UWT’s Poetry Festival brings creative minds together
UW Tacoma hosted its third annual poetry festival, with events ranging from a community mural in the early afternoon to an open mic and live music in the evening.
By Michaela Ely
UWT’s third annual poetry festival occurred in the Jane Russell Commons and William Phillip Hall on April 28, featuring three different parts of the event over the course of the day.
The first part of the event occurred in the Jane Russell Commons from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. and included a community poetry mural for student contributions, poetry bracelet making and tabling with Registered Student Organizations like Wordlings. Additionally, UWT’s student ran publications Tahoma West and The Tacoma Ledger tabled to promote their publications and job openings.
“I am elated with how the Poetry Festival turned out. We had an afternoon event that was like open doors, loud music, making bracelets and making a poetry mural. And we had so many students stay and hang out and make art and that kind of, that kind of engagement with, like, play and creation. So that was so fun,” Co-coordinator of the festival Professor Ever Jones said.
The event continued with a writing workshop by Tacoma poet Chris Vega, occurring in the late afternoon from 3:40 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. The workshop titled “Beyond Borders and Boundaries” also occurred in the Jane Russell Commons.?During the workshop participants looked at poems by Irma Pineda that were written in three languages. The languages were Isthmus Zapotec, Spanish and English, translated by Pineda’s assistant. Participants were encouraged to read the poems and share their thoughts.
The evening portion of the event began with live music from Seattle jazz and R&B artist Ava Jade before transitioning into the first featured poet of the night, Ricardo Ruiz. This year’s festival was kicked off by a precursory writing workshop that was led by Ruiz at Blue Cactus Press on April 16. Ruiz is a UW alumni with a Bachelors of Arts in English and Creative Writing and his works include a book titled “We Had Our Reasons.”
During his reading, he broke up his poems by drawing historical parallels between the internment of Mexican American railroad workers in the 1930s and the deportations occurring today around the country.
JP Perrine was the next featured reader and followed Ruiz’s reading with poems from their upcoming book. Perrine is from Portland, Oregon where they co-host “Incite: Queer Writers Read” a bimonthly event held in person at the Literary Arts bookstore. Perrine also writes and works as an equity and racial justice program manager for Portland Metro Parks. Their work includes four books of poetry with their fifth titled “Beautiful Outlaw” releasing later this year.
“My favorite part of the festival was getting to meet everyone and really see them. The arts have a way of baring the soul, right down to the ugly bits, and poetry is no different,” Editor in Chief of Tahoma West Rae Watkins said. “Getting to witness people really seeing each other and being vulnerable and accepting with one another is always a powerful experience. Poetry has a special magic of creating bonds between people based on the human experience, whether shared or different.”
Watkins explained that as a creator and enjoyer of poetry, being able to see the connection between artists who often create in solitude allows for a deeper understanding of the struggle of the artist. This is what makes witnessing that art and connection between artists and poets even more worthwhile.
After the featured readers had finished, students and other attendees were invited to ask the poets questions. Ruiz spoke about his feelings of imposter syndrome and how he still hasn’t become entirely comfortable with the craft.
Perrine mentioned that some of their writing originated out of spite, but it turned into something more playful which allowed them to feel comfortable in owning their work.
After the crowd asked their questions, the event opened the stage for students and community members to share their creative work. Several students participated in the open mic and topics ranged from grief to California omelets.
“Our evening event was our biggest ever. We had over 100 people in here tonight, and I am leaving here with, like, such a full heart. I loved how everyone, just like, really took care of each other, and the readers came up and just were so raw and so vulnerable, and their writing was so beautiful, no matter what it was like,” Jones said.
This year’s event saw an increase in not only in attendees but also in open mic performers, according to Professor Jones. This year’s festival had over 20 readers perform their poems.
“The open mic was so wonderful, I really wish we had more on campus! I love spoken word poetry, and I especially enjoyed the spoken word poetry class with Professor Ever that I took last quarter, so getting to perform on stage is always a delight!” UWT student Gail Swalling said. “A couple people even came up to me after just to share how much they liked the poem, which I think really speaks to the community that events like this create and how important these opportunities are.”
The evening also featured tabling from UWT organizations and community literary partners including Write253, Blue Cactus Press, King’s Books and more.?This included several UW alumni as well who attended.
“I loved the last two years [of the festival], but this year felt almost more energized. We had a really good-sized crowd, everybody was really engaged, so I’m very pleased and excited. And, you know the room was basically full so that was super exciting. I was really happy with that,” Co-coordinator of the festival Dr. Sarah A. Chavez said.
