Petrosian plays with the structure of the poem, using different font sizes, spacing, syntax and parentheses in unusual arrangements to tell an abstract yet deeply personal story.
“She has this way with words that her poetry is so dense in the sense that you can read it over and over … and still find new, hidden meanings and hidden contexts,” Del Rosario said. “I really, really admire her for that.”
An eventful night in late April sealed the deal for the students in their love for poetry. Petrosian and Del Rosario accompanied Padilla and other students to the InkSlam Invitational at Greenway, a high-intensity slam poetry competition. Both were enthralled by the performers of the night, echoing that same electric feeling as in the classroom.
With encouragement from their professor, the two decided they would perform at the Women and Femme’s Night in late May.
“We were like, ‘I really want to do this now, like this is so invigorating,’” Del Rosario said.
Padilla describes the creative writing process as “a therapy session with yourself,” and hopes that students can not only create work they’re proud about, but also achieve emotional fulfillment.
“Creative writing helps you deal with personal things, with aspects of your life … joys and ills and emotions and loves and hates and all kinds of things,” he said.
Both students will continue their writing in English 30B in the fall semester, and hope to perform on the Greenway stage again in the future.
