On Monday April 27 RWC took charge of National Poetry Month and celebrated it with a Poetry Cafe. The Cafe ran from 6-9 p.m., three hours of poetry, music, food and drink, along with plenty or speakers reading and performing many different types of poems. The evening started off with an open mic and then went into the on campus winners of this year’s poetry contest. Among those who won in the student category were Samantha Weldon (first place), Denesha Smith (second place and honorable mention), Katherine Stetz (third place) and Amanda Begley and Corinne Johnson, who both got honorable mention. The winners who attended and won were able to read their poems aloud and did so with great audience reaction.
RWC employee winners included Liz Daniel (first and second place) and Frank Dill, who took home third place and honorable mention. This was followed by the high school poetry winners and then the song writing contest winners, including RWC’s very own Jarrod Welling-Cam, who got honorable mention and performed his song “Oh, Zebra, Come Swim!” live in front of the cafe.
This was followed with guest poet Claudia Skutar and ended with featured poet Gary Walton. Walton read several of his own published poems, including “The Life in Between,” “Click,” and “Eschatology Escadrille.”
Walton read roughly for an hour, keeping the audience’s attention the entire time, filled with laughter and questions following his presentation.
The night ended with a huge applause, proving that the 2009 Poetry Cafe was indeed a hit. If you happened to miss it this year, you have plenty of time to make sure you attend the 2010 Cafe, which will be held next April.