Near the end of each semester, about a dozen lei-adorned students gather to read their creative work—poetry, fiction, dramatic monologues—to an enthusiastic crowd. Memorable moments over the past few years have included a rap-inspired salute to African-American contributions to music, a poem about the trials of learning ballroom dancing, the comedic meditations of a man falling from the Eiffel Tower, a story about a life-changing encounter with a homeless former beauty queen, and many poems navigating the hazardous emotional terrain of relationships with mothers, fathers, friends, and lovers.
Spring 2012 Student Reading
The reading took place April 4 in Lb Mezz 1 from 2:00-2:55.
Student Reading Represents Varying Themes, Styles
About 15 HPU students read from their own creative works in LB Mezz 1 on April 4 from 2-2:55pm. Some read short stories while the majority read or performed their poetry. Subjects ranged from anorexia and bulimia to dreams to environmental pollution to Rodin’s sculpture of St. John the Baptist.. In one poem the speaker is the Earth itself who was addressing human to take part in her vital breath. Another is a series of journal entries by someone who is seeing a psychiatrist. There were two readings of stories written as responses to established literary works: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” In addition, one student wrote a poem in response to Anthony Hecht’s poem “The Dover Bitch,” which is in itself a humorous parody of Matthew Arnold’s very serious poem “Dover Beach.” All in all, everyone could see that we have no shortage of creative talent here at HPU. If you did not make it to this reading, there is one every semester, so look out for the one in the Fall.
Fall 2011 Student Reading
On Tuesday, November 15th at 12:30 in LB Mezz 1, students participated in the fall 2011 student reading. For more information, please click here for a printable version of the flyer.
Hawai'i Pacific University
