The pages in this site are no longer being maintained unless you have been directed to the page from the new
Henderson Community College website.
Poets display unique styles at King celebration
Every art form comes with the potential for showcasing cultural diversity, and it was poetry that slipped into that role Monday at Henderson Community College's annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. program.
Four poets from the Affrilachian Poets writing circle that was founded at the University of Kentucky in the 1990s read their works on stage at Henderson Fine Arts Center, demonstrating diversity in the types of people written about, diversity in subject matter, diversity of writing styles.
The poets also conducted a workshop with HCC students prior to the lunch-time program.
Author Bianca Spriggs provided the feminine voice as she read a series of poems woven into a theme of "community."
She read her poems about an aging great-aunt and the legacy she'd left to her community, a restored old Lexington theatre -- a cornerstone of community -- and the different types of people to be found in the Appalachia.
She book-ended her poems with "Tomorrow's Toussaints" written by Kalamu ya Salaam about Haiti ("because Dr. King was so focused on community that we should focus on our worldwide community") and a poem Affrilachian Poets founder Frank X. Walker wrote about King himself. The latter contrasted King with what he might have been like had he made different choices.
Poet Ricardo Nazario y Colon, director of Office of Diversity program at Western Kentucky University, explained how poetry can be used to portray a message in a different way. One of the themes showcased in his writings compares the similarities of rural people in his native Puerto Rico and Appalachia.
He writes about the Latino experience in the southeastern United States, adding that King was one who valued that inclusion in viewing America as something "global," "universal" and "cosmopolitan."
Mitchell L.H. Douglas, an assistant professor of creative writing at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, revealed that "a poem can come from anywhere" and proceeded to prove that with a poem he wrote about a discarded potato chip bag.
"I want to show you the places I'm from in my poems," the Louisville native said, sharing works about riding Amtrak from Louisville to Alabama and persona poems written in the voice of a soul singer he's been researching.
And finally Louisville native Makalani Bandele demonstrated how poetry can replicate music. He talked his deep love of music and sound and how those interests are reflected in his poetry.
Also at the program, HCC's Bill Dixon awarded the President's Award for Diversity to former HCC advisory board member Catherine L. Brown, citing her work in advocating "education as an important ingredient of personal success."
In accepting the award, Brown pledged to continue working as an advocate for education in general and HCC in particular.
"HCC is a beacon for this community," she said. "I will not let you down."
Awards also were given to two students in a poetry writing contests judged by the Affrilachian poets. Winners were Jessica Biggers, first place, and Susie Jarvis, second place.
