SE Campus hosted an outdoor event on Sept. 2 giving students a creative outlet to
share poems and short stories with other students.
The Lawn Lit open mic event was organized by professor of English and integrated reading and writing Yolanda Wright. She said the intention was to let students and faculty express their emotions through literature.
“The goal was to inspire a little bit of hope, give them a place for a creative outlet.” Wright said. “We do quite a bit here at Southeast with drama and with dance and some of the other arts, but the textual arts there’s not a whole lot of space for, and I was really hoping to kind of spark something there.”
Wright said she was impressed with Lawn Lit’s turnout that included people from all different roles on SE. Life science professor Craig Burnside, one of the event’s speakers, said Lawn Lit allowed him to have a different experience than what he would have in one of his classes.
“It gives me the chance to interact with students and other faculty members and administrators outside of my classroom in a just sort of informal way,” Burnside said.
Burnside read a historical fiction short story he wrote in 2005 for a contest in Georgia called “The Bad River Valley.”
The opportunity to share it meant a lot to him, he said.
“It was very emotional,” he said. “I’ve never read it in public before. It’s a topic that’s really kind of near and dear to my heart, and I’ve sent it out to a lot of people to read, but I’ve never actually read it in front of a crowd before.”
Lawn Lit also gave others the opportunity to overcome their fears of public speaking, like SE student Moss Featherston.
She read a poem called “The Fox” by Faith Shearin in hopes of receiving extra credit for a speech class but doing so ended up helping her conquer her stage fright.
“I thought it would be a good opportunity because I usually don’t do public stuff, because I really got stage fright, but I’m glad that I did it because it was a little baby step, and it went well,” Featherston said.
SE student Taylor Amolie read a poem she wrote in high school for the open mic.
Amolie said that people don’t always have the option to express their emotions, so they resort to forms of writing such as music, stories, or poems.
Literature can be helpful to college students across all campuses and help them become better writers, Wright said.
The open-mic event allowed students to experience their literature in a new light by reading it in front of their peers.
“Literature matters because it’s more than just stories. It’s more than just poetry,” she said. “Literature matters because it’s a mirror of human experience and a window into lives and perspectives beyond our own.”
